MIAMI (WSVN) - A teenager who was cleared of accusations of making school threats is now taking legal action.
On Wednesday, the student and her parents said she was framed.
The 13-year-old and her family spoke about the lawsuit in Miami’s Brickell neighborhood.
Nia Whims was arrested in November, accused of making an online school threat against Renaissance Charter School at Pines, but it turned out she did not make the threat.
“It was scary. I was scared. It was scary,” said Whims.
It came from a fake account that was made using a picture of her.
“She missed Thanksgiving with her family, and then, when she got home, she was on house detention. She was unable to go out, so the entire holiday was just missed,” said Whim’s mother, Lezlie Ann-Davis.
Now the teenager and her family are suing the school, Facebook and Instagram.
The Pembroke Pines Police Department is also expected to be included in the lawsuit.
“They have responsibility that they have a duty to make sure that they protect their users and a duty to make sure that their platform is not being used by people in order to effectuate criminal activity,” said Attorney Marwan Porter.
Police arrested the person who framed Whims, but not before Whims spent 14 days in jail, something she still has a hard time talking about.
“I feel distance. Like, I really don’t want to talk to anybody about the situation,” she said.
“We could use this to just change how we do things and don’t take things to the extreme or exploit power, you know,” said Davis. “I just hope there is something bigger coming from what we’re doing here.”
The parties involved have no comment on the situation.
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