Adults dupe teen into MySpace-assisted suicide

[Donkey-Milker]

ok... i am probably going to get flamed hard for this but...

IMO the people who bullied her and drove the girl to hang herself should not be sued.

of course what they did was horrible and unkind... but is that against the law?

if i call someone a [censored] and they kill themselves am i liable?

[A S U]

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In your example, the cult leader is responsible for brainwashing people to do kill, which most would deem wrong. But I'm of the opinion that the act of killing of innocents is the responsibility of the killers themselves.

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As is pertains to legality, this mindset is in the minority.

also, this story so unbelievably sad. I can't believe there won't be any charges pressed or suits filed. The family that did this, especially the adults, are just pure scum of the earth.

[Pyromaniac]

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if i call someone a [censored] and they kill themselves am i liable?

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but this isn't the same thing.

it's not just "someone" but a young emotionally troubled (but then, aren't they all) girl.

and it's not just "calling someone a [censored]" but a prolonged act of deception and emotional manipulation. these are significant differences.

[AlexM]

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This reminds me of that well-known case in Texas a while back - two girls are cheerleaders and are rivals. Mother of one girl hires hitman to off the other girl.

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Obviously the mother isn't responsible for the hitman's actions and shouldn't suffer any consequences.

[AlexM]

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It's worth noting that this girl's parents are partly at fault for letting her get so fat. Bad parenting led to a very unhappy child.

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It's not the parents fault shes fat, its corporations like McDonalds who are to blame for that. <font color="white">im kidding </font>

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BS. Her parents have complete control over her diet. Don't try to absolve them of doing a good job of raising their child. Plenty of parents do it just fine. I know if I ever have children they won't be getting fat and "corporations" aren't going to somehow make it happen behind my back.

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From the article:

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She was heavy and for years had tried to lose weight. She had attention deficit disorder and battled depression. Back in third grade she had talked about suicide, Tina says, and ever since had seen a therapist.

But things were going exceptionally well. She had shed 20 pounds, getting down to 175. She was 5 foot 5½ inches tall.

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This doesn't paint a picture of them shoving Big Macs down her throat.

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Yes it does. Sure, they're trying to fix the problem now, but they let it happen in the first place.


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Food issues often come with depression. (It can be a form of self medication.)

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This is backwards. Depression comes from being fat. Yes, lots of depressed people eat, but we're talking about a child here and there's no way that she got depressed before she got fat. She's probably been fat for several years and 8 year olds pretty much aren't depressed. When you see a child this age who is depressed and very fat, it's very, very obvious which is the cause and which is the effect.

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You can lead. You can only have healthy snacks at home. You can encourage. You can't control even your own children 100%.

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BS. No, you can't control them 100%, but you can certainly keep them from getting to be fat. It's not even hard.

[skunkworks]

I asked a coworker whether he felt he would convict if he were sitting in the jury of a civil case against the parents, and he was unequivocal that he would rule against them. When I asked if his opinion would change if we changed the age of the girl from 14 to 18, he waffled.

How many of you would feel different if the girl was 18? 16? How and where do we draw this line? Hell, do we even *want* to draw this line?

[Autocratic]

While I try not to engage in amateur psychology debates, Alex, you're pretty off base in saying that the statement "food issues often come with depression" is backwards. It's probably more accurate to say it's cyclical, but as to which comes first, it's almost a chicken/egg debate.

[fraserbrown]

Like the article said, there is no real crime that has been commited in this case so there is no way that the adults who created the false account can be prosecuted. It is wrong and should not have happened in the first place, I find it highly implausible that one or two emails and a poll on MySpace would drive someone to suicide, it would seem that there could be other contributing factors here that are not reported.

[Pyromaniac]

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How many of you would feel different if the girl was 18? 16? How and where do we draw this line? Hell, do we even *want* to draw this line?

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and do you feel different if the story changes like this: the fake male gets her to take nude/provocative pictures of herself and send them, and he (they, whatever) then spread them to the internet/world at large?

b/c this happens every day, apparently. (not just in a loltrickedu way, of course)

...and is it any different if they just did it the old-fashioned way, and put some actual kid up to acting like he likes her, but with the same trainwreck. how much is the "fake male" really a factor here, other than that the father has nobody to go after for revenge.

[entertainme]

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BS. No, you can't control them 100%, but you can certainly keep them from getting to be fat. It's not even hard.

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LMAO. Call me when your kid is 13 and we'll talk. Padlock the fridge? Tape over their mouth? You have no concept of what is easy and what's difficult.