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A bullied teen is saying she went to jail because she was framed on Instagram. The family of 13-year-old Nia Whims filed a lawsuit against the Renaissance Charter School, the Pembroke Pines Police Department, and Instagram. 

 NBC News reported that the Florida girl was handcuffed and spent 11 days in a juvenile facility. She was arrested after her classmate impersonated her on Instagram. And used the fake account to send threats, a new lawsuit says.

Bullying set off events

The Renaissance Charter School is located in Pembroke Pines, Florida.

The lawsuit also named Meta the parent company of Instagram. It claims that the seventh-grader was being bullied, in August. And her mom, Lezlie-Ann Davis, requested a meeting with school officials. 

The school did not schedule a meeting and no action was taken. The bullying continued. Her mother finally decided to pull Nia out of the school.

A former classmate, identified as M.S., allegedly created a fake Instagram account using Nia’s name. And she sent herself messages that “included threats to blow up the school and kill people,” the family’s lawsuit contends.

Threats were sent to herself and a teacher. The teacher reported the incident to school officials and law enforcement. And the school was placed on a limited lockdown.

M.S. was tracked through the sending computer’s IP address. And is currently in juvenile detention, still denying guilt.

Police jail innocent teen

Nia was reportedly arrested on November 19 and released on November 29th.

She was held in a juvenile detention center on a felony charge of “making a written threat to do bodily harm or commit an act of terrorism.” According to the lawsuit she was forced to undergo a psychological evaluation.

She spent 11 days in detention before being released on Nov. 29 when investigators determined that M.S. had sent the threatening posts.

The family claims they immediately provided investigators with an iPad. And that Nia had proof on the iPad of a talk with M.S. the day she was arrested. The family says that Nia and the family were telling the police from day one that the bullied teen was not responsible for the threats.

The police claims that the family did not cooperate with the probe until December is questionable. They say Davis provided information that led them to subpoena an IP address connected to the messages, after Nia was released on November 29th.

“Failure to promptly investigate this easily discoverable information by the Pembroke Pines Police Department caused (Nia Whims) to remain in a juvenile detention facility away from her family for eleven days,” the lawsuit claims.

The family’s attorney, Marwan Porter said, “They need to make sure they do their homework prior to putting our children in handcuffs and locking them up.” 

Framed on Instagram

“That platform was used to frame Nia,” Porter added, meaning she was framed on Instagram.

Meta, the parent company for Instagram, allegedly failed to “promptly provide or cooperate with the investigating officers,” which led to the long delay in clearing Nia, the lawsuit states.

Davis says the family wants to hold those responsible... accountable.

M.S. has been charged with several crimes including written threats to kill or do bodily harm and falsifying a police report, NBC News reported.

Renaissance Charter School told the network in a statement: “Our highest priority remains the safety and security of our students.”

“We always have and always will take all appropriate actions to ensure our students and staff are safe. We are not at liberty to discuss any private student issues and we do not comment on pending litigation,” a spokesperson added.

“It was heartbreaking that everybody thought it was me,” Nia told WPLG.