mother who used MySpace to drive her child's 13-year-old classmate to suicide was charged with conspiracy

05/15/2008 Clinton "Too Busy To FUC" K. says:

That bitch is going to get what she deserves in prison

05/15/2008 Lance "Lancehole" G. says:

I'm so busted.

05/15/2008 Brandon "Creativity is something out of nothing, man!" M. says:

Yes, I heard this on BBC. I hope they make this case so others will have precedence. The internet is an actual place where bullying can have grave consequences.

05/15/2008 Lance "Lancehole" G. says:

So if Keane offs himself because I don't like his hair, I should go to jail?

I'm in deep Dodo.

05/15/2008 Shannon "Insufferable Snarkoleptic" B. says:

Despicable, yes, but is she really responsible? Where were the parents? Did she sling the rope up for the kid? Why were they not involved some how or know that this was going on? I'm not sure we have all the information to condemn just yet.

Thomas I hate you, you should die. Would you now go and kill yourself? I know this is a teenager. I know it's perhaps a sensitive teen, but c'mon, the internet has been breeding this kind of behavior since AOL was invented...

05/15/2008

This post was removed because the yelper who wrote it has violated the Yelp Terms of Service and is no longer a registered yelper.

05/15/2008 Brandon "Creativity is something out of nothing, man!" M. says:

Shannon, I believe she is a "mother". That's the problem.  She made her daughter or someone at her work to  flirt with this girl and then said mean things because this girl has a history of depression from being taunted in school.  So the parent is the one that is the defendant.

05/15/2008 Kevin "Is Filled with Angst, Contempt, Booze, and Trivia" H. says:

They'll never be able to make that stick beyond a reasonable doubt...not unless they have a REALLY dumb jury.

05/15/2008 Lance "Lancehole" G. says:

Kevin, never underestimate the Juror pool.
It's comprised of Americans.

05/15/2008 Thomas "^ EVIL ^" F. says:

Shannon "Snarklestiltskin" B. says:

Despicable, yes, but is she really responsible? Where were the parents? Did she sling the rope up for the kid? Why were they not involved some how or know that this was going on? I'm not sure we have all the information to condemn just yet.

Thomas I hate you, you should die. Would you now go and kill yourself? I know this is a teenager. I know it's perhaps a sensitive teen, but c'mon, the internet has been breeding this kind of behavior since AOL was invented...
----------------

A) shannon, your hatred towards me makes me happy - stop being such a stupid ass fuck

B) you can't always know everything your kids are up to

C) this is a 49 year old woman. she should know better.

05/15/2008 Brandon "Creativity is something out of nothing, man!" M. says:

Let's make some bets, who says she spends time or acquitted? They have all the conversation saved from myspace and the two computers, and the witness she used to taunt the girl. I say she spends time.

05/15/2008 Marian "Momsie "Quality not Quantity"" G. says:

I read and seen the whole account on 2020.  The mother of the deceased knew her daughter was depressed and had counseling for her, but she did not imagine her daughter would go to that level (suicide).  The woman (who lived hearby) is a sadist and enjoyed what she instigated, and had no business doing what she did.  She preyed on the child's vulnerability.

05/15/2008 Marian "Momsie "Quality not Quantity"" G. says:

hearby = nearby

05/15/2008 Bud "Always missing the point" E. says:

Shannon "Snarklestiltskin" B. says:

Despicable, yes, but is she really responsible?
============================== ======
Depraved indifference leading to someone's suicide or to someone commiting a crime against others is defined as unlawful in this nation of laws.  This mother deserves the consequences relevant, and proportional, to her actions.

05/15/2008 Princess Buttercup "TITTAYS" C. says:

She deserves more than this.  What a sick person to pick on a child like that, ESPECIALLY that she's a mother.

05/15/2008 julie i. says:

Well if a jury can't make it stick, I hope this woman burns in her own private hell for the rest of her life.  What a truly wicked heart she must have.  What kind of misguided person would do such a thing...if she wanted to drive the girl away from the my space account she could have told her it was a fake page.  Kindly.

05/15/2008 Linda "Benevolence not without limits" M. says:

Shannon "Snarklestiltskin" B. says:
Thomas I hate you, you should die. Would you now go and kill yourself?
=================
That's quite different than a mother and daughter pretending to be a boy, flirt with a sensitive teen girl with low self esteem so she actually gains a little hope and confidence, and then suddenly turn against her in a vicious manner.

05/15/2008 Jane M. says:

An insecure manically-depressed 14 yr old girl is no match for a grown woman.  Really.  Having been a 14 yr old girl, this seems quite obvious.  Is she responsible for the death? No.  Did she contribute to it.?  Absolutely.  Is what the mom did wrong?  No doubt, it is very very wrong.  I mean seriously, what the eff is wrong with that mom?  Would your mom have done that?  I sure hope not. (if you answered "yes" to that last question - please seek therapy).   The mom is a nut case and likely deserves to be removed from our society.     The jury will ultimately get the facts and choose on all our behalves - thank you legal system.

05/15/2008 Lance "Lancehole" G. says:

Has anyone seen my Giveadamn?

05/15/2008 monique "I'm so sleepy" H. says:

Shankin' Time at the Big House...

05/15/2008 Sheila G. says:

It ran away with my givaratsazz

05/15/2008 Sharon "Missy" J. says:

I'm glad she was charged. This woman is sick.

05/15/2008 Inari "Inari Tofu" T. says:

thats horrible.

i mean, no wonder ther's talk of bans of cyber-bullying.

that's incredible that she, a MOTHER, could actually steel herself to do something like that.

i wonder how the woman's daughter feels...

05/15/2008 Linda "Benevolence not without limits" M. says:

I have one rather sensitive daughter and a family history of severe depression (which skipped me, thankfully).  I worry enough about mean girl syndrome, which I see already in Kindergarten.  But to have a mother involved is appalling.

05/15/2008 Sheila G. says:

When it's my turn to sit on Santa's lap, I'm gonna ask that this garbage pail of a woman be made to feel like shit in prison, then strung up by her stupid little neck.

That goes for that Susan Smith bitch who drowned her sons by pushing her car in a lake, then blaming it on some fictitious black man.  Throw her ass in a car and drown her and revive her and drown her ass again.

05/15/2008 Sharon "Missy" J. says:

She's going to be someone's bitch in prison.

05/15/2008 monique "I'm so sleepy" H. says:

Shankin' the Skank in The BIg House...

05/15/2008 Jennifer "yoda mom" P. says:

That woman Lori Drew sounds like a waste of space.

05/15/2008 Lance "Lancehole" G. says:

"mean girl syndrome"??????????

Sounds like life to me,

05/15/2008 Meg "Pretty Miss" T. says:

I had a friend in high school that went nuts in class after her online boyfriend broke up with her. Wowza. She never killed herself, but some people are kinda fragile, which is why if you're a decent human being, you don't fake shit like that.

05/15/2008 Brian "I don't think you can give YOURSELF a nickname" B. says:

Tonight i had an issue with a mother of a 13 year old girl. I have to tell you, some of these parents are way more screwed up than the kids will ever be. Seriously. She told my wife and I that her daughter could not go to a movie with our daughter because our daughter 'has black friends'.

Fucked up people have kids too.

05/16/2008 Jennifer "yoda mom" P. says:

Fake shit? You mean, get inside their head with the sole purpose of destroying them. This isn't about fragility. The girl was depressed, which is a clinical condition. The mother, Lori Drew, knew what she was doing to that girl. Her actions were totally inappropriate and criminal.

05/16/2008 Thomas "^ EVIL ^" F. says:

I still think that Shannon B is a fucking santorum felching douche and I wanna shove an ice pick in his eyeball... but in a non-hateful way

05/16/2008 Cheryl D. says:

sad.

05/16/2008 Alan S. says:

Wow, this totally sucks. What a fucking waste.

Here's my take on this deal:

A) The mom who created this mess is definitely screwed up. Probably not criminally insane, but have some severe personality and emotional issues. She needs some serious psychiatric care *and* to be removed from society. People with a complete lack of reguard for other humans are a danger to everyone, either actively or passively, as we've seen here.

B) Shannon has one point of note: The parents of the girl who killed herself are not without some liability in this matter. How many times have the schools, the TV networks, the magazines, the newspaper, and the websites all said: "Pay attention to what your children are doing online." ? -- About a billion. Yes, teens are secretive as hell; I remember being one myself. Nevertheless, the facts remain that parents do have responsibility to know what their kids are doing online to some degree.

If it turns out that the parents of the dead girl made no effort whatsoever (as is often the case) to be aware of their daughter's online activities, then I feel like they share some of the liability. Not as much, but a some.

C) This "ban online bullying" concept could have far-reaching implications to Free Speech above and beyond the limits of this kind of case. This could easily get blown way out of proportion and abused by attourney with amazing ease if applied to over-18 forums such as this one. Consider this: some dickhead question-mark face gets on here and posts some stupid as rant about how he loves to fuck hot asian women.  Thus, everybody blasts him. He comes back and gets blasted again.
Then two weeks later he commits suicide. Now what? -- We're screwed. Either someone here gets hit with a criminal charge or Yelp gets hit with a massive liability lawsuit.

I think we have to be very careful and specific with any kind of legislation that attempts to ban hostile speech online. Any anti-bullying legislation should, I think, need to demonstrate a sustained, systematic pathern of abuse - simllar to a stalking
or harrassement case. This is a problem that definitely needs to be addressed, but we have to be careful not to create some open-ended legislation that could be used to charge *anybody* with this for making a comment or two in a thread or message base. That could get out of hand really quickly.

05/16/2008 Sun E. says:

GOODY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I've followed this sad and disturbing ordeal and I hope Drew
gets punished to the hilt for what she did.

As a mom, I can't fathom her preying on Megan's vulnerability.

I've read many articles about this and they made me sick.

She's being charged with conspiracy.
Well, it'd be great if they also charged her with
"Intentional Infliction of Emotional Distress"...the legal term.

05/16/2008 Drew "Hussein" T. says:

i saw that on tv months ago

05/16/2008 Drew "Hussein" T. says:

more internet vigilantism http://pysih.com/2007/...

05/16/2008 Scotty "SAUCE" D. says:

old news!!!

05/16/2008 Jack H. says:

I predicted gas prices would rise, like 20 years ago

05/16/2008 David D. says:

Since when does going to jail remove you from society?  We have the largest jail population in the world.

05/16/2008 Jack H. says:

Yes!  And people keep tryin' to say USA is going to hell in a handbasket.  We're Number 1, MFers!

05/16/2008 Thomas "^ EVIL ^" F. says:

Scotty "SAUCE" D. says:

old news!!!
--------------

What, this was just in the news yesterday (when I started the thread)

05/16/2008 Shannon "Insufferable Snarkoleptic" B. says:

Thomas "nickname" F. says:

I still think that Shannon B is a fucking santorum felching douche and I wanna shove an ice pick in his eyeball... but in a non-hateful way
=====================
Calling for more information was not an attempt to justify online bullying, btw. There is blame to be spread around rather than just scape-goating the offender (who may or may not have had the intention to cause death). Who actually kills themselves when someone tells them to? And via the internet?

There's more info out there--that's all I wanted to point out.

I ONLY felch those who hate me... Your loss.

05/16/2008 Sharon "Missy" J. says:

+1 what Alan said.