Lori Drew, the mother of a teen that participated in an criminal online hoax that led to a young girl’s suicide is set to be sentenced today. She has been convicted of unauthorized access to computers, which is a violation of MySpace terms of service. The biggest issue at hand was the suicide of young Megan Meier and the unbelievably cruel hoax that was directly leading to her suicide. Lori Drew was not directly charged as being responsible for the young girl’s death, but the role that she played is distrubing at the very least.
Megan Meier was only 13 years old when this cruel scheme played itself out. Drew, her daughter, and a business associate named Ashley Grills created a fake MySpace account and acted as though it was a fictitious young boy that was new in town and 16 years old. Drew has said that the account was created because Megan was spreading rumors about her daughter and this would allow them to spy on her.
What actually happened was that Megan was enamored with the young man and had no idea that the MySpace account was actually Lori Drew, her daughter and Grills. They carried on a relationship online, and eventually they had the young man no longer want to speak with her in a message. They also told her, “the world would be better off without her in it.” Later, Megan’s mother found her hanging in her closet by her belt. Megan Meier died the next day in the hospital.
While Drew claims that she was not even around when the messages were sent, and that she had no idea of the cruelty of those messages, that is not really the point. The fact that she allowed a fake MySpace account to be done and even seemed to encourage the behavior is reprehensible at the very least. It is amazing to me that she was not charged with something more serious.
Under the current charges, Lori Drew could be sentenced to as much as three years in prison. The amazing thing is that she could also get as little as probation and a small fine. Local police officials have said that she could not be charged for the teens death, but I wonder if that is accurate. If you do something reckless such as toy with a teenager’s emotions, and it leads to their death, then how are you not responsible to some degree? It was not as though this was just teasing at school. They went out of their way to fake an account, and then carry on the account to hurt Megan.
In my estimation, even the stiffest penalty that Lori Drew could get is not enough for what she did. Megan Meier is gone for good, and her parents have every right to be furious about this. I guess punishment will be reserved by a power higher than our own if he deems necessary.
