High school student speaks out against cyberbullying

PALM BEACH COUNTY, Fla. - Teenagers have more to worry about besides the school yard bully these days. Rumors and gossip spread online can do more than ruin a reputation. It can ruin a person's life and make them feel helpless and unable to fight back.

One local victim is speaking out in hopes of sparing other young girls the same pain. The teenage girl says enough is enough. She says cyber bullying in Palm Beach County Schools is a problem that needs to be brought to the surface.

"Somebody has to stop it," she says.

The Santaluces High School senior, who did not want to be identified, says Facebook has become the source for cyber bullying in Palm Beach County schools.

"It's getting out of hand," she says.

Monday she discovered she was a victim. Her default picture stolen from her personal Facebook page was put on a page called "Lame Broads."

"I was just laughing about it, I knew they had no reason to put me on there, it's ridiculous," she says.

Not only was her pictures stolen, but so were multiple pictures from people's personal pages. They had captions underneath them, and many were explicit.

"Some people are really upset," she says, "because they know it's not true about them so why would people put that on there."

But it's not the only page created. At least two more pages can be found and they have hundreds of pictures meant to hurt the reputation of teenagers.

The Santaluces senior says she could have settled back and not become involved, but says she has seen cyber bullying escalate around the country and doesn't want to see the same thing happen here. "It's really getting out of hand, because I know some people take it to heart. They might end up going to find that person, some harm might be done. I don't want to see that happen."

While the high school senior says she is bothered by the pages it doesn't make her want to deactivate her page. But she admits cyber bullying is taking over the social network.

"The cyber bullying pages get in the way of having fun. I would like to at least see some justice. I don't see how they can do that somebody, they wouldn't want that done to them," she says.

Cyber bullying is against the law. 

The teenager says she hopes Facebook, the police and local schools will get involved to find out who is behind it. Tips to prevent cyber bullying are online.