You can blame the mom for not being “supportive” all you want but I challenge anyone with children to tell me how they’ve been perfectly supportive with every issue that’s ever bothered their child. If you tell me you’ve never said “buck up!” when your child has been hurt or never said “I told you so!” in some situation, then you’re lying. People ALL say things like this from time to time. Parents aren’t perfect. So don’t dare to blame the mother just because hindsight shows she MIGHT have been able to prevent what happened by being psychic, not to mention perfect and unable to be frustrated or emotional herself. The mother has enough blame from herself, I’m sure, saying the exact same thing. And that’s too bad, because it WASN’T her fault.

The mother clearly said and showed that she WAS involved with what was going on. She had read the E-mails with her daughter and WAS discussing them. That’s more than most parents even know in these situations. Sadly most only discover what was even going on AFTER their child has taken some regrettable action. So she did right. She simply did not have any clue that her daughter was so disturbed that she was possible of taking things to the extreme that she did. So in my book, the mother did better than 99% of the parents in these situations that I’ve read or heard about before because at least she communicated with her daughter and knew what was going on. Again, we can’t be perfect, and we can’t predict the future, especially when dealing with someone who evidently has mental issues we are not aware of or do not know the degree of.

This kind of thing has happened throughout history with teenagers, back before Romeo and Juliet. The message is clear though. Parents simply have to do the best they can. Know what their children are doing and stay involved and communicative with them. That’s all you can do. Also, don’t be hesitant to pull the plug on communications like a computer or even a cell phone if things are getting out of control. Yes, the child probably won’t appreciate that either, but if you feel things are out of control enough to warrant it, wouldn’t you rather be safe than sorry?

Bottom line, STOP attacking the parents for not being perfect and not knowing exactly what would happen. It’s not fair and it makes you look like a fool as well. What happened is tragic enough without heaping extra blame in places where it doesn’t belong. In the end, the buck stops with each individual. No matter what, we are all responsible for our OWN actions. People have no idea what it’s like to lose a child due to the intense bullying that she had suffered, among what other incidents that children suffer due to others. And it certainly doesn’t come from their parents. Shame on those of you that are defending Lori’s actions. She needs to pay for this one way or another, whatever it’s prison time, public humiliation, loss of money, etc., because she & her daughter knew what kind of problems that Megan had mentally, & decided to act out on it, & had shown absolutely no remorse for what they did. I hope you don’t have any kids.

Plus I’m sick and tired of people saying anything they want to anyone online, and then screaming freedom of speech. This was not a case of an article that just offended lots of people. This was deliberate deception and targeting of a minor. It was done under the auspices of an adult who then let other people in on the targeting and abuse, especially her peers. This was not what freedom of speech was meant for. All of you who abuse freedom of speech in this manner should be taken out behind the barn and taught some manners. Your freaking freedom of speech does not allow you to stalk someone online, pretend to be someone else and target them specifically for abuse and humiliation. Humiliation is hard enough for adults to deal with much less a child with emotional problems. The woman KNEW the kid had problems and she conspired to do this in revenge, and you can’t convince me otherwise. She couldn’t get back at her face to face, so she pretended to be someone else. That kind of statement coming from someone you think is a boy that you believed liked you is an absolute emotional bomb to a 13 year old girl. There is NO excuse for what these genetic splotches did to that girl, NO reason good enough, and NO freaking defense! Period. I’m tired of cyber trolls and bullies claiming that the freedom of speech protects their stupidity and verbal attacks on people. There are responsibilities that come with that right to free speech and one of them is not to abuse it. Your rights to free speech don’t over ride everyone else’s right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Anyone who does that kind of skanky stuff online is the lowest form of scum that exists, I don’t care how old they are or what sex. It’s wrong! Period. There is no flipping “everything’s relative”. It’s wrong. You just don’t do that to people whether you like them or not. It’s wrong. Read my lips! It’s w-r-o-n-g. It pisses me off that people think in their tiny freaking minds that it’s somehow OK to say and do those things online, like it doesn’t count. Put someone behind a monitor and give them a keyboard and they lose their ever-loving minds, and suddenly it’s OK to say and do things they wouldn’t dream of saying to someone’s face.

It’s cowardice, and only low down yellow bellied scumbags behave that way. They have no character, and no conscience. It borders on sociopathic behavior as far as I’m concerned. Written words take the place of spoken words online, and can create just as much damage to people of every age. I hate irresponsible people who don’t take responsibility for what their idiotic words might do to other people. Then they shrug and say “it’s not my problem.” Bullying, and emotional terrorism is the same whether it’s written or spoken. Just because you can’t see the other people you’re speaking to does not mean it doesn’t count, it just makes some people feel more free to be cruel. And this is just one case of many I’m sure, it’s just that this one is in the media spotlight. Let this case be a warning to all the trolls out there. You want to be evil, a jackass, and verbally abusive to people online, go out in the woods and yell at a tree, don’t abuse other people with your stupidity. It looks like you might start having to pay a steep price for it. And it will be about time.

Wake the hell up, people.

It all started at home. Take care of your children. Give them knowledge. Tell them about Megan. Teach them respect for others. Make them feel loved. Nurture them. If you believe in religion, impart that into them. If you don’t believe in religion, teach them sivics. Make sure they know right from wrong. Respect elders. Make them feel safe. Make them feel like winners. Most important always stand by their side. When they are young make them your student, when they are teenagers make them your friend and when they are older make them your buddies.

To err is human, to forgive is devine.

What that woman did to a child does not justify her actions. How do you know she was being mean. How do you know that that womans daughter was being the mean one. I know what its like and a beautiful girl like her wouldnt have started it. I think she was defending herself and here you are trying to argue that she probably was mean. Whoever you are grow some balls because its people like you who make me sick

I am truly sorry for your loss. As being now a first time mother to a 7 month old daughter, I am outraged and very saddened, heartbroken to feel your loss. I will do all I can to monitor my little girl so she does not get the same treatment. It is not fair what happened but there is a much higher judgement these people willl have to answer to. You are in my heart, thoughts and prayers.
God bless and on Christmas Eve Candlelight Service this year, I will hold two candles, one for Jesus of course but the second one, in rememberance to Megan and others like her!

I would just like to tell you I am sorry for your loss. I also have a daughter, although she is not even two-years-old. I couldn’t image losing her. I hope you are surrounded by supportive family, and friends. It sounds like Megan was a sweet girl! And don’t pay any attention to the thoughtless, insensitive comments made by some on this page.

Does anyone here remember what that was like?

To blame this girl for not having the wherewithal of an adult is not only preposterous, but short sighted!

Teenagers are not only hormonally unstable, but they are also always testing the waters. They want to be liked…they want to be understood…they want to be accepted…they want to have some semblance of power or control over their small universe. They are also VERY easily embarrassed and humiliated. I cannot believe what some people have said here, even going as far as BLAMING this child/kid for taking her own life!

Megan was not victimizing herself…she was VICTIMIZED. She was, like MOST teenagers, easily mailable, insecure, naive, emotionally unstable, curious, and hopeful. After much work on herself to improve her standing both mentally and socially within her small teenage universe, she thought all her “dreams” were coming true…and to a 13/14 year old, having a boy or girl like you is usually at the forefront of their minds. She was on an increasing upswing from a bad state of affairs and she probably thought that the worst was FINALLY behind her.

Then her hopes were dashed by a cruel, well-thought out, perfectly executed manipulation at the hands of a person who was not ONLY an adult woman, but a MOTHER.

This may not be the end of the world to an adult…BUT IT CAN BE FOR A TEEN. For many teenagers, the end of the world is just around the corner. One must see this whole thing from the tiny “pressure-cooker” view of a teenager to understand what happened with Megan Meier…a young lady who has suffered from serious depression since she was a young child.

The facts were on the table…this woman KNEW what would work to destroy this already vulnerable, mentally unstable girl. Instead of being empathetic and mature and taking a step back and viewing the situation from the eyes of an adult and imposing proactive solutions to a completely resolvable situation, she stooped as low as a schoolyard bully and used what she knew would work to take this girl in hook, line and sinker…and after she knew the girl was hooked, she promptly crushed her into a million pieces! Then our lovely Mrs. Drew took part in the public airing of Megan’s humiliation to an undetermined number of her peers who, unfortunately, will have to live the rest of their lives knowing that they helped facilitate the suicide of a fellow peer.

I’m sure the desired result was not the death of this girl, but THAT IS WHAT HAPPENED AS A RESULT OF THIS WELL-THOUGHT OUT AND EXECUTED PLAN! Mrs. Drew wanted to get back at this girl…she wanted to bring about some form of suffering and destruction…she wanted to teach this girl a lesson…and she wound up working Megan up into such a frenzy that Megan took her own life. Don’t blame Megan or her parents…don’t blame MySpace or the internet…don’t blame Mrs. Drew’s daughter…BLAME MRS. DREW AND THE LOSER 18-YEAR OLD WHO DID THIS TO A NAIVE YOUNG GIRL!

Blaming Megan is not only incredibly narrow sighted, but it is downright moronic! In fact, it is laughable! I work with teenagers everyday, and I would be very concerned for ANY of them if they were presented with the same situation…I would be ESPECIALLY concerned if they had a preexisting condition like depression!

Don’t blame the victim.

You can see how the Internets is a little riled.

But more disturbing than that are the actions of authorities: If it had been an adult MALE that “carried on” in a sexually explicit way with a 13 year old girl, even if it WERE for the purposes of revenge for his teen daughter, he’d be locked up as a pedophile.

Second, there are al-READY laws on the books that cover this type of harassment. For chrissake: just implement them!

What is particularly chilling to me, is that Lori Drew knew that the victim was known to be suicidal in the past. That means that her statement to her that the “world would be better off without you” or whatever it was… is even MORE chilling: it means she was TRYING to steer this girl to suicide. It means she had a desire to push it in that direction, and did so.

Reminds me of Charles Manson. He never “technically” put his own hands upon his victims either, but he “made it happen” by manipulating people, I mean that’s the premise upon which he was convicted: that he had INCITED it.

Same thing here. Lori Drew incited this suicide and should be just as responsible as Manson was when he incited those murders—and she should also be treated just like any other adult who engages in online relationships of a sexual nature with under-aged children.

*We are meeting at 6:00 p.m. at the Fort Zumwalt West Middle school parking lot.

*Please bring a candle, cup to hold the candle and something to light the candle. (If you cut a small X in the bottom of the cup, you can slide the candle through it and then you won’t have wax dripping on you)

*We will then light the candle’s shortly after 6:00 p.m. and start walking from the school down Waterford crystal drive towards Megan’s house and end up in front of the Drew’s house.

*There is a common ground area across the street and we will have pa system and microphone. if anyone would like to speak, read a poem, etc., they are more than welcome.

*This wonderful idea came from students who wanted to see justice for Megan and for that we are so happy. Nothing we can do will bring Megan back, but we can all learn from Megan and take a part of her with us everyday for the rest of our lives to try to be a better person and think about things we say to people before we say them!

*****Remember this is a peaceful candlelight vigil******
We hope to see everyone there!

Does this new law provide any justice for Megan? Does this law provide equitable relief for a future victim or actually weaken the current law?

I reject the premise of this new law and believes it completely misses the mark. The reasoning behind this opinion is that city officials have consistently treated this case as an Internet harassment case instead of a child welfare/exploitation case.

Classifying this case a harassment issue completely fails to address the most serious aspects of the methods Lori Drew employed to lead this youth to her demise. The Vice disagrees that harassment was even a factor in this case until just a couple of days before Megan’s death.

Considering this case a harassment issue is incorrect because during the 5 weeks Lori Drew baited and groomed her victim, the attention was NOT unwanted attention. It was not harassment at all. It was invited attention. Megan participated in the conversations willingly because she was lured, manipulated and exploited without her knowledge.

This law willfully sets a precedent that future child exploiters and predators can use to reclassify their cases to harassment issues. In effect, the law enacted to give Megan justice, may make her even more vulnerable. So long as the child victim doesn’t tell the predator to stop, even a harassment charge may not stick with the right circumstances and a good defender.

Every aspect of this case follows the same procedural requirement used to convict a Child Predator. A child was manipulated by an adult. A child was engaged in sexually explicit conversation (as acknowledged by Lori Drew herself). An adult imposed her will on a child by misleading her, using a profile designed to sexually or intimately attract the 13 year old Megan.

Lori then utilized the power she had gained over this child to cause significant distress and endangerment to that child. She even stipulated to many of these activities in the police report she filed shortly after Megan’s death.

We can go on and on here, but the parallels between this case and many other child predator cases that are successfully prosecuted bear striking similarities.

Child Predator laws do not require much more than simply proving that an adult has engaged a minor in sexually explicit conversation. Lori Drew has already stipulated that her conversations with Megan were sometimes sexual for a child Megan’s age.

City officials who continue to ignore this viable, documented admission and continue to address this issue as harassment are intentionally burying their heads in the sand, when the solution is staring them right in the face. Why?

On June 5th, 2006, Governor Matt Blunt signed into law stiff penalties for convicted sex offenders. The Vice believes that officials continually reject a child predator classification of this case in order to keep the penalty of this offense out of this harsher realm.

Opponents of this law are active in defeating this law not by changing it, but by disqualifying cases like Megan’s from ever being heard.

There are several other child exploitation laws on the books. To date, none of them have even been considered by City, State and Federal officials in this case. I’m outraged that a motion was never even filed, so that the case could at least be argued before a judge or jury.

Those satisfied with this response out of Missouri officials need to think through the effect this law will truly have. It quite honestly has the potential to directly undermine Jessica’s law. It quiet easily gives prosecutors a way out of prosecuting child endangerment and child predator cases in the future.

Beware the wolf in sheep’s clothing here.

Danny Vice
http://weeklyvice.blogspot.com