Adults dupe teen into MySpace-assisted suicide

[BigPoppa]

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The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides by the iniquities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men. Blessed is he, who in the name of charity and good will, shepherds the weak through the valley of darkness, for he is truly his brother's keeper and the finder of lost children. And I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger those who would attempt to poison and destroy my brothers. And you will know my name is the Lord when I lay my vengeance upon thee.


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[Tito]

That is all.

[jared701]

Didn't read all of the posts but thought I'd chime in (know I'm about 2 weeks late for main discussion) The parents could sue for wrongful death under intentional infliction of emotional distress for the daughter and could sue for their distress under recklessness. According to my torts professor there may not be any criminal action they could bring, but they could likely win a couple hundred thousand if the other family actually has money.

[JokersAttack]

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The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides by the iniquities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men. Blessed is he, who in the name of charity and good will, shepherds the weak through the valley of darkness, for he is truly his brother's keeper and the finder of lost children. And I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger those who would attempt to poison and destroy my brothers. And you will know my name is the Lord when I lay my vengeance upon thee.


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since it's been bumped, may as well chime in...

whilst it might not be the right thing to do, or rational, if I was a parent of the girl that hung herself I'd sue, get a couple of hundred thousand and then use the money to absolutely ruin the lives of the other family

[Poshua]

This story got into the New York Times today:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/28/us/28h...&ei=5087%0A

[Jorge10]

The most interesting thing about that New York Times article is that the only reason the story got out into the public according to the Times article is because of the douche bag parents. They had told the parents of the dead girl to hide a ping pong table they had bought for their own children for christmas in their home and when the parents of the dead girl found out who was behind the boy's myspace account they destroyed the table in anger. The douche bag parents filed a complain and then the story hit the national media. Wow talk about shooting themselves in the foot. Good article. Favorite part of article in bold:

"In response to the events, the local Board of Aldermen on Wednesday unanimously passed a measure making Internet harassment a misdemeanor punishable by up to a $500 fine and 90 days in jail.

“Give me a break; that’s nothing,” Mayor Pam Fogarty said of the penalties. “But it’s the most we could do. People are saying to me, ‘Let’s go burn down their house.’”

[Suigin406]

jesus, i read the times and just read this story for the first time...thought there might be something in oot about it and here it is...

holy [censored], this is awful beyond all belief...i hope these [censored] idiots do get their house burned down or something awful...

how they have also not moved seems strange, but hopefully they stick around and get shot

[quirkasaurus]

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No joke: If somebody did that to my child, I'd kill them.

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This is pretty much what I think. I would at least ruin their lives.

To those who are like "Oh you shouldn't sue, all it does is serve revenge," are you people idiots? Someone manipulated your child into killing themselves and you are not going to press charges?

You people have a seriously [censored] up worldview if you let people get away with things like this.

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girls don't become suicidal in a vaccuum. the article said
that the girl was suicidal long before the myspace manipulation.

imho -- megen's parents created an environment, and raised a
child susceptible to this type of manipulation. their screaming
at her to log off the computer confirms (in my view) their
suspicions that their daughter was grossly unstable and
incapable of coping with potential social problems.

bottom line -- just about everyone shares some blame in
this one.

reminds me of the Dallas Yates tragedy where their preacher
all but TOLD her to kill her kids and nothing ever came of it.

Michael Woroniecki

Andrea Yates -- Are you there alone?

[Fast Food Knight]

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megen's parents created an environment, and gave birth to a
child susceptible to this type of manipulation

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I think the urge to end your own life is part of your wiring much more so than your environment. We don't know exactly what kind of parents they were but for a kid to have such volatile depression issues at such a young age, I think she had internal mental health problems. That the other mother knowingly played upon these is unbelievably evil.

[VoraciousReader]

I think a lot of people in this thread have forgotten what it's like to be a teenager. Everything seems so dreadfully important, and the two most important things are pretty much:

1. acceptance and approval by your peers
2. feeling attractive to the opposite sex

These adults hit her hard in both areas, toyed with her emotions, and then purposely devastated her in the most painful of ways.

Really, there's a good chance even a mentally healthy teenager (is there REALLY such a beast?) especially a girl, could react in a very extreme manner.

Those adults are evil and stupid.