Star Wars Kid Sues
 

Globe and Mail
July 23, 2003

Parents file lawsuit over Star Wars video

Humiliation forced Quebec teenager to drop out of school, document says

By TU THANH HA
Wednesday, July 23, 2003 - Page A2

MONTREAL -- The parents of Ghyslain Raza, the Quebec teenager who became a celebrity this spring after classmates posted on the Internet a video of him mimicking a Star Wars character, allege that their son was so humiliated by the experience that he had to get psychiatric care.

The revelation is made in a lawsuit his parents have filed against the families of four classmates they accuse of maliciously turning their son into an object of mockery.

The video of Ghyslain, a portly 15-year-old pretending he is wielding a double-bladed light sabre, has been downloaded millions of times from several Web sites, which dubbed him Star Wars Kid.

Many other pranksters have created their own versions of the clip, with added video effects and sounds. One has him moving at fast-forward speed to goofy music from the Benny Hill Show. Other parodies were made with unflattering titles, such as Dork Clones, or mixed in with sounds of flatulence.

In a statement of claim filed last week in their home town of
Trois-Rivihaha36005;s, the Razas say that Ghyslain was so widely mocked at his private high school that he dropped out.

He had to finish the session at Pavillon Arc-en-ciel, a ward specializing in child psychiatry at the Trois-Rivihaha36005;s Regional Hospital Centre.

Ghyslain "will be under psychiatric care for an indefinite amount of time," the statement of claim says.

"The stigma of mental illness can generate social prejudices having severe consequences" on the young man, including making it more difficult for him to enroll in the school of his choice or get a job, or even forcing him to change his name, the document added. "Ghyslain had to endure, and still endures today, harassment and derision from his high-school mates and the public at large," it said.

The story has appeared in newspapers around the world, from the New York Times to the New Zealand Herald.

The Razas are now seeking $225,000 in damages from the parents of four teenagers: Michahaha47904;Caron, Franhaha31721;s Labarre, Jhaha40116;me Laflamme and Jean-Michel Rheault.

They say the four stole the video from a school filing cabinet where Ghyslain had stored a video camera he was using for a student project.

The lawsuit says the four young men then digitized the video before sending it out on the Internet in April, with messages inviting people to make insulting remarks about it.

The statement of claim includes lengthy excerpts that it says come from Internet chats in May between the pranksters.

Complete with misspellings, bad grammar and cyber-style acronyms, the exchanges are used in the statement of claim as evidence that the boys lacked remorse. They also brag in them that they evaded attempts by school officials to find the culprits behind Ghyslain's misfortunes. Ghyslain's parents and lawyers would not speak to reporters yesterday. The parents of the defendants either did not answer calls or refused to comment because the dispute was before the courts.

While the video of Ghyslain's antics generated some derisive Internet comments, others felt bad and started raising money for him. One group collected more than $3,000 (U.S.), which they used to buy him an Apple iPod portable music player.

In the excerpts from Internet chats filed in court, the four appear to be plotting ways to get the gifts sent to another address so they can keep the iPod for themselves.

Fucking pussy.

edit: ungrateful fucking pussy.

I'd prance around like a dork for $6,000

:1orglaugh :1orglaugh :1orglaugh

He probably received his packet from ACACIA.

So some fat kid videotapes himself acting like a complete monkey, on property that was not his, forgets to erase the tape, and the tape goes back to the school who is the rightfull owner, and now the parents get to sue?
Stupid fucking parents, the star wars kid should sue them for allowing him to get that obese at such a young age.
Im sure suing classmates is a great way to make some friends...

He should sue them for giving him that name as well.

:Buck:

I wonder if Acacia will go after the people who are distributing the streaming media of this kid

:1orglaugh :1orglaugh :1orglaugh

Unbeleivable... high school kids getting sued over a prank.... how were they supposed to know that it would take off like it did?

Ok, unless he went looking for it, the only people with a direct to mock him were his classmates/people at his school.


...wtf? In every school there's a few people who are always picked on, etc... How is that different?

What I dont get is why he had to go to a mental institute...


He could make a lot more than 225,000$ with this, without suing anyone.

I think most of his classmate would shut the hell up if that dumb video got him like a trip to LA to be on Jay Leno...

He's a fucking pussy. Getting that much attention? Put it to work! If someone wants to do something like that for me, go for it!

Going to a shrink my ass. Fuck shrinks. People need self-esteem, not yet another person to feel sorry for them.

the more I think about this the more grateful I am Im not in school anymore. If I think about all the shit we did, and pranks we pulled.... ide be in the poor house.
Star wars kid has it easy, we videotaped the prom queen getting a bukkake from the football team at a party one night, and blackmailed her for the rest of the year for sexual favours.
Thank God I married the slut, or she may have sued me. :1orglaugh :1orglaugh

Celebrity is a bitch

anyone have a link to this dick's little movie?

They collected $3000 and all they bought was an iPod?

What will those crazy Quebecois think of next?

what a loser.
he gets to sue because people made fun of him? that's lame.

If they play the tape in court and then try to prove that people on the net made a fool out of him and he wins... that would be the craziest court decision ever.

LOL

Got a good laugh out of that one :thumbsup

I really doubt these kids would ever be his friends regardless of whether there's a lawsuit or not. Duh.

I hate frivolous lawsuits -- but it's about time parents had to pay for raising their little mongrels to be mean sonsofbitches. I hope star wars kid wins.

People who think it's okay for their snotnosed brats to be assholes should expect to get said assholes reamed with cattle prods.

:1orglaugh :1orglaugh :1orglaugh

i remember watching his stupid ass dance around with the light sabre on cj.

i think he made matrix one too, where he jumps around like a
little fat bitch trying to emulate smith or some one.

what a loser.

:1orglaugh :1orglaugh :1orglaugh

If I was a father of a child who was the center of such activity I would sue too. Would you not seek something if your child was so mocked and had to finish school at a child psych hospital? There is not a parent here who would not.

If the statement is TRUE, these guys STOLE and PUBLISHED his INFINISHED project regardless of what it had on it.

It was HIS PROPERTY they digitized it and released it, pretty malicious if you ask me, although it may be funny as hell in the court room they dont look at things the way we do on a message board.

I dont know the facts, but if what the claims are true, he will win.

This kid is going about this all wrong. He could have used this to launch a career in entertainment, but instead he's gonna be a whiney bitch. He could have been on Jay Leno and Jackass and started dating Kelly Osbourne. INSTANT CELEBRITY!!!

If they win this suit, it will set a presidence and I will go back and sue those chicks in high school that gave me blue balls.

I have never been the same... :1orglaugh

"Presidence"?? Are you sure you actually attended high school? :winkwink:

Ahahaha, nice burn!

:evil-laug :evil-laug :evil-laug

oy, that makes my brain hurt :(

Tons of Star Wars Kid videos:

http://www.jedimaster.net/

here you go.. this is the funniest shit ever!!!


Star Wars Kid


:helpme

There are so many "remixes" of this video, that it could becoming the video equivilent of the Lena image in image processing.

omfg
roflmfao
:1orglaugh :1orglaugh :1orglaugh :1orglaugh :1orglaugh

Ok somebody please tell me why do you need a model release to distribute porn movies on the net, but wouldn't need one for distributing this kid's video?

That's the stupiest fucking lawsuit I've ever heard of, worse than the old bitch who sued McD's for hot coffee. That kid and his parents should both have some sense slapped into them. What a pussy that kid is.

People need to learn to not take themselves so seriously

I do that everynight in my bedroom with the curtain rod

I'm so fucking sick of ignorant redneck hick fucks who haven't read the fucking transcript of that case mouthing off like they're Perry fucking Mason.