Posted on 03/26/2002 7:30:48 AM PST by ValerieUSA
ABBOTSFORD, B.C. -- A teenager was convicted yesterday of criminal harassment in a landmark case filed after one of her girlfriends committed suicide -- the first time the province has filed charges in a case centered on student bullying.
A second girl was acquitted of uttering threats after an emotional trial in youth court attended by the mothers of 14-year-old victim Dawn-Marie Wesley and the two defendants. The girls are not identified by name because they are minors.
"It's unfortunate that my daughter has to be in the middle of all this. I wish that my family, my community, my province and my country didn't have to deal with this. But we do," said Dawn-Marie's mother, Cindy Wesley, who gave the acquitted girl a hug after the verdict.
"Now that we have the judicial system acknowledging that what's going on with our youth today is wrong, I think we're going to move forward on this."
Under the Young Offenders Act, the maximum sentence for criminal harassment is six months in custody or 24 months of probation, according to the attorney general's office.
Wesley's daughter killed herself in November 2000, shortly after speaking on the phone with the two defendants -- friends who accused her of spreading rumors.
One of the teens testified that she and Dawn-Marie were friends who borrowed each other's clothes, hung out and sometimes got angry with each other. She wiped away tears as she recalled her last conversation with Dawn-Marie.
"When I get mad, I yell stuff that I don't mean," she said.
The girl testified that she couldn't even remember exactly what she said, but that she was angry because she believed Dawn-Marie had said things about her that weren't true. She said she had spoken to others about having Dawn-Marie beaten up if she continued to repeat the rumors. Several other girls offered similar accounts.
Dawn-Marie's mother said she was satisfied with the verdict.
"I believe that from Dawn-Marie's experience in her short little life that there has to be a learning," Wesley said. "From every bad thing that happens, something good has to come from it and I believe what good will come from this will be for youth all across this country there's a difference now."
Youth Court Judge Jill Rounthwaite heard the case in this Vancouver, B.C., suburb.
You got to try a little kindness
Yes show a little kindness
Just shine your light for everyone to see
And if you try a little kindness
Then you'll overlook the blindness
Of narrow-minded people on the narrow-minded streets
Glen Campbell, Try A Little Kindness
After suffering through many difficult years with a screwed up stepson, I know that kids will often do stupid things no matter what the level of love and support you give them. You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make them drink. I also have some perspective gained when my mother was killed by a negligent driver recently, and that is that I would not like to be judged from my response at my worst moments. This mom is suffering and needs to be allowed to get through it the best way she can.
That said, there have also been trials of gangs of teens in BC who have actually murdered other teens that they did not like.
You are both right, the girl obviously had some deeper problem, and to externalize the blame to another is wrong. However, the bickering among the girls calls to mind a quote from Seinfeld. When Seinfeld asked Elaine about how girls got back at one another, her reply was 'We just tease someone until they get an eating disorder'. It's funny, but there is a kernel of truth in that kids can be cruel to each other. And the courts won't change that, kids have been that way for a long time, and will be that for a long time to come.
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