Rutgers Student Suicide

Student Lounge College Life
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<p>It started with a Twitter message on Sept. 19: “Roommate asked for the room till midnight. I went into molly’s room and turned on my webcam. I saw him making out with a dude. Yay.”</p>

<p>That night, the authorities say, the Rutgers University student who sent the message used a camera in his dormitory room to stream the roommate’s intimate encounter live on the Internet.</p>

<p>And three days later, the roommate who had been surreptitiously broadcast — Tyler Clementi, an 18-year-old freshman and an accomplished violinist — jumped from the George Washington Bridge into the Hudson River in an apparent suicide.</p>

<p>The Sept. 22 death, details of which the authorities disclosed on Wednesday, was the latest by a young American that followed the online posting of hurtful material. The news came on the same day that Rutgers kicked off a two-year, campuswide project to teach the importance of civility, with special attention to the use and abuse of new technology.</p>

<p>Those who knew Mr. Clementi — on the Rutgers campus in Piscataway, N.J., at his North Jersey high school and in a community orchestra — were anguished by the circumstances surrounding his death, describing him as an intensely devoted musician who was sweet and shy.</p>

<p>“It’s really awful, especially in New York and in the 21st century,” said Arkady Leytush, artistic director of the Ridgewood Symphony Orchestra, where Mr. Clementi played since his freshman year in high school. “It’s so painful. He was very friendly and had very good potential.”</p>

<p>The Middlesex County prosecutor’s office said Mr. Clementi’s roommate, Dharun Ravi, 18, of Plainsboro, N.J., and another classmate, Molly Wei, 18, of Princeton Junction, N.J., had each been charged with two counts of invasion of privacy for using “the camera to view and transmit a live image” of Mr. Clementi. The most serious charges carry a maximum sentence of five years. </p>

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<p>source: <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/30/nyregion/30suicide.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/30/nyregion/30suicide.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>It's all over the tri-state area. News stations were all over our campus today. I didn't know him but I'm definitely going to the memorial service for him tomorrow.</p>

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<p>I’ve read about it, and I’ve heard some of the oh-so-“sympathetic” comments from some of the homophobes around the internet… it makes my blood boil that people could be that hard-hearted over something like this. It makes me sick to be a human being knowing people can be so cruel.</p>

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<p>I would love to go to the memorial today but it is so sad and painful I don’t think I’ll be able to go. I mean, I didn’t even know the kid, but when I heard the story the other day, my heart sunk and I was sobbing in my dorm room.</p>

<p>I hate hearing about people committing suicide, and especially over something that was stirred by others just to humiliate him. That’s just sick. I just wished he hadn’t given in and taken his life, because he let those two win. </p>

<p>But I suspect there may have been other issues prior to this that made him drown himself. I think it was more than just being outed and humiliate. Maybe this wasn’t the first time in his life that he was humiliated or have been betrayed.</p>

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<p>“would love to go to the memorial today but it is so sad and painful I don’t think I’ll be able to go. I mean, I didn’t even know the kid, but when I heard the story the other day, my heart sunk and I was sobbing in my dorm room.”</p>

<p>as painful as this might be for you, if you don’t go, the homophobes will have won…please go and let us know how it goes…Rutgers needs to stick together on this one…</p>

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<p>what’s been happening with the guy’s roommate and that b**** molly?</p>

<p>are they getting expelled? do their friends still look them in the eye? what are they doing right now?</p>

<p>btw. I have a feeling this has more to do with him being an introvert, not so much about being gay.</p>

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<p>There are a lot of kids hanging on by a thread. I wonder how many times these types of bullies have made fun of others in this way, only the victim suffers in silence. I hope they get 5 years and become the poster children for cyber hate crimes. They deserve it, as do all who get a laugh at others expense.</p>

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<p>Maybe part of the issue is that people who are repulsed by homosexuality are roomed with gays. Did the kid try to switch rooms? It sounds as if the guy who made the video did not agree with homosexuality, and maybe he tried to get a new roommate and was denied because he was intolerant.</p>

<p>Maybe there should be a part on the housing application asking if a person is okay with rooming with a gay person. You can’t force people to be tolerant, but you can prevent these types of situations if you respect peoples personal views. It would be interesting if it turned out the kid who shot the video tried to get another living arrangement, and was denied. I can’t imagine a kid that repulsed by homosexuality not trying to move out when he found out his roommate was gay. </p>

<p>Yes, it’s wrong what he did. Yes, it’s sad.</p>

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<p>Molly is just not smart enough to realize it!
I am her friend and I will be supporting her.
It’s sad to see the lost of a life due to this. But please don’t preach about your saint pure judgment about people when all of us committed certain “crimes” everyday. </p>

<p>Poor Tyler. But suicide isn’t helping.</p>

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<p>Are you kidding me? I do commit crimes. I jaywalk. I might go over the speed limit now and then. I don’t do something that violates a person’s privacy, pushing him over the edge.</p>

<p>I hope they both get the book thrown at them. They’re trash.</p>

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<p>Really?</p>

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From facebook group.</p>

<p>Jaywalk - put others in dangerous.
Over speed limit - put others in dangerous.
Violation of lives.</p>

<p>If this wasn’t on the news, nobody would give a damn about it. So don’t throw books at me and preach me morality.</p>

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<p>lol, a facebook page supporting the full prosecution of these two is not an invasion of privacy.</p>

<p>I also like how you think jaywalking is as terrible as what these two did. And really, nobody would give a damn? Not a single person? Less people would, duh, but that’s because they wouldn’t hear of it.</p>

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<p>And regardless, I’m not calling for manslaughter charges because it’d be a very difficult case to prove. The maximum sentence for invasion of privacy, which the two committed, should be enough to teach them a lesson.</p>

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<p>“Are you kidding me? I do commit crimes. I jaywalk. I might go over the speed limit now and then. I don’t do something that violates a person’s privacy, pushing him over the edge.”</p>

<p>Wow. Those are not real crimes. Real crimes result in arrests, not traffic violations and tickets. I consider a crime something you can get arrested for. </p>

<p>In regards to privacy: doesn’t sharing a room mean you have surrendered your privacy rights? Also, the “right to privacy” only exists when the government is involved.</p>

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<p>Why do people keep saying that? That if it wasn’t on the news, no one would care. Like that makes your friend any less guilty of invasion of privacy.</p>

<p>And yes, many people do break the law…but it depends on the severity of the infraction. Obviously, driving 55 mph in a 45 zone (well, you do get a nice ticket) is against the law but that’s way different than broadcasting a guy making out with another guy and then driving him to suicide. </p>

<p>I understand she’s your friend and you want to defend her. However, what she did was illegal and drove someone to suicide.</p>

<p>For the privacy and room issue, Clementi did ask his roommate for the room for a couple hours thus saying he wants some privacy. However, doesn’t the whole “invasion of privacy” stem from the fact that Dharun recorded Clementi without Clementi’s permission?</p>

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<p>I guess you have to support your friend at this time but as a society enough is enough. It took MADD to get us all to wake up to drunk driving, and hopefully this boys embarrassment and death will help us all see that posting things like this on the internet, while it is possible to do it, it is against the law. That is why I hope that they get the 5 years, so that others are finally deterred from repeating this type of “bullying”. I am sorry if they are nice kids that made a bad decision. In the future legal action can be an expected consequence of cyber bullying and others will think about it.</p>

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<p>^ Not really Tiff. People have an expectation of privacy, especially in their own dwelling. It’s like if you were getting changed (naked) and your roommate broadcasted your image to friends.</p>

<p>It’s a tricky case. If the roommate would have watched the cam by himself, I don’t think there could be charges pressed, as he would have been watching HIS room, on HIS webcam/property. But broadcasting it to other people probably violated the deceased privacy.</p>

<p>Either way, they aren’t responsible for the death, as it will be perceived as a prank with no criminal intent.</p>

<p>Universities should do a better job pairing roommates, hopefully they learned a lesson.</p>

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<p>I think we should be fair when it comes to the opinion.
Molly didn’t set it up. It’s her friend, Dharun . I am not his friend, but according the news report Tyler has always been complaining about his roommate Dharun . So I will take his words and see Dharun absolutely responsible for his invasion of privacy.</p>

<p>Molly was counted as accomplice only because Dharun was using her Mac laptop. If we were to charge Molly invasion of privacy, and other serious charges, then other friends that also watched the livestream should be arrested as well.</p>

<p>I didn’t say the facebook page is an invasion of privacy. They were just doing the same thing as they did to Tyler. If they both committed suicide, how should we respond?
“They deserve to die!” Is that it?</p>

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<p>tiff90 that was my point. jwxie here was saying how we shouldn’t judge people when we apparently commit crimes every day. I responded by saying that yes, I do commit crimes (maybe not ‘real crimes’ as you put it) but certainly not anything like violating a person’s right to privacy.</p>

<p>As to your question, no idea. That’s what the legal battle’s gonna likely be over. Generally there’s a reasonable expectation of privacy in your own home but IDK what the rules are when it’s a shared space.</p>

<p>@Bigeast good points. I wonder if there’s ever been a case where someone was convicted of involuntary manslaughter for someone’s suicide?</p>

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<p>They make me sick. They deserve everything they get. Nice people do not belittle other people.
In many situations, all it takes to stop bullying is for one person to stand up. While Molly is
not “as close” to the crime, what if she had just said no? That is what a “nice” person would do.</p>

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<p>^ I don’t feel like looking it up, but there was a similiar situation with a school district in Philly (I think) were the schools used school provided laptops to spy on kids at home…and I believe they got off - not sure.</p>

<p>The suicide will have to be put aside, as I don’t think the prosecution will try to get them for manslaughter or a hate crime (which it obviously isn’t). So it will probably be viewed as a minor invasion of privacy but have a heavier than usual punishment (I doubt 5 years) due to the resulting outcome.</p>