I am usually the last person you will hear who will criticize someone who is dedicated in stopping bully and bigotry. For goodness sack, I am the Gay/Straight Alliance Advisor for my work and actually have gotten death threats before! Actually, the only group I am against at the moment is Rachel’s Challenge because they are using the Columbine tragedy as their mask for crazy Christian views.
But I also have a question for Tina Meier. If you really want change with cyber bullying, why are you not admitting to your parenting mistakes and target parents rather than children about internet use?
See… here is what I do not get. This mother let her mentally disturbed daughter play on the internet by herself? Ok… maybe not completely disturbed, but the young teen was on medication for depression and had a history of this!! Oh… this girl’s father too. Let us not forget. This is not only the fault of the mother!!
You see people… If this Tina lady and her former husband had been parenting and not letting their children on the internet without their supervision, you could ever blame a suicide on the other crazy lady who harassed the teen. If the computer had been in the living room and the children only allowed to be online with supervision, the attacks would have never happened.
Has Tina realized this? From everything I have seen, she is trying to educate children and young adults. Not adults who are trying to parent. What she needs to do is talk to parents. She needs to own up to her and her ex-husband’s mistakes and try to train PARENTS!
In fact, I do go as far to say that these Meier parents need to be charged with child abuse. I have no qualms with the other lady’s charges. She needs to be charged. But so do the Meier parents. This would have never happened if they had been parenting. Let’s face it. This was an adult to young teen attack. Not a teen to teen initially. This girl even violated myspace rules, lied about her age, and created an account. No liability for myspace. Sorry people.
Call me harsh, but this is the truth. Teen Meier might have still committed suicide. That is a fact. The girl was depressed and on medication. But the fact also is that the parents were not doing their job and being responsible for their child. They let it run wild (albeit on the internet) and that child paid the consequences. Just like a child left alone at a pool could drown. A baby left on its stomach may die of sids, and the list can go on.
Parents. DO YOUR JOB. TAKE THE BLAME FOR NOT DOING IT. Learn about the internet. If you do not know… do not let your child on, especially alone!! Would you let your child take a drug you never heard of because everyone else was doing it? NO! Get real. Parent.
Mel