Accountability, part 1: Act Like An Adult

Judge Throws Out Conviction in Deadly MySpace Hoax

...are you serious?!?!?!?!

I don't know what disgusts me more, that Lori Drew wasn't even prosecuted for her real crime -- using social networking to goad a young, depressed and impressionable girl to suicide -- but that now it seems she won't even serve a prison sentence for the crime for which she was convicted! Judge George Wu decided, rather than sentence Drew to three years in prison or the less-appealing probation, that simply overturning the conviction is the best route to follow.

I would not want to be the Meier family right now.

Despite the lack of precedent in a case like this, I believe that the justice system has a clear responsibility to hold adults accountable for their actions when they refuse to hold themselves accountable. A decision like this spreads the message that it is okay for an adult to coerce and manipulate a child using whatever means necessary for no reason more than that child fought with your child.

A lot of the argument in this case hinges on whether you believe that Drew knew about Megan's depression and treatment for such, and I believe that she did. How could she not, when by all accounts her daughter and Megan were friends, and she spoke with Megan's mother about it? What's more, even a teenager who isn't diagnosed with depression or another mental disorder is going through the trials of adolescence and all of the hormonal changes therein. Therefore, it is reasonable to assume that even the most seemingly well-adjusted teenager would consider a desperate option when the "person" she trusts the most tells her that the world would be "better off without" her.

Adolescents are cruel, vicious, insecure creatures. The damage they cause to one another in an attempt to gain some stability of self is appalling, and should be discouraged by the ostensibly wiser adults around them. Instead, we end up with "adults" like Lori Drew, who resort to similar adolescent tactics to drive a girl as deep into despair as it is possible to go.

The only hope in this case is that the ruling is not final until Wu submits the written copy, and maybe by then he will realize the ramifications of sticking by this decision. In the meantime, I can only hope that Lori Drew will receive the worst punishment possible for what is truly a heinous crime and that other adults will learn from this and act like adults -- not overgrown children. The results can quite obviously be deadly.

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