Comments for MySpace Suicide Mother Pleads Not Guilty »
Posted By Dakota 1 year, 5 months ago in NewsLori Drew, 49, pleaded not guilty in federal court today to charges in a MySpace hoax allegedly linked to a 13-year-old girl's suicide.
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tkyrchncs1 year, 5 months ago
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What a tragedy for everyone. However I cannot believe that prosecuting this woman under statutes intended to protect private, confidential information is in the interest of internet users or the nation as a whole. I also believe it to be a fruitless endeavor to blame anyone's suicide on others, especially a young teen. As well to blame the girl's parents, who failed to provide her with enough self-confidence to withstand a very cruel joke, and who allowed her unsupervised access to a form of communication she clearly was not ready for.
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PsychoHosebeastComment removed: Spammer, Abusive16 Replies
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tkyrchncs1 year, 5 months ago
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tkyrchncs1 year, 5 months ago
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I would expect any child in my family to laugh in the face of anyone who made such a suggestion, and then perhaps suggest that the person should do himself in, if he has such trouble with him (the child). We're old pioneer stock, and not so fragile.
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tkyrchncs1 year, 5 months ago
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You misconstrue. I was asked about my family, and gave an honest answer. Some children are fragile, and some adults are stupid, so given that, where were this child's PARENTS? This IS a tragedy for them all. I'm sure this woman did not intend for a little girl to die as a result of her actions, and I think she is being prosecuted under an inappropriate law to the occurrence, just because of people's outrage.
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tkyrchncs1 year, 5 months ago
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The two actions are not similar. Speech is just that: noise and air. It is not "causal" in any real sense of others' behavior. The behavior is governed by reaction to speech, perhaps, but not by speech. Suicide is a drastic and final act. No do-overs, no apologies, no regrets. Killing a flea with a bazooka, in most cases.
I suppose, though, that this might be expected when the careless and cruel are mixed with the foolish and fragile.
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jordan111 year, 5 months ago
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suppose, though, that this might be expected when the careless and cruel are mixed with the foolish and fragile.>>>>
Children are fragile, some more than others, and none escape it. That's why when an 'adult' prey's on that fragility, the burden of blame is theirs, and not the child's for being what children are.
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tkyrchncs1 year, 5 months ago
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Children are actually pretty sturdy, otherwise there wouldn't be many adults. I am in complete agreement that this woman's behavior was stupid and cruel, but NOT that her stupidity and cruelty CAUSED this child's death. She died by her own hand.
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jordan111 year, 5 months ago
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Having worked with children who were preyed on by adults for both mental and physical abuse, I'm going to have to tell you that you don't know what you're talking about. Hopefully, the court will have a better grasp on this than you do.
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koranagirl1 year, 5 months ago
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The better question is, if this woman is found liable for being cruel to a child, does that open up the door for parents and teachers to be prosecuted because they try to "toughen up children" by giving them bad grades, telling them they are lazy, unmotivated, undisciplined, etc.
Where is the line drawn?
While I'm sure no one likes this woman, what happens when the child truly is unlikeable and cruel? What if the child is an abuser of other children or animals? Will truth be a defense to these crimes of being cruel to children?
It seems to me that the child cruelty and child endangerment statutes are more suitable than the computer hacker statutes.
Judges should be deciding whether or not an alleged criminal was cruel or endangered a child, not whether an adult hacked another computer to deliver cruel messages.
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jordan111 year, 5 months ago
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The better question is, if this woman is found liable for being cruel to a child, does that open up the door for parents and teachers to be prosecuted because they try to "toughen up children" by giving them bad grades, telling them they are lazy, unmotivated, undisciplined, etc.>>>
That isn't a "better question." It's a disingenuous one.
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tkyrchncs1 year, 5 months ago
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Jordan, we are not talking about an infant here. 13 isn't adult of course, but more than half way there. Old enough to marry in many places, old enough to satisfy quorum in Synagogue, old enough to know right from wrong, and to understand what death is. Old enough to understand that emotional hurts are not fatal unless SHE chooses to make them so. Old enough to know where the "off" switch is on a computer and a phone. Plenty old enough to tell her peers to get f@@@ed instead of f@@@ing herself over. You cannot blame HER choices on anyone else, Jordan. Or if you can blame this woman for this fragile child's death, as I have said before, are her parents not equally guilty for her being this way, and for her being in threatening circumstances in THEIR home when she is this way?
And still none of this explains allowing outraged prosecutors to use inappropriate statutes to charge this woman.
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jordan111 year, 5 months ago
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And still none of this explains allowing outraged prosecutors to use inappropriate statutes to charge this woman.>>>
If the statutes are 'inappropriate', she'll get off. But the good news is, what she's done will be out there for her community, friends, and family to see. Her punishment will be to be ostracized. Ironic, don't you think? Meanwhile, I'll place my concern with her victim. It's well past time that we address the power of words, & it's well past time that people who hide behind the second amendment to act like jerks accept consequences for their actions.
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Monkey_Scout1 year, 5 months ago
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If 13 year olds are so strong against words, the rate of bulimia and anorexia wouldn't be so high. You give 13 year olds WAY to much credit. 13 year olds are still very sensitive to bulling and tormenting. Most kids can't handle it.
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tkyrchncs1 year, 5 months ago
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My 14 yr old niece frailed the tar out of a 16 yr old football player in front of two faculty members at school, breaking his nose, for touching her inappropriately. When told by the principal with her parents that she would be suspended for 3 days for fighting, she said "Do your worst, I'm not sorry and in the same circumstances I'll do the same thing all over again." She weighs 110 and stands 5'5".
Children differ, but ALL can be taught that words are actually harmless, except for false witness.
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Justice4All1 year, 5 months ago
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PsychoHosebeastComment removed: Spammer, Abusive7 Replies
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TweekerchickQC1 year, 5 months ago
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Im a big fan of personal responsibility. And although she cant be held responsible for what someone else does, she's 49 flipping years old.
Seriously. A 49 year old woman picking on a 13 year old girl? 13 year old girls are just shy of insane as it is. She ought to be ashamed of herself.
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Mutainia1 year, 5 months ago
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Teenagers aren't stable. Your typical 13 year old is a borderline psychotic (a miracle that there aren't more school shootings at age 13, if you ask me) and, for this adult to fool with an unstable mind is definitely child abuse. At 49, you'd think she'd KNOW this sort of thing. I guess the power of hiding behind a mask she thought impenatrable, was too alluring. May God keep us from falling into such a power-play of destruction ourselves.
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Idamilli1 year, 5 months ago
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That was a horribly cruel thing for a grown woman to do a child; however, I believe the child must have had a serious problem to begin with - meaning she took her life over an internet insult/suggestion? I'm not absolving the grownup of her vicious suggestion, but most people, even very young people, certainly would not kill themselves over an internet incident. Personally, I think BOTH parties must have had significant mental problems, and my heart goes out to the young girl's family and loved ones, but this still does not make the "prankster", however wrong, a murderer.
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koranagirl1 year, 5 months ago
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I have to agree. If someone is insulted before they commit (or attempt to commit) suicide, does this create any legal liabilities, either civil or criminal?
Is this what we want?
What if you are insulted and you want to sue the offender, so you "attempt" to commit suicide and then sue the person later, saying they either suggested you kill yourself or they insulted you to the point of despondence and so you attempted suicide?
What if the girl survived her suicide attempt? Would that change the minds of any of you?
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