PurpleArmy
12-04-2007, 02:07 AM
OK, now this makes me mad. I was just reading about this little 13 year old girl who committed suicide after being teased and bullied by people on MySpace.
The parents of Megan Meier of Dardenne Prairie, who hanged herself last year, said her suicide came minutes after she received mean messages through the social networking site MySpace.
Apparently, the county prosecutor from their town has now said that no charges will be filed on the people who bullied her. That's a bunch of crap, imo.
County Prosecutor Jack Banas said that there was no applicable statue to file charges in the case. Banas said he looked at laws related to stalking, harassment and child endangerment, but found no repeated incidents of threats to someone's life or health, and no organized conspiracy.
A police report said that a mother from the neighborhood and her 18-year-old employee fabricated a profile for a teenage boy online who pretended to be interested in Megan before he began bullying her. The police report indicates others gained access to the profile, and it is not clear who was sending Meier messages just before her death.
Banas said based on additional interviews, the fake MySpace page was not created by the mother of one of Megan's friends. He said the page was created by the 18-year-old employee, though the mother and her 13-year-old daughter knew about the page, and had access to it, and were able to send messages to Megan. He said he was unable to speak directly with the 18-year-old, whom he said has been hospitalized for psychiatric treatment.
The 13 year old Megan became despondent after a boy she met via MySpace abruptly and viciously turned on her, accusing the girl of promiscuity and saying the world would be better without her. However, as the St. Charles County Sheriff's Department report notes, Megan's online friend "Josh Evans" was, in fact, the creation of a local family seeking to determine whether Megan was saying derogatory things about their daughter. The adult behind the "Josh" ruse was Lori Drew, whose daughter had been friends with Megan, who died 13 months ago. Drew admitted to police that she created the phony MySpace profile in a bid to smoke out negative comments about her child by Megan.
After the case became public, Missouri Gov. Matt Blunt asked lawmakers to review state law to see if changes were necessary to better deal with cases that involve Internet bullying. Some municipalities have also considered or passed statutes to strengthen laws that deal with Internet harassment.
That's sad. I mean, I think that the little girl who hanged herself shouldn't have taken things so seriously. But then again, most 13 year old girls take a lot of things way too seriously, and let the drama overwhelm them at times.
What makes this really weird is that one of the people bullying her was a MOTHER of the 13 year old's neighbor. Seriously, what rational adult does things like this?
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/graphics/art3/1120072inside1.jpg
I just feel badly for the girls' parents. Too lose a child is bad enough. But to lose a child over something so stupid has to be horrible for them. I've had people kind of harass me online before, and it can be annoying if you let it get to you.
However, I just tell myself that the people who do things like that obviously have nothing better or more constructive to do with their time. And if harassing someone online makes them feel better about their own lives, then they must have a skewed view on life and how to treat others.
I think people who do this type of thing mainly do it due to a lack of self esteem, and a need to feel important. I would think that counseling would better serve them, but most people with that type of problem never think that THEY are the ones with a problem, and that they are totally justified in behaving so boorishly. From the way it sounds, this was pretty much the case with the mother who was pretending to be a teenage boy just to find out if Megan was gossiping about her daughter. It was a coward's tactic and the mother shouldn't have been so involved in what a few teenagers were discussing in the first place. Obviously, that mom had way too much time on her hands if this was one of her main concerns in life. Very pathetic if you ask me.
I just hope that eventually, Megan's family will find some peace, and will be able to get on with their lives as best as can be expected. No parent should ever have to deal with something as tragic as this story. It's just a shame that the prosecutor cannot find a way to charge anyone for this. At least if someone had to held accountable for their part in harassing this girl so much that she took her own life, it might give her parents some level of satisfaction and would make them at least feel like someone is being held responsible.
Here's a link to more of the story from The Smoking Gun:
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive...072megan1.html
The parents of Megan Meier of Dardenne Prairie, who hanged herself last year, said her suicide came minutes after she received mean messages through the social networking site MySpace.
Apparently, the county prosecutor from their town has now said that no charges will be filed on the people who bullied her. That's a bunch of crap, imo.
County Prosecutor Jack Banas said that there was no applicable statue to file charges in the case. Banas said he looked at laws related to stalking, harassment and child endangerment, but found no repeated incidents of threats to someone's life or health, and no organized conspiracy.
A police report said that a mother from the neighborhood and her 18-year-old employee fabricated a profile for a teenage boy online who pretended to be interested in Megan before he began bullying her. The police report indicates others gained access to the profile, and it is not clear who was sending Meier messages just before her death.
Banas said based on additional interviews, the fake MySpace page was not created by the mother of one of Megan's friends. He said the page was created by the 18-year-old employee, though the mother and her 13-year-old daughter knew about the page, and had access to it, and were able to send messages to Megan. He said he was unable to speak directly with the 18-year-old, whom he said has been hospitalized for psychiatric treatment.
The 13 year old Megan became despondent after a boy she met via MySpace abruptly and viciously turned on her, accusing the girl of promiscuity and saying the world would be better without her. However, as the St. Charles County Sheriff's Department report notes, Megan's online friend "Josh Evans" was, in fact, the creation of a local family seeking to determine whether Megan was saying derogatory things about their daughter. The adult behind the "Josh" ruse was Lori Drew, whose daughter had been friends with Megan, who died 13 months ago. Drew admitted to police that she created the phony MySpace profile in a bid to smoke out negative comments about her child by Megan.
After the case became public, Missouri Gov. Matt Blunt asked lawmakers to review state law to see if changes were necessary to better deal with cases that involve Internet bullying. Some municipalities have also considered or passed statutes to strengthen laws that deal with Internet harassment.
That's sad. I mean, I think that the little girl who hanged herself shouldn't have taken things so seriously. But then again, most 13 year old girls take a lot of things way too seriously, and let the drama overwhelm them at times.
What makes this really weird is that one of the people bullying her was a MOTHER of the 13 year old's neighbor. Seriously, what rational adult does things like this?
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/graphics/art3/1120072inside1.jpg
I just feel badly for the girls' parents. Too lose a child is bad enough. But to lose a child over something so stupid has to be horrible for them. I've had people kind of harass me online before, and it can be annoying if you let it get to you.
However, I just tell myself that the people who do things like that obviously have nothing better or more constructive to do with their time. And if harassing someone online makes them feel better about their own lives, then they must have a skewed view on life and how to treat others.
I think people who do this type of thing mainly do it due to a lack of self esteem, and a need to feel important. I would think that counseling would better serve them, but most people with that type of problem never think that THEY are the ones with a problem, and that they are totally justified in behaving so boorishly. From the way it sounds, this was pretty much the case with the mother who was pretending to be a teenage boy just to find out if Megan was gossiping about her daughter. It was a coward's tactic and the mother shouldn't have been so involved in what a few teenagers were discussing in the first place. Obviously, that mom had way too much time on her hands if this was one of her main concerns in life. Very pathetic if you ask me.
I just hope that eventually, Megan's family will find some peace, and will be able to get on with their lives as best as can be expected. No parent should ever have to deal with something as tragic as this story. It's just a shame that the prosecutor cannot find a way to charge anyone for this. At least if someone had to held accountable for their part in harassing this girl so much that she took her own life, it might give her parents some level of satisfaction and would make them at least feel like someone is being held responsible.
Here's a link to more of the story from The Smoking Gun:
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive...072megan1.html