"Bullied to Death"

    In the Time article "Bullied to Death?" it discusses the lethal effects cyberbullying can have on teenagers, with an emphasis on the abuse to which many gay teenagers are subjected. A case that caught my eye was the one involving 18 year old Tyler Clementi. As a student at Rutgers University, he was paired with a homophobic roommate who frequently made him feel unsafe. Although Clementi complained to his RA that he and his roommate were not getting along, he complaints did not help his cause. The roommate ultimately posted a video on the internet of Tyler kissing another boy, prompting Tyler to commit suicide by jumping off of a bridge. In light of all of the recent suicides that have been a result of bullying, I think it is tremendously important that schools and universities actively respond to any student's complaint of feeling threatened or unsafe. If schools make it a habit to end bullying and harassment before it prompts the victim to make an irrevocable decison, tragedies such as Tyler Clementi's would certainly decrease in frequency.
   A case that particularly caught my attention was United States v. Lori Drew. In this case, Lori Drew, a suburban mother, starting communicating with Megan Meier while posing as "Josh Evans" on MySpace. Her comments to Meier ultimately turned volatile and resulted in Meier hanging herself. After appealing her case, Drew was acquitted of all charges, which included conspiracy, fraudulent use of the internet, and providing false information to MySpace. I was extremely upset that Drew, who was a large in the not the sole cause of Megan's death, was able to evade punishment entirely. Therefore, I think that there ought to be anti-harassment laws put into effect that apply retroactively, thereby enabling abusive cyberbullies such as Lori Drew to be brought to justice.
    Even though I do not believe that bullying is a very big issue at DHS, there are still certain, perhaps less severe, forms of bullying that are present at our school. Unlike in the film we watched about Jamie Nabozny and several of the other cases we have examined that involve physical bullying at schools, I do not think that this form of bullying is very prevalent at DHS. Instead, any bullying that occurs using involves not what students are saying or doing, but rather what they are not saying or doing. Bullying at DHS frequently manifests itself in the form of isolation. Students who may not wear the latest clothes or have interests that deviate from the norm are often excluded and isolated from other students and activities. Potential solutions to this issue may be simply encouraging bystanders to intervene. Bullying can be a vicious cycle that can only be interrupted by the intervention of an adult or other student. If students are able to recognize when one of their peers may be isolated because of their differences and then choose to reach out to that student, it encourages other students to do the same while simultaneously preventing the negative ramifications of bullying from occurring.