Legal Question in Civil Litigation in Florida

I chose Litigation Law, although I'm not at all sure that's correct. Two years ago, my daughter transferred to a public school in our rural county of 7000 residents. She is a gifted student, talented singer, hard working, and socially shy child who happens also to be very pretty. We are not originally from this area, so she was a transplant coming in as well. Not long after she arrived, a rumor was started that she had made a "sex tape" with one of the high school football players. Having been raising children for 33 years, I am well aware of all the signs that indicate when a child is capable of an act like this. This child has an extremely high moral compass and has never been deceitful or manipulative, and instead has focused ALL of her free time pursuing singing at church, dance classes and school work. I am a stay-at-home mom who is very involved in her life. I have not been distracted and am very astute and intuitive. Activity like this would NOT have escaped me. Nor did she have ANY time alone to accomplish this feat to begin with. She did not spend the night out with friends - they have always hung out at our house because of our openness to this. At the time the rumor started, she had never even had a boyfriend. Now, two years later, even though NO sex tape has EVER surfaced, the rumor persists. Emily is the dance team captain in this, her senior year at high school. The most recent word we've had of its circulation came from two cheerleaders, one the daughter of a school board member and the other the daughter of the elementary school principal, who repeated it as the gospel truth to two of Emily's friends from dance class. Up until this point, we treated the rumor as ridiculous and felt like the less we said about it, the better. We knew it was not true and we thought it would just die when people realized that Emily simply doesn't have this type of character. This time, we went to see the principal, who agreed to speak to the girls, but said there really wasn't much he could do about it. Although we understand his position, we feel that it is absolutely unacceptable to have this kind of rumor being spread by girls who SHOULD know better.

This has impacted Emily in so many ways. She has always been painfully shy in social settings, but she is now battling severe depression. She has always carried herself with a dignity, grace and maturity that belies her years. Of course, this only fuels the fire. The worst part of this is that even adults have begun to treat her differently. All of the teachers she is close to, and there are several, know without a doubt that it is not in her character and that the claim is false. But others have begun to shun her as some of the students do as well. We do know of several youth who have repeated the rumor, including one who swears she has seen the tape. Emily said to her, "Not possible. Show it to us." Of course, she couldn't and no one else has either. If there were a sex tape out there, it would have been seen by the entire TOWN by now.

This is, by every definition I can find, slander and defamation of character. Emily is one of those kids who has worked HARD to maintain a good reputation. Not foul-mouthed, not obnoxious, not proned to show off in any way...just quietly goes about her business. Is there anything at all we can do about this? I am NOT interested in a law suit or monetary penalties. I just want the people who started this slander to step up and be forced to put up or shut up and quell the rumors. I am so certain of the falsehood of these charges that I am willing to do whatever it takes to clear my child's name.

Thanks for your time.

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