Yup. Adults going after kids is always ugly. Kids going after kids is also. Including what Megan Meier might have said and done.

Lori Drew elevated it from an ugly kid fight into terrible adult-going-after-a-kid fight.

Best wishes,
Ben

Shaming doesn’t stop real predators. They don’t care; they’re convinced they’re right.

We still need the laws to stop bullying parents like Lori Drew. Her shame hasn’t stopped her from fighting to avoid any consequences.

Only stopping bullies with good laws, well-applied stops them. New bullies will sprout up, they always have and always will, but at least we can get the ones we know about.

Of course there are over-reactions like the principal you pointed out, but that’s not the fault of the law. That’s the fault of the vice-principal – lack of judgment so bad he shouldn’t be a vice-principal.

Laws aren’t made to work cleanly in 100% of the time. If they work 90% of the time, that’s a miracle. But we need them for that 90%. Because people have free will and will continue to do stupid things.

Best wishes,
Ben

Maybe if Megan Meier’s mom had PC Pandora she’d have seen it earlier and been able to protect her daughter.

That would have been good.

Best wishes,
Ben

What if someone’s honest opinion to someone else is “you should just kill yourself”? Obviously, people should use some modicum of self control in expressing themselves, but on the other hand, they have every right to state an opinion as nicely or harshly as they desire regardless of the content of their opinion or any actions it may directly or indirectly cause. It is, after all, just an opinion. Words are not weapons, and individuals on the receiving end of a verbal attack are not without the ability to ignore, rather than empower, any words they may hear. We have laws against violent crimes for good reason, but I believe this is just nonsense, as it is not the users’ responsibility to babysit children, that responsibility should fall firmly and solely on the child’s parent(s).

I fail to see anything but relevance between this girl and the many, many teenage suicides that happen every year. I myself was feeling suicidal at one point in my life, and many of my peers in fact suggested I “should do it”. They were kids, just like I was, and can’t be expected to have the “right words” for my unique situation anymore than the internet at large should be. Had I done it, how in the hell would it be anyone but my own(and my parent’s) fault if I had? Not everyone is a caring emotional crutch for the public at large, nor should we be expected to be either.

Really, I don’t think children should be allowed on the internet anymore than you would allow them in an adult bookstore or bar/lounge. If you do allow it, it’s *at their own risk* and any results, no matter how benign or horrific, should be considered a result of that risk. If someone dies in a skydiving accident, should we charge the pilot/charter service with murder despite the fact that the death is a result of taking a huge, well-documented risk?

The internet is a place free of most restrictions and is really not, never has been, and probably never should be for children. I don’t want to see that changed either. Free speech and reason should prevail over this “the internet is our babysitter and the babysitter killed our baby” rubbish. If a parent is not willing to allow their children to be subject to the risks of using the internet, then the child should be forbidden from using the internet. Simple as that.

The real problem is that most parents themselves don’t even realize the full, unbridled power of the net, only what they know of the handful of sites they personally use. If you don’t seek out the bad stuff on the internet, you could last quite a long while without ever knowing half of the stuff that is even out there.

The best thing we can do is shame these adults for their absolute stupidity and moral obtuseness, which appears to have happened in this case.

A local community website devoted to all adults who condone bullying might be helpful for the shame effect.

But consider the idiot vice-principal in the recent Supreme Court case who had a student strip searched based on the word of another little girl. The student was an honor student who had never ever been in trouble for anything, but the word of her ex-friend caused her to be strip-searched.

Is this not bullying? Did the responsible adult participate in this bullying? If this vice prinicpal had used actual adult rational judgement would the strip search been necessary? I think not. Remember this is an adult, who you would assume, since he works with children everyday would understand the minds and motives of children. The bigger question is why is this adult still employed by his or anyone’s school district. I wouldn’t hire him for any job that required mature judgement and understanding of pre-teen and teenage children.

The huge cost of defending the lawsuit to the school district has not affected his employment status. The local school board and the town appear to approve of his superior moral ethics and knowledge about pre-teen and teen-age children, since he is still employed. He actually broke no laws, but his actions only encourage more bullying by his students.

What law can possibly be passed that outlaws adult stupidity?

Something needs to be done…
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