The cyberbullying case of Lori Drew, the mother who posed as a boy on MySpace and was taken to court in the resulting suicide of her victim Megan Meier, is unique to be sure. First, the bullies were the parents; second, the victim was apparently targeted because she may have been saying things about Drew’s own daughter online (I haven’t seen anything to indicate that any rumors were indeed spread, or that they merited the death of Megan); third, the victim committed suicide while the source of the despair that aided in the act was in another house and nowhere near her.
A judge decided that the conviction on three misdemeanor counts (unauthorized access to MySpace which could have garnered a year in prison) was a sufficient sentence, because the jury could not come up with enough to garner any felony charges. Also, a co-conspirator in the cyberbullying said nobody read the terms of the MySpace agreement, and the judge apparently felt that not reading those terms could not be an offense in itself.
So what does a regular human being make of such a case, in which people can seemingly commit long-distance murder with impunity?
I’ve mulled over this event from several sides, and only one truth has kept creeping up in my mind. There is nothing of this earth that forces us to be loving human beings. A parent does not have to love their children: they can choose to beat them, starve them, force them to eat spinach, participate in beauty pageants or peewee football or sit in a dark basement for hours at a time. Children don’t have to be nice to each other: in fact, if I had a penny for everytime I have read about victims of bullying in school, I’d be bailing out Donald Trump today.
On the other hand, there is also no rule that says a victim has to keep taking the abuse. Unfortunately, when we beat the dog we shoot it when it strikes back, which shows just how barbaric we are. We can dish it out, but we can’t take it.
Let’s face it: we support bullying, and we support a class system, and we support cruelty to others if it means less cruelty for us, simply by letting it happen.
I don’t have a negative word to say about Lori Drew: she set out to do something and she succeeded, and a jury agreed. I do feel deeply for Megan’s family, because even though we as a human race seem to support bullying, nobody deserves to be bullied to death.
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