9 MA Cyberbullies Indicted For Causing Suicide 709
Raul654 writes "Massachusetts teenager Phoebe Prince committed suicide on January 14. After her death, it was revealed that she had been the target of cyberbullying for months (and that her teachers were aware of it and did nothing). Today, nine of her classmates were indicted on charges including harassment, stalking, civil rights violations, and statutory rape. Prince's suicide echoes the earlier case of Megan Meier, who committed suicide after being cyberbullied by a classmate's mother."
it's more than just cyberbullying (Score:0, Informative)
Apparently, this poor girl was also raped.
Re:Cyberbullies? (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Throw the book at them and the school. (Score:3, Informative)
I am thankful that these sorts of issues were pretty much unknown when I went to school. I think I'll home-school my kids....
It is all relative. More then anything it depends on the specific area that you live in and the actual teachers and administration (Principal, VP...) that are in that school. The real big change is that we all hear about the really bad cases whereas before we would not have heard if it was not in out local school.
This is a terrible situation but sometimes it feels like observers are too sensationalistic [wikipedia.org].
Re:Your rights OFFLINE! (Score:5, Informative)
Re:it's more than just cyberbullying (Score:5, Informative)
No, statutory rape (that is, usually-consensual sex with someone who it isn't legal to have sex with). And nothing in TFA suggests that the two charged with statutory rape had anything to do with the bullying (cyber or otherwise); they aren't charged with the other stuff.
Re:Her teachers were aware of it and did nothing.. (Score:2, Informative)
I used to get jabbed and punched every day one year during middle school after lunch, when we all lined up to leave the cafeteria. Teachers knew it. Administrators knew it. And when I finally fought back, I got sent to the principal's office and got detention for fighting. As if I was picking fights with a group of 4 kids all of whom were twice the size of my short, skinny frame. Like you said, this is how it's always been.
Re:Statutory rape? (Score:3, Informative)
Eh... this isn't real rape. If it was, they'd go for that.
They're only using the 'statutory' version because the sex was so clearly consensual that it's the only thing that'll stick.
Sickens the hell out of me, it does.
Re:Her teachers were aware of it and did nothing.. (Score:3, Informative)
True. But my understanding from a Criminal Justice class years ago, is that the victim is accepted as is. So if you rob a bank and the teller has a heart attack and dies because of a congenital heart defect, you're still on the hook. You undertook an illegal act and are repsonsible for the consequences, even if they are not immediately forseeable.
Spineless teachers? (Score:5, Informative)
More like spineless principal and above. Teachers can't even get a student kicked out of school let alone their classroom when the student HITS them. Parents are allowed to disrupt their classes and yell at the teachers. Teachers are not even allowed to fail students anymore, let alone kick them out.
Blame the no child is left behind and the principals on up in the chain, not the teachers. They may act like they have no spine, because they can't do anything. Granted they should say something, but teachers learn just saying things is worse when they can never back it up, because their "power" is imaginary, and once that illusion is gone, teachers have nothing.
You want teachers to have some responsibility? make it so they can kick kids out of their classroom and school.
Re:Your rights OFFLINE! (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Your rights OFFLINE! (Score:5, Informative)
OR rather this is why we should make laws and then stick to them when a case comes up. Unforutnately, it's a lot easier to push a sob story over a jury than appeal to the actual laws.
Re:it's more than just cyberbullying (Score:3, Informative)
The 17yo was. From http://www.boston.com/news/local/breaking_news/2010/03/holding_for_pho.html [boston.com]:
Scheibel's office released this list of those being charged, and the charges they face.
I'm surprised that "disturbance of a school assembly" is a crime. Do school assemblies really need statutory protection?
Re:Your rights OFFLINE! (Score:3, Informative)
What are you fucking stupid?
Red Bull, standard can; 250 mL of water (basically)or 250 grams.
9 MM hollow point, 115 grains is about 7 grams.
Throwing a can of Red Bull at someone and hitting carries approximately the same energy as a fast ball pitch. (Baseball 149 grams at 90 mph vs Red Bull 250 grams 60 mph or so.)
That's assault. And, people have been killed with the right hit in the right place with that force.
You know shit about physics and bullets.
Re:Your rights OFFLINE! (Score:5, Informative)
And that changes ... what exactly?
Oh, the difference is that the whole world could see it instead of just everyone that knows her? Newsflash: THE WORLD DOESN'T GIVE A SHIT. Does anyone here (provided he doesn't know her) care whether she's called an Irish slut? Call her an Italian dyke for all I care.
That is in NO way different from "offline" bullying. Whether "the whole world" knows or just the people that know her does not change a thing. Except that in this case there's hard evidence of it happening, compared to the bullying and mobbing that went on when we went to school. If a teenager killed himself before the onset of the internet craze, it was easily blamed on something else and shifted on ... rock music or whatever was the applicable scapegoat. The school could easily claim they didn't have a clue and the bullies certainly didn't come forward.
The difference is not that it's now "world wide known". The difference is that there's evidence now. And I fear the reaction will be to attempt to eliminate that evidence rather than stop the bullying.
It's easier to do.
Re:Your rights OFFLINE! (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Cyberbullies? (Score:4, Informative)
The hearsay rule does not apply if the defendant is the declarant.
In other words, "Bill told me the defendant and the victim had sex" doesn't fly, it gets tossed. However, "The defendant told me the defendant and the victim had sex" stands. If it came straight from the defendant, it isn't inadmissible by hearsay.
If five people come forward and say the same exact thing, then the defendant doesn't have a leg to stand on in arguing that he never said it. All he can argue is that he never actually did it, which will damn him one way or another - though less so if he didn't actually commit statutory rape.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hearsay_in_United_States_law#Admission_by_party-opponent [wikipedia.org]
Amanda Brownell (Score:2, Informative)
Amanda Brownell is an ex-classmate of my kids here in San Jose, California. In December 2008, Amanda attempted suicide at school. I understand there were texts left on Amanda's cell phone that suggested she had been bullied. Her family apparently had no idea this was happening.
Today, Amanda lives in a nursing home, and is fed by a tube. You can read her story here:
http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/amandabrownell/mystory
Re:Your rights OFFLINE! (Score:2, Informative)
You seem to think that the online world is a magical separate space where the things we write have absolutely no bearing on the rest of the world.
No, I seem to think that you can't punch someone in the head online. The IRC /me command notwithstanding.
Re:Your rights OFFLINE! (Score:4, Informative)
Statutory rape and physical harrassment (scrubbing pictures, throwing items, knocking items) are more than name calling.