Drop Charges Against Mom Facing Felony for Trying to Record Daughter's Bullying

Sarah Sims, a mother from Virginia, was charged with felony wiretapping after she put a recording device in her 9-year-old daughter’s backpack to catch alleged bullying.

Sims says the school was unresponsive to her calls and emails asking for assistance in addressing the bullying, so she took matters into her own hands. She put a recording device in her daughter's backpack in order to catch the bullies in the act.

But after the device was found, Sims was charged with a felony and faces a maximum five-year prison sentence. She was also charged with a misdemeanor contributing to the delinquency of a minor.

These laws are meant to stop dangerous and ill-intentioned criminals, not mothers who are trying to help their daughters. Depriving a family of their mother for 5 years -- as well as tacking on gross amounts of legal fees and a lifelong criminal record involving a felony -- is far more nefarious than recording a few schoolchildren.

Please sign this petition to demand the charges against Sims be dropped!

Virginia is a one-party consent state, meaning it's legal to record someone if the person recording is involved in the conversation.

Aside from that, not all disputes need to be handled by police, especially with our country's problem of overcriminalization for nonviolent crime! It's egregious that school administrators did not just sit down with Ms. Sims to discuss the issue and instead opted to potentially ruin her life by pursuing charges. Please sign!