728x90_newspapers_dark_1.gif
Showing posts with label Clementi. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Clementi. Show all posts

Tuesday, October 5, 2010

As Mourners Were Honoring Tyler Clementi, News Came of a Fifth Suicide - ABC News

Mourners at Rutgers University honored the memory of Tyler Clementi, whose death last week was the fifth suicide by a gay teenager in the last three weeks.

Clementi jumped off the George Washington Bridge Tuesday, days after his roommate allegedly posted video on the Internet of him having sex with another man.

The recent eruption of gay teen suicides has been across the country, from the East Coast to Indiana, Texas to California, where 13-year-old Seth Walsh, who recently hanged himself, was memorialized Friday night.

Walsh, whose family said he was harassed by bullies for being gay, died Tuesday, after being in a coma for nine days.

"The harassment and the teasing and the taunting just became too much," Seth's grandmother, Judly Walsh said Friday night at a memorial service in Tehachapi, Calif.

Police interviewed some of the young people who taunted Seth the day he died, but determined that their actions do not constitute a crime.

In Clementi's case, the young man's roommate, Dharun Ravi, and another classmate, Molly Wei, face several charges of invasion of privacy for what prosecutors say was a surreptitious filming of Clementi in his own dorm room, a recording that they then allegedly broadcast live on the Internet.

New Jersey law enforcement officials have said they are still investigating the case, trying to determine whether they can pursue more serious charges against Ravi and Wei.

Lawyers for Ravi and Wei have not returned messages left by ABC News but Ravi's attorney, Steve Altman, told the New Jersey Star-Ledger that he does not think his client can be held criminally responsible for Clementi's death.

In another recent case, Raymond Chase, an openly gay 19-year-old student at Johnson & Wales University in Providence, R.I., hanged himself in his dorm room Wednesday.


View the original article here

Thursday, September 30, 2010

Tyler Clementi Suicide Puts Bullying In Spotlight - MTV.com

Police are still searching for the body of 18-year-old Rutgers University freshman Tyler Clementi, one week after he is believed to have killed himself after his roommate posted online a video of Clementi having a sexual encounter with another man.

Authorities believe that Clementi leapt from the George Washington Bridge in New York after his roommate secretly taped him and then posted the footage on the Internet.

Clementi's roommate Dharan Ravi and Ravi's childhood friend Molly Wei are each facing two counts of invasion of privacy and could spend up to five years in prison if they are convicted of distributing sexual images without consent. Ravi allegedly posted a live feed of Clementi on Skype, according to CBS News, and boasted about it on Twitter.

"Roommate asked for the room till midnight," Ravi, 18, tweeted on September 19. "I went into Molly's room and turned on my webcam. I saw him making out with a dude. Yay." Ravi is also alleged to have tried to broadcast a second encounter a few days later.

Investigators do not know how many people saw the feed or if Clementi had other issues that may have contributed to his despondency, but he clearly was upset by something. Before his disappearance, he wrote on his Facebook page, "Jumping off the gw bridge sorry."

Clementi's death is the latest incident to reveal the dangers of cyberbullying and the consequences of using wired means to taunt. ABC News reported that Clementi complained to his resident advisor and other university officials about Ravi allegedly livestreaming video of Clementi having a sexual encounter with a male classmate earlier this month. A university spokesperson said the information was turned over to local authorities.

His death comes as a rash of bullying-related suicides has made the news. Minnesota Public Radio reports that seven teenagers in the Anoka-Hennepin School District, one of Minnesota's largest school districts, have taken their lives over the past year. Administrators are concerned that bullying, cyber or otherwise, may have played a part in the incidents, at least two of which involved gay students who'd allegedly been harassed or bullied at school as a result of their sexuality.

In Tehachapi, California, 13-year-old Seth Walsh died on Tuesday, several days after trying to hang himself from a tree in his backyard following years of taunting over his sexual orientation. Less than a week earlier, 13-year-old Texas teen Asher Brown shot himself to death after enduring bullying over his small stature, his religion and, possibly, his sexual orientation, according to the Houston Chronicle.

Gay activists and "Savage Love" columnist Dan Savage launched a new YouTube channel called "It Gets Better." The channel gives positive examples of gay adults living their lives after suffering serious bullying in their youths in order to give hope to GLBT teens who may be struggling with abuse from their peers. Gay children are four times more likely than their straight peers to commit suicide and nine out of ten gay kids say they have been the victims of bullies at some point in their lives.

Since launching on September 15, the "It Gets Better" channel has had nearly 500,000 views.

MTV's ongoing "A Thin Line" project also provides stories and resources for anyone who believes they are being cyberbullied or who is looking for ways to stop harassment by digital means.


View the original article here