Lori Drew and "STUPID"

I think that I have it straight now. Lori Drew is on trial for cyberbullying a 13 year old girl Megan Meier – using MySpace – a social networking group on the Internet. As a result the 13 year old committed suicide. Lori Drew was 47 years old.

Last week was anitbullying week in our schools and community(Bruce Lindsay mentioned this two posts ago on this Blog with the “Kick a Ginger Day” posting.) The schools together with the community attempted to help make everyone more aware of the tragedies that are possible when bullying is allowed to take place in our schools of community.

To help you understand the dynamics of the Lori Drew case you need to know the following…
* Lori Drew and her family, 13 year old daughter Sara Drew and husband Curt Drew lived on a quiet, friendly street in O’Fallon, Missouri, US…
* Megan Meier also 13 years old lived with her family, her father Ron Meier, her mom Tina, and her sister Allison.
* Megan Meier reportedly called Sara Drew a “Lesbian” which was a deep blow for the 13 year old… and Sara was very upset.
* Sara talked about it to her mother Lori. Lori talked about it to others including Ashley Grills, an 18 year old that worked for Lori.
* Together Lori, Ashley and Sara plotted to get back at Megan by creating a fake profile for a non existent 16 year old boy by the name of “Josh Evans” that then was in contact with Megan – with the purpose of inflicting psychological harm on 13-year-old Megan Meier.
* Megan Meier, who suffered from depression and suicidal thoughts, fell in love with the fake "Josh," prosecutors said. She killed herself only after he turned on her, and told her "the world would be a better place without you."
* The Meier family knew nothing of the fake account of the Josh Evans person. Six weeks after their daughter’s death when they found out.
* On Nov. 25, 2006, the Meiers were informed that their neighbor and friend Lori Drew was involved in a MySpace prank that led to Megan’s suicide.
* The Drews for six weeks after Megan’s death had decided not to tell the Meiers, despite being urged to do so by neighbor Michelle Mulford.
* During this time the Meiers attended a birthday party for Drew’s daughter, although Ron had to leave when it came time to sing "Happy Birthday" to Sarah Drew.
* During this time the Meiers went to Curt Drew’s 50th birthday celebration.
* In addition, the Drews had asked the Meiers to store Christmas presents they had bought for their children in the Meiers’ garage.
* And the Meiers said, sure, why not? We’re friends.
* So when the Meiers found out that the 16-year-old boy named Josh Evans was not a real person but an elaborate hoax involving Drew -- designed to trick Megan to see if she was saying mean things about Sarah Drew -- they destroyed those presents.
* In fact, they vented their rage. They used an axe and a sledgehammer to chop up a foosball table and deposit it on the Drews’ front yard.
* That prompted Drew to call police. Jerry Shreeves(Lori Drew’s father), who was there that day, testified that Lori Drew twice tried to walk down the street to the Meiers’ home to talk to Ron and Tina about the MySpace account.
* Lori Drew is charged with one count of conspiracy and three counts of unauthorized computer access for allegedly violating the MySpace terms of service by creating a fake profile for a non-existent 16-year-old boy named "Josh Evans." She faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison for each charge.

Now that you have read this all... what do you think? Can you fathom the extent of the potential bullying that has taken place?

“STUPID” rules in this case and any other Bullying situation that I have encountered.

It happens in church too. Over the years I have met my fair share of Church Bullies too!
“You do it my way pastor – or we are out of here!!!”
“It is my way or the Highway – and I am off this Board.”
“You will not get one cent of money from my family from now on.”
“There is NO WAY we are going to support you.”
“Our family has been in the church for a long time and YOU need to realize that Pastor and WHAT WE SAY IS THE WAY IT IS!”

No kidding – I have actually heard people voice these statements. When you are the pastor and being paid by these “dear folk” – you can’t cay anything. When you leave – you can tell the truth.

Bullying is real and needs to stop – completely – now and forever.

I pray for Ron and Tina Meier today. They are no longer together. The horrific things that happened to their family were just too much.

I pray for Lori and Curt Drew, they will live with this horror created in a very STUPID moment – for the rest of their lives. Can you imagine the guilt? And if Lori is found guilty she could be in prison for quite a while thinking about what happened to her family, her neighbour and one 13 year old that took her own life because of a really STUPID decision!

And I pray for some really SILLY people that have Bullied Pastors and Congregations.

I see them in the community from time to time – and they are not happy. But when you smile at them and tell them that you have prayed for them… it is almost too funny. One thing Bullies do is SQUIRM when you put them out in the open.

~ Murray Lincoln ~
Source:
http://suburbanjournals.stltoday.com/articles/2008/11/26/stcharles/special_feature/doc492c651988cb4592546508.txt
http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2008/11/noverdict.html
http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2008/11/defense-lori-dr.html