And get this -

[kyburg]

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. He said he was unable to speak directly with the 18-year-old, whom he said has been hospitalized for psychiatric treatment.

Emphasis mine.

Guys, no justice. No real change. No probation. No parenting classes. No nothing.

Just vigilantism as a last resort - and more stupidity heading for a legislature near you.

It's hard to put words to, but the ones that float to the surface first only say that it is DAMN easy for one person to take one action to make a whole LOT of people miserable.

Always do your best.
Clean up your own messes.
And be aware of your influence on others. (Applying the Golden Rule after this is easy. It just makes perfect sense, once you realize you're not the only oyster in the stew, neh?)

In the end, it was her life to manage...keep or discard, as she saw fit.

But also - anyone who wishes to take their own life is probably not dealing with what is. Just a terrible version of it.

Comments

[http://users.livejournal.com/ass_/]

That whole situation is just a FUBAR :/

[betnoir.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry. Had the 13 y.o. girl created the profile/page, I could almost chalk it up to "well, some kids just don't think about the consequences."

But such actions being taken at the behest of an ADULT??? (and no, it matters not that the actual page was created by 'an employee.' The action was still directed by an adult.)

Just...no. Inexcusable.

We as a society foos and bother over school bullying, but nobody thought about this??? Explain it to me using Very Small Words.

One wonders how long it will take before her own daughter needs psychiatric care.

As for the 'employee' now under psychiatric care...is this supposed to garner some sort of sympathy?

No is still no. And that works both for the victim and the accomplice.

The 'employee' simply saying 'no' could have saved everyone a whole boatload of hate, grief and discontent.

[kyburg.livejournal.com]

An eighteen year old employee of MySpace. Wrap your head around that one.

Making decisions like this one.

And...nobody thought it just a wee out of line?

People may grouch about the attempts LJ is making to put some tools in place to "censor" or "control" content...but you only have to go look at MySpace to see why so much WTF is going on over here.

That's them, trying.

In the meantime, because nobody ever thought of anything like this - there's no legal framework to put charges across. They then send a message to the legislature to put One Up Right Away - and just watch the stupid arrive for coffee and cookies.

Word. And word again. Word three times.

There just are none. Come ON.

[foogod.livejournal.com]

Umm, no need for quite that level of head-wrapping.. The 18-year-old was an employee of the friend's mother, not an employee of MySpace:

A police report said that a mother from the neighborhood and her 18-year-old employee ...

[kyburg.livejournal.com]

Employee...what was zie employee doing? Employed as what - and now hospitalized? That's pretty tough to do on psychiatric grounds these days.

God, does this EVER get better?

[foogod.livejournal.com]

As I recall from a previous article, didn't the mother and/or father run their own business doing something or other? I'm assuming the employee was an employee of that business..

One thing I'm not clear on, actually, is whether the employee is now hospitalized due to psychiatric issues that came up as a result of this whole mess, or whether it's for problems which existed beforehand (and might have contributed to the bad judgement to do all this stuff in the first place)..

Of course, regardless of who actually did the mouse clicks, it's clear that the mother was still an active (and possibly the primary) participant in the whole thing anyway, and being both the adult and the employer needs to take ultimate responsibility for what went on. Trying to shift it off on an 18-year-old employee just sounds like another attempt to avoid responsibility to me..

[moropus.livejournal.com]

The 18 year old employee may have had himself committed when he saw they were trying to shift the blame on him, so he could claim insanity.

Still can't believe they can't get that family on stalking, harrassment or something similar. The internet has been with us about 15 years now. I just can't wrap my head around the idea that cyber bullying is perfectly legal.