But, the method to hold the person accountable is unlikely to be in a civil court, and almost certainly not in a criminal court. The procedure to appeal a suspension from a recreation team is through the administration of the department or league, not the court. I don't see anyone willing to spend tens of thousands of dollars on an issue of a 5-year-old being talked about by another parent ... especially when there is no guarantee that the comments are wrong, false, or malicious. Yes, an attorney will likely take a few bucks to write a cease and desist letter, and maybe a couple thousand dollars for a retainer to examine the issue. But, a lawsuit? Really? Not out here - not for this. And a criminal case? Not at all ... unless there is a LOT missing from the story.
While one might want big brother to swat the mighty motor mouth with the big stick of government power, that simply is not likely to happen here. It's unrealistic to assume that this is going to be anything more than one or both sets of parents acting like children.
This appears to be more than a suspension from a recreation team, Carl. If it were only a suspension, you are right that the procedure would be an administrative appeal. But the suspension described by EV151 was initiated as a result of potentially defamatory statements being leveled against one of the young participants in the activity. The suspension can be looked at as evidence of reputational injury suffered as a result of false statements communicated by an adult about a child to the director of the activity, who in turn "threatened" the child.
Reinstating the five year old could certainly be a remedy considered, as could a retraction of the statements and a public apology.
There is definitely a gap in the laws that currently exist. The bullying laws that have been enacted in most states tend to limit recourse to school-related offenses. In other words, they do not go quite far enough. Defamation laws, perhaps, go too far. It has been a combination of these laws, however, that students have had to use (along with intentional infliction of emotional distress) to legally address the harm that has resulted from false and injurious statements made about them by others.
Although most of the cases that have made it as far as a defamation lawsuit, and publicized, have involved children at least eight years senior the age of EV151's daughter, and have additionally involved online defamation (see Synder v Blue Mountain School District; Layshock v Hermitage School; and the Kara Kowalski and the Alex Boston suits to name a few), these are not isolated incidents. In fact, these incidents are common enough that bullying laws were initiated to address the growing concern.
Kids are generally not mentally or emotionally equipped to handle the shunning or ridicule or humiliation or personal anguish that often accompanies defamation. In fact, kids have killed themselves after being defamed.
I understand that not all false statements can support a lawsuit, and that is as it should be. Some false statements leveled against some people, however, cause incredible damage. Whether a five year old and her playmates are as affected by the statements as the adults might be is a question mark, but there is plenty of evidence to suggest that parents can be as cruel (if not more so) as their children and can easily guide their own children away from any playmate they take exception to, for whatever reason (lies told, race, religion, etc).
What has happened in EV151's case may not be anything near actionable. I don't know. It is because I don't know that I recommend a review.
