Thirteen Year Old Megan Meier Commits Suicide after Cyber Bullying and Online Emotional Attack by Classmate’s Parents Posing as Child - 9,567 Views, 3 Comments
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Thirteen year old Megan Meier committed suicide after being intentionally befriended and then dumped by someone she believed to be a new online friend named Josh Evans. In reality, Josh Evans - who said he was new to the neighborhood - turned out to be a MySpace account created by the mother of a schoolmate of Megan’s. Megan and the child had once been friends. “Josh” told Megan, who was known to have ADD and suffer from depression, that he was new to the area, and didn’t yet have a phone number, and that he was homeschooled. Then, after gaining Megan’s confidence, “Josh” ended the friendship, telling Megan that he “had heard that she was cruel.” Messages had also started turning up on the MySpace bulletin area, saying that “Megan Meier is a slut,” and “Megan Meier is fat.” Josh had also sent a message to Megan saying that she was a bad person, and that the world would be better off without her. After reading the hurtful messages, Megan ran upstairs to her bedroom, and hung herself. Her father found her twenty minutes later. She died the following day. If only Megan had known that what to her seemed a painful dumping by a new friend was actually an intentional emotional attack orchestrated by her classmate’s mother. The mother who created the profile said that she did so “because she wanted to gain Megan’s confidence to know what Megan was saying about her own child online,” and she told police that “she, her daughter and another person all typed and monitored the communication between the fictitious boy and Megan.” Megan’s parents didn’t learn that Josh was a hoax, and that the other family was behind it, until six weeks after Megan’s death, when another classmate told her own parents about the ruse. Megan’s mother, Tina Meier, says that she doesn’t think that the family behind “Josh” wanted Megan to commit suicide, but, she adds, “when adults are involved and continue to screw with a 13-year-old, with or without mental problems, it is absolutely vile.” Equally vile, the acts by these adults do not squarely violate any criminal law, and so local law enforcement is hard pressed to make any arrests or prosecute. (It should be noted however that it is quite likely that they can be sued for both intentional and negligent infliction of emotional distress. Of course, none of this will bring Megan back.) While MySpace has refused to comment, Megan’s mother is hoping that changes in the law and protection of children on the Internet will come out of this situation.
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Read more:
» MySpace Poser Lori Drew Whose Charade Lead to Teen’s Suicide Pleads “Not Guilty”
» Mother Whose Online Harassment of Teen Lead to Teen’s Suicide May be Charged with Fraud
» State of Virginia to Require Internet Safety Classes in Public Schools
For additional similar stories check out our archives on Cyberbullying, Internet Explorer, MySpace
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i’m in favour of old fasioned customs, in this case tar and feathers and a ride out of the county on a 10 foot length of fence rail for this evil, malicious hoax. shunning is also good, at least it works for the amish, nobody to speak to them, sell them any goods or service or even acknowledge their existence. the old norse custom of outlawry works too, put them outside the protection of the law for a year and a day, fair game for anyone.
Comment by "gunner" — 11/26/2007 @ 4:58 pm
On Wednesday, October 21st, city officials wasted no time enacting an ordinance designed to address the public outcry for justice in the Megan Meier tragedy. The six member Board of Aldermen made Internet harassment a misdemeanor, punishable by up to a $500 fine and 90 days in jail.
Does this new law provide any justice for Megan? Does this law provide equitable relief for a future victim?
The Vice rejects the premise of this new law and believes it completely misses the mark. Classifying this case as a harassment issue completely fails to address the most serious aspects of the methods Lori Drew employed to lead this youth to her demise. The Vice disagrees that harassment was even a factor in this case until just a couple of days before Megan’s death.
Considering this case a harassment issue is incorrect because during the 5 weeks Lori Drew baited and groomed her victim, the attention was NOT unwanted attention. Megan participated in the conversations willingly because she was misled, lured, manipulated and exploited without her knowledge.
This law willfully sets a precedent that future child exploiters and predators might use to reclassify their cases as harassment cases. In effect, the law enacted to give Megan justice, may make her even more vulnerable. So long as the child victim doesn’t tell the predator to stop, even a harassment charge may not stick with the right circumstances and a good defender.
Every aspect of this case follows the same procedural requirement used to convict a Child Predator. A child was manipulated by an adult. A child was engaged in sexually explicit conversation (as acknowledged by Lori Drew herself). An adult imposed her will on a child by misleading her, using a profile designed to sexually or intimately attract the 13 year old Megan.
Lori then utilized the power she had gained over this child to cause significant distress and endangerment to that child. She even stipulated to many of these activities in the police report she filed shortly after Megan’s death.
City officials who continue to ignore this viable, documented admission and continue to address this issue as harassment are intentionally burying their heads in the sand, when the solution is staring them right in the face. Why?
There are several other child exploitation laws on the books. To date, none of them have even been considered by City, State and Federal officials in this case. The Vice is outraged that a motion was never even filed, so that the case could at least be argued before a judge or jury.
Danny Vice
Comment by Danny Vice — 12/2/2007 @ 4:35 pm
I think it is absolutely disgusting how obsurdely immature adults can act. Why would an adult be so interested in the doings of her daughter anyway? It’s not like it was any of her business to being with. If she really thought it was that important, she could have investigated through diplomatic measures.
I also think that if Megan wasn’t suffering from depression, she would not have killed herself. I don’t believe that it was something to get that emotional. It would have been so much smarter and easier to just delete the account, and then leave. But I also feel for Megan, and it makes me very sad.
Comment by Mairi — 7/26/2008 @ 7:27 am