Your honor, the jury, emotional distress is defined as mental suffering, and a victim reacts through worry, shame, humiliation, and fright. It is an invasion of personal rights when such distress disrupts the daily life. The defendant, CJ Pearson, caused distress towards Alex Billings. Both of them met at student orientation of King High School. As they progressed further into the year Pearson harassed Billings for over a month. This harassment forced Alex Billings to move to a different school. These actions make CJ Pearson guilty of intentional infliction of emotional distress, due to the fact that Pearson had a motive. The platforms MyFace and texting gave him the opportunity. These actions lead to PTSD, making it necessary for Billings …show more content…
Posted on the MyFace group, called “I Hate Alex Billings,” Pearson captioned, “THIS IS FOR YOU” with all capital letters and a picture of a hand-held gun (41).Being threatened is one of the causes for PTSD. This picture of a gun is a direct threat to Billings which resulted in Billings’s diagnosis of PTSD. The gun was used to intimidate Billings to stop reporting the harassment to Counselor Cook. Billings suffered humiliation and worry after being publicly ridiculed through MyFace and with the picture of a gun. As a result, Billings was coerced into silence. By these actions, Alex Billings suffered emotional distress, and required treatment. The defendant deprecated Alex over text messages on his fashion, facial features, and actions, even after Billings told him to stop (38). The fact that Pearson continued to harass Billings, is a clear sign of intentional distress Pearson must have been angry towards Alex Billings, still irritated at the situation with the counselor. Therefore Pearson continued to harass Billings. Without texting, many of his snide comments would not have reached Billings. With the use of social media, Pearson harassed, threatened, and bullied Billings. In a similar situation of New Colombia Case 2: Wesley v. Jones quote, “It noted that intentional infliction of emotional distress (“IED”) is present when conduct is so outrageous that it goes beyond all possible bounds of decency and is considered intolerable in a community” (36). By this definition, is it civil to bully and take revenge on someone who was hurt by someone’s careless actions? Reckless behavior cannot be accepted. Pearson went beyond bounds by threatening and harassing Billings. To call this acceptable is frightening and frankly disgraceful. The jury’s decision determines the fate of not only CJ Pearson, but the community at