We've been haunted by the Megan Meier story for days now. If you missed it, here's the Strollerderby wrap-up: Megan Meier, a thirteen-year-old girl, met a sixteen-year-old boy named Josh on MySpace. He told her she was pretty and they had an online relationship. Then Josh abruptly told her he didn't want to be her friend anymore because he heard she was mean. He began posting bulletins: Megan is a slut. Megan is fat. Megan, who took medication for depression and ADHD, went upstairs to her room and hung herself. She died the next day.
Six weeks after Megan died, her parents learned that Josh was not a real person--he was created by the parents of a girl who lived down the street, a girl who had once been Megan's friend.
There are so many more awful details, many found in this St. Charles Journal article:
- Megan had been overweight and even though she'd slimmed down and started to feel pretty, but she was still deeply insecure and clinically depressed.
- When the Meiers found out "Josh" was in fact a fake profile created by their neighbors, Curt and Lori Drew, they took the foosball table they'd been storing for the couple in their garage, hacked it to bits, and left it on the Drews' lawn.
- Mrs. Meier was cooking dinner when her daughter hung herself upstairs; she blames herself. The couple is divorcing.
- The Drews are not being tried with any crime.
The most telling part of all this to us is that the Meiers did everything they were supposed to: monitoring their daughter's MySpace usage, prohibiting her from using the computer at times; trying to console her when her "boyfriend" broke up with her. And none of it worked, because just a few doors down were these monsters -- their friends! -- bent on emotionally destroying their vulnerable daughter.
There has to be something to charge the Drews with, right? Alas, it seems like as much as the police and the community would like to bring the law down on them, in this case there's just no such law.
Reader Comments ( Page 3 of 6)
31. Has our compassion sunk so low that human life is nothing more than a childish exercise in short-term amusement?
Have we sunk so deep into the abyss of darkness that life is nothing more than a toy to play with, then carelessly throw away??
ANONYMOUS-ONE at 2:55PM on Dec 4th 2007
32. Just Words?
Generalize this issue and distill it to the essence. The issue at hand is malicious creation of an 'online persona' that is not real but intended by a group or an individual to be perceived as real by another interpretive human being. This is a mental attack, equivalent of creating a monster, an entity in someone's mind, akin to 'hearing voices'. In cases where we hear about people 'hearing voices' we who consider ourselves sane think, 'they are nuts'. In this case the real issue to tackle is the creation of a law that deals with creating a 'virtual person' operated by one individual or many persons,in what amounts to a conspiracy, purposefully to insert "voices", if you may, into the head and heart and emotions of another real human through written communcation in a realtime system, aka, the internet or cyberspace. In this case the human is a child in a modernizing world that in its own technical, yet emotionally austere, advancement has left her incapable, to a degree, of discerning between the reality of this 'virtual' persona and a real person. The communication as an assault is key here. A 'virtual entity' is communicating what amounts to the reader, this child, concrete concepts and thoughts that are purposefully designed for manipulating this susceptible individual through misinformation, and frankly, evil and malignant communications content. THAT has to be tackled. It is not 'this parent' or 'that child' or 'those neighbors'. It is, in my opinion, a terrorist assault (by one, or in this case many) on that child's mind. What the mind percieves is real.... is real. Period. The intent is evil. It is wrong. There has to be a way to encapsulate this conceptualization and make those that attempt this in so purposeful a manner to not be allowed to hide under the veil of 'it's just words'. "Mein Kampf" was just words. "The Constitution of the United States" is just words. You figure it out... There is no such thing as "Just words".
jfcal208 at 3:01PM on Dec 4th 2007
33. To the people manipulating Megan on MySpace, here's a thought for you to wrap your puny minds around:
Isaiah 59 verse 3:
"For your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies, your tongue hath muttered perversness."
ANONYMOUS-ONE at 3:11PM on Dec 4th 2007
34. This was no prank. These people deliberst
JUDY at 1:34AM on Dec 5th 2007
35. This was intentional cruelty by two adults, it disgusts me. Megans family is not to blame for allowing their daughter to have a normal life, joining myspace and having a flirtation. PEOPLE WHO ARE MEAN TO OTHER PEOPLE SUCK.
K at 4:00PM on Dec 4th 2007
36. As a parent I feel for Megan's parents. You want to think that you know what is going on in your child's life, but the reality is that you can't watch them every minute of every day. I think the the Drews should consider themselves lucky that no criminal charges are being brought against them and I hope this case makes our lawmakers wake up and write laws governing harrassment online and online stalking. My thoughts and prayers are with the Meier family.
Brook at 4:03PM on Dec 4th 2007
37. My goodness--someone is blaming Megan's parents? Yes...Megan had issues to begin with, but that doesn't put her parents at fault. What would they have wanted the parents to do? Ban their daughter from the internet all together? Put her on meds and hope for the best?
It's true...this situation could have very likely involved a real boy named Josh who said mean things to Megan to make her commit suicide. That sort of thing, sadly, happens all the time. To think that two grown adults hadn't gone beyond pranking though--and pranked a 13-YEAR-OLD, is insane. What in the world were they thinking? Obviously, they're two of the most puerile, awful people around. I don't like to wish bad things on other people...but I hope this haunts them for the rest of their lives.
Tiffiny at 5:50PM on Dec 5th 2007
38. Any parent who could get involved and setup an imaginary person to mess with a 13 year old girl is sicker than anyone with a serious mental illness and should be held accountable for what happened to that girl. Those parents are ignorant and should be ashamed of themselves. People need to stop living through their kids and learn how to be parents instead.
joyce schultz at 5:18PM on Dec 4th 2007
39. My heart truly goes out to Megan’s parents I couldn’t begin to imagine what they are going through, and yes the Drew’s need to be held responsible for what they did to Megan, being the adults, and not acting like adults. But everyone knows of the things that go on, on Myspace and or any internet chat sites for that matter, if you don’t know you must really live in a box. Yes, we should have the freedom to go on whatever sites we want without being harassed, stalked or otherwise, but this is the internet and any and everything goes here, and saying that, Megan’s parents should not have allowed her to have a Myspace page knowing the mental state she was in, she could have easily met a pedophile on it, that could have met her somewhere knocked her over the head then raped and killed her. That’s why as parents we need to go beyond the “normal” precautionary steps and not even allow our children to have Myspace pages. I know kids will find away to do as they please, but to knowingly let your child have a Myspace page is just ridiculous.
May this be a lesson learned this could have been one of our children or someone’s child you know, so please go beyond the norm in protecting these children.
Umm at 5:27PM on Dec 4th 2007
40. This is heart breaking, my prayers are with Megan's parents - make no mistake these adults bullied this child and should totally be held accountable!
Shelly Stepien at 8:07AM on Dec 5th 2007
41. I don't think it's fair what the Drew family did to that 13 year old girl. They must be very sick twisted people. It is not fair to asume that this girl would have killed herself even if the myspace situation didn't happen. This poor girl who was suffering from depression already may have just needed that one person to be her friend. It must have really hurt so bad inside when this (Josh)created person got her hopes up and then just ripped them away from her. The parents should not be blamed for one good reason which any person with a teenager knows this.. If kids don't use the internet at home they use friends, library, ect. but they always find ways. The people to ntotally to blame for this is the Drew family. What were they thinking they have a teen of their own and would they like it if someone did something so sick to their child. And they called themselves friends? It's more like they share the same soul as the Devil himself.. But if the Drew family reads this well karma what comes around goes around and God will give it back to you 3 times over...
Sandra at 6:07PM on Dec 4th 2007
42. I personally feel the shoulder of the blame are the Drews. An I hope everyone knows what they look like and where they live so they can have the local legal system ban them from every having access to the internet from their home and sites like MySpace permanently. What they did, was not a crime, it was evil to the core and they should be hunted by their actions for the rest of their lives until the make honest amends to a now totally destroyed family. And they should be forced into mandatory counseling to see where their screws are loose.
As far as the Meires, yes I agree, the are the ones who placed their daughter at risk. Not because they allowed her to go with her emotions about this "boy" (a child need to experience these things, it is our jobs as adults to set the limit on how those emotions are expressed, not to kill them), or allowing her to chat on the internet. No, there fault is that they Megan should not have an account on MySpace because she was not of the legal age limit. And unfortunately, breaking this "little" rule cost them more than they ever dreamed of.
So parents, continue monitoring your kids vigilantly. Don't allow them to go to sites they are not suppose to be. If you think someone is harassing your child or your child is harassing them, do everything in your power to stop it, even if it means making that child close down that account. And for you bullies, my you receive your reward x7 x7 x7, for you are the biggest, low down, pathetic piece of human waste around. And if you are an adult doing this, you are not worth the egg and sperm your parents put into you.
Fenrir_Lokison at 9:08PM on Dec 4th 2007
43. I TOUGHT ABOUT DOING THAT!!!!!!!!!
BUDDY at 6:25PM on Dec 4th 2007
44. Certainly there are charges that can be brought against the neighbors.
I see manslaughter for purposely causing mental distress resulting in suicide.
Be it in person, in print on the phone or the internet. These people contributed to this girls death, premeditated at that. They should have already been charged. Get a lawyer. If Ol' Joe can fingure this one out surely a law school grad can.
Hey, pass me that hog leg thar!
Stumper at 6:44PM on Dec 4th 2007
45. WTF, grown adults harrassing a 13 yr od girl with mental problems and were "friends" what kind of f**ked up society is this? I have depression too, and while not as extreme as megans, to be harasses to that point by someone who knew i have this problem would be unbearable. They have total fault, they are mentally "fine" and should have known better than this. I send regards to Megan's family for their loss.
Allowe at 6:51PM on Dec 4th 2007