Town Aldermen Declare Online Harassment a Crime
Future CyberBullies Face Up To 90 Days in Jail
Teen’s Suicide Prompts Action
The fallout over the Megan Meier’s MySpace incident continues:
DARDENNE PRAIRIE • City officials declared online harassment a crime Wednesday, fewer than two weeks after they learned of a 13-year-old girl who killed herself after receiving hurtful messages on a popular social networking website.
The Board of Aldermen unanimously passed an ordinance making online harassment a misdemeanor in this city of about 5,500.
“It is our hope that by supporting one of our own in Dardenne Prairie, we can do our part to ensure this type of harassing behavior never happens again, anywhere,” said Mayor Pam Fogarty. “After all, harassment is harassment regardless of the mechanism or tool.”
The ordinance basically covers all forms of electronic communication, i.e. the internet, email, text messaging and paging. A maximum fine of $500.00 and up to 90 days in jail.
The St. Charles Suburban Journal article went on to name the persons Megan’s parents believe are responsible for the online hoax, neighbors of the Meier’s, Lori Drew, her daughter, an ex-friend of Megan’s, and Ashley Grill, an 18-year-old employee of Drew’s.
No one has been charged with a crime. The county prosecutor is still reviewing the case.
The details of the online harassment of Megan Meier triggered nationwide interest this past week as details came out of suburban St. Louis.
Read rest of story:
Megan Meier: Town Cracks Down on CyberBullies
Sources:
Megan Meier: Town Cracks Down on CyberBullies
Stltoday.com – Net Harassment Now A Crime
Megan Meier MySpace Cruel Hoax: No Justice For Megan
Mondoreb blogs at Death By 1000 Papercuts. Interested readers can e-mail him at
mondoreb@gmail.com.
7 users commented in " Megan Meier MySpace Suicide: Town Cracks Down on CyberBullies "
Follow-up comment rss or Leave a TrackbackI don’t know why she would kill herself like that. If her mom wanted to know more about her or whatever, she should have just asked.
Our site deals primarily with predators who prey on other vulnerable adults. However, the Meier case could be a first step in recieving justice for ANY victim who is preyed on by someone online.
We do NOT feel Megan’s parents were in any, way, shape or form responsible for what happened. Lori Drew and her family need to take full responsibility. Lori needs prison for 2nd Degree Manslaughter & Intentional Infliction of Emotional Distress. Her whole family needs counseling.
The internet justice she is getting is justified, in our opinion. But any vigilante justice we can’t condone. We fully support the Meiers and some real justice, not a misdemeanor, is long overdue here.
Fighter
http://cyberpaths.blogspot.com/2007/11/public-outcry-on-megan-meier-case.html
http://cyberpaths.blogspot.com/2007/11/myspace-hoax-victims-family-seeks.html
http://cyberpaths.blogspot.com/2007/11/web-hoax-led-girl-to-kill-herself-dont.html
Megan Meier killed herself….and I am sorry, but if it was because someone called her a wh*r* and that they did not like her on MySpace she was a nut…yes teenage girls can take stuff like this hard…but am I the only thinks that a little extrem? Clearly someone did a horrible job instilling self confidence and indipendance in this child seeing as though she was willing to take her own life because 1 single person (who did not really exsist) that she never meet face to face and never even talked to on the phone was mean to her. Alot more caused this and I think it’s high time some one tells the parants they screwed up. Sad, but true….the woman who made the page is a scum bag in her own right…but that is not a crime, and she did not harrass the girl. I strongly don’t think this is way the girl really killed herself and think alot more went on in her life then we are hearing about…I am sure if we do some digging we will find some intresting things about this family. Well the mom and dad wanted it public…so lets start digging….I bet they will shut up about this really fast once we start looking into their history. I am sorry the poor girl killed her self…but again…normal people don’t kill them selves over pedy things like this…something is VERY wrong here.
This is Megan’s mom, Tina Meier, and I wanted to update everyone on the details for the candlelight vigil for Saturday, November 24, 2007.
*We are meeting at 6:00 p.m. at the Fort Zumwalt West Middle school parking lot.
*Please bring a candle, cup to hold the candle and something to light the candle. (If you cut a small X in the bottom of the cup, you can slide the candle through it and then you won’t have wax dripping on you)
*We will then light the candle’s shortly after 6:00 p.m. and start walking from the school down Waterford crystal drive towards Megan’s house and end up in front of the Drew’s house.
*There is a common ground area across the street and we will have pa system and microphone. if anyone would like to speak, read a poem, etc., they are more than welcome.
*This wonderful idea came from students who wanted to see justice for Megan and for that we are so happy. Nothing we can do will bring Megan back, but we can all learn from Megan and take a part of her with us everyday for the rest of our lives to try to be a better person and think about things we say to people before we say them!
*****Remember this is a peaceful candlelight vigil******
We hope to see everyone there!
A little boy between the ages of 12 and 14 posted a video on YouTube. The cyber bullies have come out in full force. One man even threatened to rape this child. The post is called ‘Ethan’s Turducken Song.’ Turducken is a dish composed of turkey, duck and chicken meat. Adults harrassing a child… sounds like Megan’s story.
Tina, calm down. The videos I have seen are obviously joke replies to the kid’s joke video. The hysterical girl is clearly copying Chris Crocker and his hysteria when he posted the now infamous “leave Brittney alone” video. The apparently drunken redneck is just an idiot with too much time on his hands, but I don’t think his video was meant to be taken seriously, either.
What should be taken seriously is your position as a guiding light in your current situation. I saw you on Fox this morning. You said repeatedly that you were not sorry for the things happening to the Drew family, and you could not stop them anyway. I understand the first part of that, but you’re wrong about the second. You may be enjoying the torment inflicted on that family – but if you truly want to take the moral high ground, you must take a stand for what is simply and plainly right, even if you do not want to. If what the Drews did to Megan was wrong, then doing it to them is also wrong. If you do nothing to attempt to stop it, you’re just using other people to inflict pain for you. You have the only voice that CAN stop it. By choosing to not speak up against this, you condone it. Imagine how powerful it would be for you, in the midst of your pain, to ask people to do the right thing. Ask them to stop. You’re the only one who can break this chain.
Justice for Megan? You gotta be joking. She was a bully herself with obvious mental issues. Can’t believe this is still going..
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