Skip to content
  • Media Downloads
Donate
  • Donate
  • logo
  • logo
  • About the Center
    • About us
    • What we do
    • The Trust Project
    • Staff
    • Former interns and fellows: Where they are now
    • Board of Directors
    • Awards and honors
    • Funding
    • Public engagement and opinion
    • Republishing guidelines
    • Be your own watchdog
    • Subscribe to our email newsletters
    • Donate
    • Contact us
  • Contact
  • Subscribe to newsletters
  • Become a member
    • Learn more about membership
    • Join the Watchdog Club
  • Coverage areas
    • Economy
    • Education
    • Environment
    • Government
    • Justice System
    • Health
    • Opinion
  • Projects
    • Seeking a Cure: The Quest to Save Rural Hospitals
    • The Cannabis Question
    • Beyond Bail
    • Undemocratic: Secrecy and Power vs. The People
    • Countering Concussions
    • Broken Whistle
    • Failure at the Faucet
    • Documenting Hate
    • Flawed Forensics
    • State of Change
    • Cruel and Unusual?
    • Precious Lives
    • Children Left Behind
    • Scott Walker’s Wisconsin
    • Frac Sand Rush
    • Murky Waters
    • Water Watch Wisconsin
    • Losing Track
    • Groundwater Supply
    • A Frail System
    • Endocrine Disruptors
    • Rethinking Sex Offenders
    • Rural Slide
  • Be your own watchdog
  • Donate
  • Media Downloads
    • Media Downloads

WisconsinWatch.org - Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism

WisconsinWatch.org (https://www.wisconsinwatch.org/2012/11/vernon-county-bans-e-bullying/)

  • About the Center
    • About us
    • What we do
    • The Trust Project
    • Staff
    • Former interns and fellows: Where they are now
    • Board of Directors
    • Awards and honors
    • Funding
    • Public engagement and opinion
    • Republishing guidelines
    • Be your own watchdog
    • Subscribe to our email newsletters
    • Donate
    • Contact us
  • Contact
  • Subscribe to newsletters
  • Become a member
    • Learn more about membership
    • Join the Watchdog Club
  • Coverage areas
    • Economy
    • Education
    • Environment
    • Government
    • Justice System
    • Health
    • Opinion
  • Projects
    • Seeking a Cure: The Quest to Save Rural Hospitals
    • The Cannabis Question
    • Beyond Bail
    • Undemocratic: Secrecy and Power vs. The People
    • Countering Concussions
    • Broken Whistle
    • Failure at the Faucet
    • Documenting Hate
    • Flawed Forensics
    • State of Change
    • Cruel and Unusual?
    • Precious Lives
    • Children Left Behind
    • Scott Walker’s Wisconsin
    • Frac Sand Rush
    • Murky Waters
    • Water Watch Wisconsin
    • Losing Track
    • Groundwater Supply
    • A Frail System
    • Endocrine Disruptors
    • Rethinking Sex Offenders
    • Rural Slide
  • Be your own watchdog
American Civil Liberties Union of Wisconsin

Vernon County bans e-bullying

By Bill Lueders Bill Lueders | November 9, 2012

A Wisconsin county has decided to do something about annoying and harassing electronic communications, including email and on social media. It’s made them illegal.

The Vernon County Board, on a 22-5 vote, passed an ordinance Thursday against sending electronic information “with the intent to annoy, offend, demean, ridicule, degrade, belittle, disparage or humiliate any person and which serves no legitimate purpose.”

The ordinance provides for a forfeiture of between $50 and $500, plus prosecution costs, with those “in default of payment” being subject to up to 30 days in jail.

Herbert Cornell, Vernon County Board chairman, said the ordinance was suggested by a group of Vernon County residents and supported by local law enforcement officials. He said the ordinance, which he voted for, is needed to deal with inappropriate expression, particularly on social media like Facebook.

“It’s supposed to be for bullying,” Cornell said. “You’ve got to have some sort of control.”

Cornell said he believes there have been instances of electronic bullying that have occurred in Vernon County but was unable to give specifics: “I’m not a computer person.”

The ordinance is nearly identical to one passed in April by the city of Viroqua, in Vernon County. The Viroqua ordinance uses the word “repeatedly” before a reference to forbidden communications.

A proposed ordinance containing similar language was rejected by the Fort Atkinson City Council in June.

Stacy Harbaugh, spokeswoman for the American Civil Liberties Union of Wisconsin, said Friday she was not aware of any other Wisconsin municipalities that have passed such ordinances, but said she has seen similar language proposed for schools. She said her group is concerned that the Vernon County ordinance “is too broad and could be abused in its application.”

Harbaugh stressed that there is a difference that needs to be respected between “fighting words and free speech, between making threats and expressing an opinion, no matter how obnoxious it may be.”

Share this:

  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
X

Republish this article

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

You are welcome to republish our articles for free using the following ground rules.

  • Credit should be given, in this format: “By Dee J. Hall, Wisconsin Watch”
  • If published online, you must include the links from the Wisconsin Watch story, and a link to wisconsinwatch.org
  • If you share the story on social media, please mention @wisconsinwatch (Twitter, Facebook and Instagram)
  • Don’t sell the story — that is, the story may not be marketed as an individual product.
  • Don’t sell ads against the story. Feel free, however, to publish it on a page surrounded by ads you’ve already sold.
  • Any website our stories appear on must include a prominent and effective way to contact you.
  • If we send you a request to change or remove Wisconsin Watch content from your site, you must agree to do so immediately.
  • Sources of any additional elements that are packaged with Wisconsin Watch content must be clearly labeled.
  • When possible, include the following: Wisconsin Watch is a nonprofit, nonpartisan investigative reporting organization that focuses on government integrity and quality of life issues in Wisconsin.
  • Users can republish our photos, illustrations, graphics and other multimedia elements ONLY with the stories with which they originally appeared. You may not separate any multimedia element from the story for standalone use. 

For questions regarding republishing rules please contact Andy Hall, executive director, at ahall@wisconsinwatch.org

Vernon County bans e-bullying

by Bill Lueders, WisconsinWatch.org
November 9, 2012

1

Creative Commons License

Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license.

About Bill Lueders

Bill Lueders

Bill Lueders was reporter, editor and Money and Politics Project director for the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism from 2011 to 2015.

  • More by Bill

Support WisconsinWatch.org

The Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism is a nonprofit organization. If you value our work, please help support it.

Donate
The nonprofit Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism (www.WisconsinWatch.org) collaborates with Wisconsin Public Radio, Wisconsin Public Television, other news media and the UW-Madison School of Journalism and Mass Communication. All works created, published, posted or disseminated by the Center do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of UW-Madison or any of its affiliates.

Read This Next

  • Unpaid internships under fire in Wisconsin, nationwide

    Unpaid interns, and the Wisconsin companies that hire them, are sorting out their options after a recent New York court ruling cast doubts on employers’ widespread practice of relying on eager young workers to perform without pay.

    Share this:

    • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
    • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)

The Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism is a nonprofit organization.

If you value our work, please help support it.

Donate
  • Topics
    • Economy
    • Education
    • Environment
    • Government
    • Health
    • Justice System
  • Projects
    • Seeking a Cure
    • The Cannabis Question
    • Beyond Bail
    • Undemocratic
    • Countering Concussions
    • Failure at the Faucet
    • Broken Whistle
    • Flawed Forensics
    • Losing Track
    • Cruel and Unusual?
    • Children Left Behind
    • Precious Lives
    • Frac Sand Rush
    • A Frail System
    • Endocrine Disruptors
    • Rethinking Sex Offenders
    • Rural Slide
    • Dairyland Diversity
  • About the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism
    • What we do
    • Awards and honors
    • Republishing guidelines
    • Ethics
    • Diversity
    • Funding
    • Pitch guidelines for freelancers
    • Corrections and clarifications
    • Media downloads
    • Newsletter archives
  • Our People
    • Staff
    • Board of Directors
    • Journalism Advisory Board

Our Mission

To increase the quality, quantity and understanding of investigative journalism to foster an informed citizenry and strengthen democracy.

  • Our Impact
    • Track our stories
    • Stories making a difference
Contact

Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism
Fifth Floor, Vilas Hall
821 University Ave
Madison, WI 53706

608-262-3642

info@wisconsinwatch.org

Send Us A Tip

Search This Site

Browse Archives

© Copyright 2019, Wisconsin Watch from WisconsinWatch.org

WisconsinWatch.org is a member of the Institute for Nonprofit News

Built with the Largo WordPress Theme from the Institute for Nonprofit News.

Back to top ↑

Cancel