Posted on 11/18/2007 6:50:42 AM PST by LurkedLongEnough
You wouldn’t call a grown up pretending to be a boy engaged in an internet romance with a 13 year old girl for the purpose of spying on her to be “extreme and outrageous behavior”? And then begin calling that girl names and insulting her after she began to feel an attachment to the fictitious boy?
I’s call that VERY outrageous and VERY extreme. These people are sick and should suffer a penalty of some kind.
If adults have this much difficulty getting along, one can only imagine how tough it is for kids who already have enormous peer pressure and a need to "belong" in their offline lives. At least at Free Republic, our online squabbles don't carry over into real life. Most of us never have to worry about meeting each other in the "real world" unless we do so intentionally. This girl had these people living right down the street.
Anyway, while the mother who created the fake account may not be legally liable for what happened, she certainly contributed to it happening and her behavior is totally inexcusable. I do not know how she can live with herself.
No,up until now I haven't shown any "compassion" for the kid.Until now my comments have been based on logic,fact,reality and not emotion.Do I feel bad for the girl and her family? Absolutely.It's always a sad,sad thing when a 13 year old kid dies...in a car accident....of cancer...or by suicide.So who's to blame? The parents? Possibly...depending on how vigorously they were seeking medical care for their girl.The meds she might have been taking? Very possibly...because,as noted elsewhere in this thread,there seems to be medical research indicating that certain antidepressants are capable of making suicide *more* likely in kids (as opposed to adults).
Also note that that while I was once a 13 year old boy (a long time ago) I've never been a 13 year old girl so maybe there's something I'm missing here adolescent girl-wise.
And on the subject of compassion be aware of this...I worked for 20+ year in the ER of a large hospital located in a big city.As a result I've seen death....lots of death....too much death.The main reason I left was because it was affecting me in ways that I didn't like.
And ESPECIALLY don't sue the driver who aims his car in your child's direction. /s
Whatever happened to detention?
Honestly, that’s likely a fake page, someone else’s page with the same name, or else it was hacked somehow (between phishing and other hacks, anyone who doesn’t keep a very close eye on their profile at some point will probably learn that some bot has been posting spam through it). Also, if a 13-year-old wants a profile, they’ll have to put a fake age in that’s above myspace’s age limit, so you’ll never find a profile with the official age listed as 13.
As far as her parents go, they were mostly really good about keeping tabs on what she was doing online, who she was communicating with, and not letting a girl her age have unlimited/unsupervised internet access. They went way above and beyond what the average parents of kids that age would do to keep them safe on the internet. The number of children today who use social-networking sites either are doing it behind their parents’ back, or their parents don’t care or are naive enough to think that their kid ‘knows better’ than to talk to a stranger online.
I'm not sure. I remember spending some time in detention, or after school a few times myself, for much the same things as my nephew does (maybe he got it honestly), and I did learn after a while that was not the way to act in class.
None of us were "medicated" back then, we were just normal kids that acted up sometimes, but we were taught to respect our teachers when they disciplined us. I grew out of that & I suspect my nephew will too - so far, my sister has resisted the school's efforts to have him put on various medications. I think she is doing the right thing.
Actually, most kids on Ritalin are also on anti-depressants. Go back and check, most kids who did school shootings were also on ADD and/or anti-depressants. However, people are warned that anti-depressants can cause suicide and are not recommended for children under age 18.
Prayers for the family. i can’t imagine losing a child like that.
When I was 13, I went to camp and found a “boyfriend”. After we came home from camp, he acted like he didn’t know me and later at school denied even talking to me during camp. I was upset at the time, but I got over it.
I agree with you about her committing suicide over something else. I’m not saying that this other family should have done what they did, but I don’t think they are to blame for this kid’s suicide.
Amen to that... I don’t think that many people here remember being teens or have teens here. Even the most stable kids have a tough time. This little girl had it tougher than most.. She was apparently bullied so much in her old school that she had to transfer. And her so-called friend and her dear mommy thought it would be funny to give the poor girl a fake boyfriend and spread malicious rumors about her on the Internet.
“Victimology” - the new American pastime.
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