Coalinga, California: If You Lived Here, You’d Be Run Out Of Your Home By Now

By Akela Talamasca on April 9th, 2009

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I love the Internet. There has never been a better medium for the dissemination of ridiculous cultural news. Stories that might otherwise have slipped by now have their chance to shine. Case in point: a Coalinga, California college student and her family were run out of town and threatened with death after she posted a rant on her MySpace page about how much she hated her hometown.

It seems that the town’s high school principal forwarded her post to the Coalinga Record, the local newspaper, and that’s when things began to go south. The post elicited locals to fire a shot at the family home, prompting the closure of the family’s local business, which had been in existence for over 20 years.

The student tried unsuccessfully to sue the newspaper for invasion of privacy, but a judge ruled that a MySpace account could not be considered a private record, and therefore not subject to privacy rights laws. The same judge did allow that she could sue for emotional damages, however, but it’s not known at this time whether or not she will do so.

My very first thought after reading this story? It kind of sounds like this girl has a point. Way to prove her wrong, Coalinga. “How dare you say anything negative about our town! WE’LL KILL YOU!” Now, obviously we don’t know the exact points of her rant, but I’d imagine part of it goes something like this: “And here’s another thing: my high school principal was a total creep! Always asking me questions about my personal life, leaving me notes… I think he actually might have friended me on MySpace! He’s totally the kind of guy who’d do that! I hope he isn’t reading this…”

Let this be a reminder to all of us: the Internet is watching. Be careful what you put out there.