Mom Tells Heartbreaking E-Bullying Tale

BOSSIER CITY, La. (CN) - Upon learning via Facebook that a teenage girl felt suicidal, a boy at her high school sent her 46 text messages such as, "I won't miss you," and "ur not important" - and the girl killed herself, her mother claims in court.

The mother, Jessica Morton, sued Randall and Darlene Thomas, the parents of the boy who allegedly sent the insulting text messages. Facebook is not a party to the complaint.

Morton says her daughter's first suicide attempt failed that night, and when she returned to school after getting out of the hospital, the boy continued to torment her at school, until her daughter, Danielle, hanged herself.

Danielle attended Parkway High School.

According to her mother's complaint: "On the evening of January 24, 2011, Daniel notified a friend, T.B., a minor, that she was thinking about committing suicide.

"That same evening, T.B. posted Danielle's cell phone number on the website facebook.com, requesting that his friends contact Danielle and talk her out of committing suicide.

"Around 11:30 p.m. on the evening of January 24, 2011, Jason Thomas used a computer provided to him by defendants with Internet access provided by defendants to use the website clamtxt.com to send at least 46 text messages to Danielle's cell phone with messages that included, but were not limited to: 'I won't miss u'; 'ur not important'; and 'just end it all?'

"While under the control and supervision of defendants, Jason Thomas used the said website to send a 'text bomb' containing ... test messages from different phone numbers and signed with a different combination of 2 letters and/or numbers, creating the appearance that the text messages received by Danielle were from 46 different people."

Danielle tried to kill herself that night by overdosing on ibuprofen. She was rushed to an emergency room and upon release from the hospital spent a week recovering in a psychiatric facility, her mom says.

Then she returned to Parkway High School.

"Jason was disappointed that Danielle's suicide attempt was unsuccessful and he continued to regularly and repeatedly torment Danielle after her return to Parkway High School," the mother says.

"The relentless psychological torment by Jason became more than Danielle could psychologically and physically manage and on May 20, 2011, Danielle hanged herself."

Danielle's mother seeks damages for failure to supervise their son's use of the computer, Internet and his cell phone, and for "failure to exercise the required degree of care commensurate with the behavioral history of their son, Jason Thomas, allowing him to use a computer with internet access and a cellular phone without supervision, and allowing Jason Thomas to return to Parkway High School after the incidents of January 24, 2011."

They are represented by Yves III of Bossier City.

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