I know I have an opinion that many might not agree with... but here goes. This is super long, BTW. Sorry.
1. The Myspace account was created so that the mother could investigate bullying/harassing being done by Megan Meier...the girl who killed herself...against her daughter. IE...create a fake 'friend' to gain info on why the suicide victim was harassing her own daughter and her own daughter's friends. Apparently Megan had a history of being a bully at her own school. Way back when this was a new story...and the parents, a therapist, lawyers and one of the school administration officials had gone on Dr. Phil, Fox News and CNN...this was mentioned but they seem to not be mentioning it now. This was way back in December 2006 and early 2007 when people were really putting it out there raw.
2. Megan had a history of mental illness...clinical depression...histrionic personality...obsessive compulsive disorder...and oppositional defiant disorder (which is the teenage version of being a sociopath)...and had in fact tried to commit suicide before on at least two separate occasions. Again, no one has mentioned this since like...2006/2007.
3. Megan's parents...knowing that they child was an unstable ticking time bomb...allowed her to isolate herself and live in "The Internets". They allowed her to engage in behaviors that were counter-productive to the coping skills her doctors and therapists had no doubt left her parents in charge of to implement when Megan couldn't implement them herself.
If I had a kid that had a history like hers...and the kid was spending hours and hours online and even missing school due to being online all night and crying and slamming doors and having mood swings...I'd probably call someone on day 1 or 2...not month 2 or 3.
These parents had something that a lot of people with mental illness or the parents of people with mental illness don't have: The Means to Seek and Pay for Treatment.
Basically...I think that Megan's mental illness caused her to engage in some behaviors that were off-putting, especially to her peer group already full of judgmental and insecure and cliquish tendencies. So she was probably somewhat of an outcast/weird kid. That was probably not her fault at all...because she was mentally ill and probably couldn't even control some of her problems.
BUT...instead of using the support system she already had in place (doctors, therapists, parents)...she lashed out and directed her frustration and anger at the other girls...who's parents weren't too happy about that.
SO...one or more of the parents got together and tried to get to the bottom of things...by creating Josh to befriend Megan...and therefor get her to speak freely about the true nature of the situation between her and the other girls.
Of course this backfired horribly and now Megan is dead and there is a big mess left of it.
Had Megan been a boy...maybe she would have pulled a Columbine or a Virginia Tech. Who knows? Teenage girls and teenage boys typically react to frustrations differently. Girls act inwardly/self destructively...and boys seek revenge and act out violently.
This is a tragic story...truly truly tragic and unfortunate. But you can't really place the blame on anyone because all parties pretty much knew there was a problem and let the problem get worse. The person who didn't know this girl's history was Lori Drew. All she knew was that her own daughter was being harmed and she wanted to get to the bottom of it. She might have assumed Megan was 'off' or 'troubled', but the only ones who knew the depth of it all were Megan's parents and Megan herself.
People see this the way we are socially conditioned to see it. "Big bad adult...sad little girl. Big bad adult mean to sad little girl and sad little girl dies. Big bad adult must have made it happen. Little girl innocent angel."
Instead of prosecuting this woman for ANYTHING... the law needs to provide more resources for the mentally ill, the schools need to take bullying seriously, and communities as a whole need to communicate with each other.
I'm not a wikifan...but the references at the bottom of the page
here have links from Associated Press, CNN, Reuters, etc...that are very credible and give a little insight to Megan before she became the victim.
Bookmarks