Posted on 12/06/2007 11:26:37 PM PST by Paleo Conservative
The woman linked to a fake MySpace profile of a 16-year-old boy created to start an Internet relationship with Megan Meier, the Missouri teen who hanged herself after receiving hurtful messages, is now believed to be the victim of a cyber-bullying impersonator herself.
And the online harassment laws that were passed after Meier's death last year now may be used to help the middle-aged woman, who many believe was responsible for the 13-year-old girl's suicide.
On Dec. 3, a blog entitled "Megan Had It Coming" carried an entry signed by Lori Drew, the woman involved in creating the fictitious profile that taunted Meier. The blog entry appeared on the same day St. Charles County Prosecutor Jack Banas announced there wasn't enough evidence to charge anyone in connection with Meier's death.
"It's time I dropped the charade. Yes, I made this blog. Yes, I'm Lori Drew," the blogger wrote.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Here's another article on The Age from Australia. You'll have to follow the links on both stories to read the whole articles due to excerping requirements. I couldn't even post an excerpt of the The Age, and it's a better article.
Net vigilantes target MySpace mum
Stephen Hutcheon
December 7, 2007 - 12:43PM
Does someone actually caare about this woman?
She may regret she was at this point.
all I can say is: “Wah!!”
It’s absolutely disgusting that her lawyer and herself brought this out. She participated in the demise of a 13 year old girl and doesn’t seem to care whether this poor child died or not.
This old sow is really milking the “15 minutes of fame” bit, isn’t she?
Everything is somebody else’s fault....
Either way, the blogger has the tone down perfect. If it's not Lori Drew, it's a very realistic fake.
Apparently she’s getting a dose of her own medicine. Whether she’s the one who wrote the blog or and imposter did, her name has become public. Now she can be personally subjected to scorn from millions of people. So what if she moves out of the neighborhood? Her reputation will folow her everywhere she goes. She’s about to find out the downside of being in a “global village”.
The appropriate response isn't to go on line and use MySpace as way of getting even. The appropriate response is to keep your child as far from the offending party as possible. You don't talk to the child's parents. You don't let your child see or play with the offending party. You take away your child's MySpace privileges. I'm not a great parent, frankly, but I know enough to understand how this works.
You may make the argument that the whole internet socializing thing is new enough that it would be hard to understand how to react as a parent, but the basic principal isn't difficult, and it's simply this: If you have to deal with aggravating fools, stay away from them. Far away from them. They derive their energy from the pain they cause you. Avoiding interaction stops that game dead cold, and no one gets hurt. Duh.
Cry me a frikkin river.
If there were any justice these “cyber vigilantes” would accomplish what traditional vigilantes have done.
By the way, I don’t mean get the person killed...I mean make them flee in terror.
My daughter had nothing to do with this," the blogger purporting to be Drew wrote. "Everyone needs to leave her alone. None of you can possibly know her involvement, and none of you can possibly know what she's gone through. She's just a kid. She doesn't deserve these brutal verbal attacks. Please stop."
Interesting comment there ~ especially considering what SHE did to another child, who was also "just a kid who didn't deserve any brutal" attacks on the internet.
I agree -- the 'Lori Drew' post sounds authentic, just what you'd expect of an immature adult trying to justify herself with "her side of the story." Well, the good news is that she'll rot in Hell someday.
ping - they say it’s not her
If it’s not her then, I suppose what comes around...
It may not be her; but the fact remains she was a participant directly or indirectly. She atleast knew about it and didn’t put a stop to it.
The messages were at times sexually graphic but not to the point charges could be made against them I take it. Or who knows just who used the Drew's computer. Lori's stories have changed too often for me to know who is too blame for what.
Sadly it went too far & Megan is dead. I've read mean comments that said Megan would have killed herself anyway. Thats BS as we can't know that. Both sets of parents are total morons IMHO. Why they would give myspace accounts to 13-14 year old girls I don't know.
Lori Drew went too far in this game & she was the so called adult. One girl is dead, one in a mental hospital (last time I heard) & her own daughter's life will be a mess for a long time. She ought to leave that neighborhood & go where nobody knows her family for their sake. However I think she is enjoying this attention. IMHO Lori Drew is a scummer. She doesn't even have the sense to show any remorse or just shut up. Her daughter is going to end up hating her guts & Lori needs to grow up & learn some parenting skills.
I just can’t imagine how any adult would think that tormenting an already messed up child would be a good idea.
Megan might well have been a shallow, self-centered little girl, but she was in love with the made-up person created by this other shallow, self-centered little girl wrapped up in a grown up womans skin. Megan was utterly devastated and chose to take her own life.
May GOD have mercy on her soul.
A lot of people were upset with her BECAUSE of what “she” wrote on this blog.
Now it turns out the blog wasn’t written by her, but by someone trying to make her look worse.
I can’t defend what she did on MySpace, although there are lots of fake people on MySpace being used to “get” other people. The kids do this all the time, like an amateur version of “punk’d”.
Parents are told to set up fake myspace accounts to be “friends” with their kids so they can check up. I just had my daughter give me her password, because we discussed the situation, I wasn’t going to lie about my age, and she thought it would be bad for her to have a much older person as a “friend”.
When someone has become a bully, like this girl Megan did, it’s easy to see them as strong and powerful, and to overreact in trying to “bring them down”. If it turns out they are masking insecurity with their bravado, the results can be devastating.
Adults should know better, but I’ve seen a lot of adults who fall for this when it comes to protecting their own children from abuse.
The point I guess anyway is if you are going to hate this woman, do so for what she is known to have done, not for a blog set up by someone trying to make her look bad.
now she knows what it feels like to be humiliated. Good.
http://www.cnn.com/2007/LIVING/wayoflife/12/07/suicide.shunning.ap/index.html
DARDENNE PRAIRIE, Missouri (AP) — Waterford Crystal Drive is one of those suburban streets that seem so new as to have no history at all. But the suicide of a teenage girl —and allegations she had been tormented by a neighbor over the Internet — have brought a reaction that is old, almost tribal, in its nature.
Residents of the middle-class subdivision have turned against the neighbor, Lori Drew, and her family, demanding the Drews move out. In interviews, they have warned darkly that someone might be tempted to “take matters into their own hands.”
“It’s like they used to do in the 1700s and 1800s. If you wronged a community, you were basically shunned. That’s basically what happened to her,” said Trever Buckles, a 40-year-old who lives next door to the Drews.
Drew became an outcast after she participated in a hoax in which a fictional teenager by the name of “Josh Evans” exchanged online messages with 13-year-old Megan Meier. Megan received cruel messages from Josh that apparently drove her to hang herself in her closet in 2006.
Through her lawyer, Drew, a mother of two in her 40s, has denied saying hurtful things to the girl over the Internet, and prosecutors have said they found no grounds for charges against the woman. Nevertheless, the community reaction has been vengeful and the pressure on the Drews intense. Victim’s mother explains why charges are needed »
More than 100 residents gathered in front of their home on a recent evening, holding candles and reciting stories about Megan.
-snip-
A Hoax Turned Fatal Draws Anger but No Charges (Death by the Internet)
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1932241/posts
Megan Had It Coming (says woman who drove her to suicide)
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/1934284/posts
Parents Say Online Bullies Caused Daughter’s Suicide
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1928827/posts
Mother: Hoax on MySpace triggered daughter’s suicide
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1927480/posts
Law lags as taunts ruin lives
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1928220/posts
Parents of MySpace hoax victim seek justice [teen killed herself over hoax]
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1928108/posts
My Space’ hoax ends with suicide of Dardenne Prairie teen
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1925716/posts
POKIN AROUND: A real person, a real death
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1924847/posts
Police Cite ‘Air of Vigilantism’ in Response to Girl’s Suicide
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1928930/posts
No Charges in MySpace Suicide Case
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1934105/posts
Frontier justice in an online world? (MySpace suicide case)
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1933444/posts
Attorney: Woman didn’t know about online taunts(Myspace suicide woman appears on Today Show)
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1934734/posts
As a parent of 5 now adult children I've dealt with many bullies & many parents. IMHO it is best to try to let teens work out problems between themselves unless it comes to the point you MUST step in. Usually the kids will work it out & if the parents start fighting among each other it just makes it worse. I have dealt too many times with parents whose little darlings are NEVER EVER to blame for anything. None of my children were angels but I refused to let them be bullies. If someone played games with any of my children as Lori Drew & her friends & daughter did I would really hope they would run for their lives if one of my children ended up as Megan did. Megan having mental issues or not, Lori knew what was going on & she was the supposed adult.
My now 8 yr old daughter will never have a myspace & when she uses a computer she will be watched very closely.
Prayers for both families...They all really need them.
I like this title on Foxnews.com: Woman linked to teen girl’s suicide after she was dumped by a made-up boy on MySpace taken to task by her community
I give Megan's mother credit because if such rotten teens/parents, like Lori Drew & her bunch of whackadoodles played head games with my child there would be hell to pay. Tar & feathers comes into my mind when I think of this sick twisted scummer. She & her daughter & Ashley ought to be shunned. I really can't understand why she doesn't move & let this neighborhood get on with their lives...I would be afraid to live there if I were Lori Drew & who knows what else she may do if someone upsets her daughter...
“I mean make them flee in terror.”
Or just live in terror would even work for me.
If any of you haven’t heard, or are interested, I posted an announcement from MOGOP voice...here.
Internet Harassment Task Force Created by Missouri Governor
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1936469/posts
I’ll post this on a few of the threads related to this topic.
*sniff*sniff* Cry me a river for this b*tch.
Does anyone know how many kids kill themselves in general due to this kind of cyber bullying? I wonder if this is a lot more prevalent than we know. Given how cruel kids can be, and the anonymous nature of them internets, I’m surprised this doesn’t happen more often.
The appropriate response is to keep your child as far from the offending party as possible. You don't talk to the child's parents. You don't let your child see or play with the offending party. You take away your child's MySpace privileges. I'm not a great parent, frankly, but I know enough to understand how this works.
The best response is to hide? Could this response have something to do with the little girl's suicide? She had no way to handle stress or criticism.
Wouldn’t it be better to maintain awareness of what the child is going through, and help her understand there are nut cases out there, and their opinions are irrelevant? Help the child learn how to deal with life - not hide from life.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.