Friday, December 7, 2007

How to Read the News: Or, Missouri Teen Suicide, Lori Drew, and Victims

"Neighbors shun Missouri family over Internet hoax and suicide; police step up patrols"
Minneapolis Star Tribune (December 6, 2007)

The Star Tribune of Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota, offers another view of Megan Meier's suicide last year: and some information that hasn't been widely published before.

The article also serves as an example of why it's a good idea to read the news carefully. It also, in my opinion, shows how a community can protect itself, when a finely-tuned and sensitive legal system doesn't.

The article's main story line gets sketched out in this series of selected quotes:

"Almost Tribal?"

" ... But the suicide of a teenage girl _ and allegations she had been tormented by a neighbor over the Internet _ have brought a reaction that is old, almost tribal, in its nature."

" 'It's like they used to do in the 1700s and 1800s. If you wronged a community, you were basically shunned. That's basically what happened to her,' said Trever Buckles, a 40-year-old who lives next door to the Drews."

"Drew became an outcast after she participated in a hoax in which a fictional teenager by the name of 'Josh Evans' exchanged online messages with 13-year-old Megan Meier. Megan received cruel messages from Josh that apparently drove her to hang herself in her closet in 2006.

"Through her lawyer, Drew, a mother of two in her 40s, has denied saying hurtful things to the girl over the Internet, and prosecutors have said they found no grounds for charges against the woman. Nevertheless, the community reaction has been vengeful and the pressure on the Drews intense."

"Clients have fled from Drew's home-based advertising business, so she had to close it. Neighbors have not seen Drew outside her home in weeks...."
(Star Tribune)

But isn't Lori Drew the woman who drove a fragile teenage girl to suicide? The "Star Tribune" has, or implies, an answer:

"Only ... Polite Messages"

"A teenage employee of Drew's named [name withheld by this blogger] said she created the 'Josh' account on MySpace after a brainstorming session with Drew and her daughter, according to a prosecutor's report. Drew said the girls approached her with the idea, and she told them only to send polite messages to Megan.

"[name withheld] sent Megan many of the messages from 'Josh,' and Lori Drew was aware of them, prosecutors said.

"On Oct. 16, 2006, there was a heated online exchange between Megan and [name withheld], who was posing as Josh. A few other MySpace users joined in, calling Megan names. It ended when 'Josh' said the world would be better off without Megan...."
(Star Tribune)

Shocking! A modern community shunning a woman and her family, and for practically no reason at all. Lori Drew, it seems to me, is being painted as a victim of circumstance. The implication is that Ms. Drew's employee is the guilty party, and implicated Ms. Drew.

What's Written: And What's Not Written

My favorite line in the article is "prosecutors have said they found no grounds for charges against the woman." As a writer, I admire how the Star Tribune, by omitting a detail, imply that there is no evidence that Ms. Drew is the leader of the "Josh" project.

Other articles discussed motive, means, and opportunity for Ms. Drew's involvement: and that no charges were filed because the harassment of Megan Meier was done over the Internet - a realm that the American judicial system is only beginning to deal with.

Facts, Possibilities, and Self-Defense

Two final thoughts:
  1. I think it's remotely possible that Lori Drew is not guilty of hounding Megan Meier until the teenager hung herself in her closet. However, I also think that, based on publicly available information, it is very unlikely that Ms. Drew is not responsible for the deliberate online deception of Megan, which led to her taking her life.
  2. I believe that, in general, the people who share a town with Lori Drew are acting reasonably. By cutting their ties with Ms. Drew, they are minimizing the chances that Ms. Drew will decide to attack members of their own families. This assumes that Ms. Drew is motivated by the occasional discomfort that comes with her current status.
It is a near-certainty that Lori Drew decided to deceive Megan Meyer by inventing a fictional boyfriend, and then decided to torment the vulnerable teen by having the "boyfriend" dump her in a very cruel way.

I acknowledge that Megan Meier decided to hang herself with a belt in her closet. However, I think that there is very little doubt that Lori Drew is responsible for strongly encouraging Megan to do so. And, I think that it is not safe to treat someone with an ethical system similar to Lucretia Borgia's as if she's a typical member of the community.

Other posts about the online predation of Megan Meier:
"Megan Meier's Tormentor: Knowledge is Power"
(December 6, 2007)
"Megan Meier's Online Predator Has New Problems"
(December 6, 2007)
" 'Murder?' Not Legally, but Megan's Still Dead"
(December 4, 2007)
"Ersatz Boyfriend Kills With MySpace"
(November 13, 2007)

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