Principal sues kids and parents over MySpace postings

MySpace can look a bit like "Lord of the Flies" when it comes to unregulated teen gossip. At one high school in Texas, an assistant principal, who was the brunt of some nasty rumors posted by students on a MySpace page, is filing suit against the students and their parents, reports Ars Technica.

Anna Draker, who works at Clark High School in San Antonio, is suing over comments made on MySpace that contained "obscene comments, pictures and graphics." The kids also claimed she was a lesbian, which she has denied. Draker knows the kids who posted the remarks and knew they had some animosity toward her, but didn't think that it would go that far.

There have been defamation suits regarding MySpace before but none that claimed parents are negligent for failing to supervise their children. The lawsuit will put to test whether parents have a duty to know what their children are up to.

"Allowing access to the Internet, unsupervised and without restraint, poses an obvious and unreasonable danger that such children would utilize the Internet for illicit purposes such as the ones alleged above," says the suit in accusing the parents of "negligent supervision."