Mae West

• • A Missouri woman — — who has a teenage daughter — — was indicted for her alleged role in perpetrating a hoax on the online social network MySpace against a 13-year-old neighbor who committed suicide.
• • Lori Drew of suburban St. Louis, who allegedly helped create a MySpace account in the name of someone who didn't exist to convince Megan Meier she was chatting with a 16-year-old boy named Josh Evans, was charged with conspiracy and fraudulently gaining access to someone else's computer.
• • Megan hanged herself at home in October 2006, allegedly after receiving a dozen or more cruel messages, including one stating the world would be better off without her.
• • Salvador Hernandez, assistant agent in charge of the Los Angeles FBI office, called the case heart-rending.
• • "The Internet is a world unto itself. People must know how far they can go before they must stop. They exploited a young girl's weaknesses," Hernandez said. "Whether the defendant could have foreseen the results, she's responsible for her actions."
• • Lori Drew was charged with one count of conspiracy and three counts of accessing protected computers without authorization to get information used to inflict emotional distress on the girl.
• • Drew has denied creating the account or sending messages to Megan.
• • Her attorney, Jim Briscoe, did not immediately return messages seeking comment on Thursday.
• • A man who opened the door at the Drew family home in Dardenne Prairie, Mo., on Thursday said the family had no comment.
• • Megan's mother, Tina Meier, told The Associated Press she believed media reports and public outrage helped move the case forward for prosecution.
• • "I'm thrilled that this woman is going to face charges that she has needed to face since the day we found out what was going on, and since the day she decided to be a part of this entire ridiculous stunt," she said.

• • MEGAN'S PARENTS SEPARATED due to her SUICIDE
• • Megan's father, Ron Meier, 38, said he began to cry "tears of joy" when he heard of the indictment. The parents are now separated, which Tina Meier has said stemmed from the circumstances of their daughter's death.
• • Tina Meier has acknowledged Megan was too young to have a MySpace account under the Web site's guidelines, but she said she had been able to closely monitor the account. Meier's family has also acknowledged that Megan was also sending mean messages before her death.
• • Megan was being treated for attention deficit disorder and depression, her family has said. Meier has said Lori Drew knew Megan was on medication.
• • MySpace issued a statement saying it "does not tolerate cyberbullying" and was cooperating fully with the U.S. attorney. . . .
• • Last month, an employee of Lori Drew, 19-year-old Ashley Grills, told ABC's "Good Morning America" she created the false MySpace profile but Drew wrote some of the messages to Megan.
• • Grills said Drew suggested talking to Megan via the Internet to find out what Megan was saying about Drew's daughter, who was a former friend. . . .
• • Read more of this article — — view link
______________________
• • Can someone's "bullying" provoke a teenager to commit suicide?
• • Comments?
:-Q
~ ~ come up and see Mae ~ ~

IT is so sad to read about it.

Very sad! Kids think there is no hope, then make the stupid decision to kill themselves. Since 1999, four people, three kids and one adult in my school or related to it, has committed suicide.

I think mental illness provokes someone into committing suicide. Bullying is abusive and unfair and all those things, but, again, mental illness pushes one to such drastic measures.

One of the most saddest and appalling things I have ever heard.
I worry about this types of things happening. I also detest that they are putting street fights on YOUtube. People are getting beat down and jumped just so someone can be on Youtube and have 2 mins. of fame.

I wonder if it would have helped for the parents to check her myspace activity more?

This was a beautiful young lady with extremely low self-esteem caught in the middle of a very cruel game.

It is also unfortunate that many marriages can't survive a tragedy of this magnitude.

its a sad world when kids are so sentitive to the point that a cyber message(s) can effect them so dramaticly - parents need to teach their kids that they can hit the delete button or they need to teach their kids inner strength - which seems to be lacking big time :(

• • When I was in a private elementary school, a group of very beautiful classmates began to go to the best department stores and shoplift apparel. Their wardrobe improved dramatically. The ringleader was J_ _ _, a close friend of mine whose mother had had a stroke that left her partly paralyzed. I used to study with J _ _ _ at her house after school. I didn't like it that she was mean to her mother, whose speech had been very affected by the stroke, so I used to bring homemade things my mother had cooked: pastries, etc. to J's invalid mom.
• • When J and other popular girls began going on these shopping sprees it was a while before they got caught.
• • In the interim, they used to urge me to come with them. I refused.
• • They threatened to end their friendship with me. I refused and we stopped speaking. Often they would taunt me, say I was a "chicken" or whatever. They once threatened to beat me up for gosh-knows-what-reason. They didn't like anyone to challenge their power, I guess.
• • Even after they got caught, and were banned from certain stores, they continue to be a tight group of friends - - and deliberately exclude me.
• • I was under 12 years old when this took place. I knew it was wrong to lie, steal, and take things that did not belong to me and I had no problem saying, "No. Leave me alone."
• • Are today's kids unable to say, "No. Go away. Get out of my face!"??
• • Some kids must be able to stay away from delinquents. Why didn't Megan?
______________________
• • Can someone's "bullying" provoke a teenager to commit suicide?
• • Comments?
:-Q
~ ~ come up and see Mae ~ ~

The year I turned 13, a group of my "friends" began to experiment with a lot things I wanted no part of. They laughed & tried to pressure me. I found a new group of friends. Some kids can't or won't do that. It's really sad.

Junior high, and the earlier years of high school are so hard. (Most of the losers drop out--that's why.) Dealing with the bullies and bad kids was hard when we were kids, but I truly believe that it's harder for kids today. Parents aren't parenting and they supply a computer and access to the Internet with no supervision, which my husband likens to throwing your kid in the car and taking them to a busy downtown area and dropping them off on the street at midnight. Kids today are exposed to so much more than we were. I wouldn't go back to be a teenager, no way. If re-encarnation exists, can I skip the teen years? I never buckled under peer pressure, luckily. I feel so bad for this girl, and her parents. It's a tragedy.

• • Here's a question for the group — — about buckling under peer pressure.
• • What is it that je-ne-sais-quoi that makes some children (tots, youngsters, teens, tweens) NOT knuckle under when facing off with a peer group?
• • Good "parenting"?
• • All I know is that my parents did not "parent" us. They ignored us as much as possible, didn't fight our battles, didn't take our sides, and did not show that much interest in our feelings, yearnings, nor whereabouts. [My mother was a housewife and a stay-at-home Mom.] Therefore, the answer has got to be more than the simple phrase "good parenting."
• • So: why did Megan Meier cave under pressure — — and why do some kids develop much more inner moxie?
• • Comments?
:-Q
~ ~ come up and see Mae ~ ~