Jezebel
This is Megan Meier, who is now dead. She hung herself at age thirteen after the parents of one of her former classmates used MySpace to create a character named Josh Evans, who spent a few months flirting with her before abruptly turning on her and calling her a "slut" and a "bad person" etc. etc. And while we generally try to do this job without actually performing what might be termed "fact checking" — you know, because sometimes actually talking to people makes them harder to villify! — we felt compelled, in this case, to attempt to call Curt and Lori Drew, the Missouri couple fingered by internet sleuths as the perpetrator of the torment. Not surprisingly, the phone rang and rang.
So I called the school I assumed Megan Meier had attended with their daughter, Dubray Middle School in O'Fallon, Missouri:
Me: Hello. I was wondering if this is the school Megan Meier attended?
Secretary: Who is this?
Me: I work at a website called Jezebel, and I was just calling because our readers were very interested in the case.
Secretary: I can't say anything.
Me: I was just trying to figure out what the schools were doing to teach kids about how to stand up to bullies, or to teach parents how to instill in their kids the ability to ignore mean people, stuff like that.
Secretary: I really can't say anything.
Me: Seriously?
Secretary: I'm sorry I can't say anything.
Me: Don't you care?
Secretary: I can't say anything.
Me: Oh, fuck you then.
Dear secretary: I am sorry. That was so unnecessary. Also, who do I think I am, Michael Moore?
Anyway, then I had a conversation with Steve "Pokin Around" Pokin, the columnist who broke the story of Megan's tragic story after her aunt called him up upon reading his slightly-less-disturbing tale of a teenage Myspace tormentor who eventually got charged with "littering."
Steve didn't really want to go too deeply into things, though he claimed that he was pretty sure not naming Curt and Lori drew was the right decision, to which I said, "Um, those fuckers will be named SOON ENOUGH." And when I asked him whether the Drews — he confirmed the names, though I'm not sure he meant to — seemed ready to take responsibility or atone for their actions in any way, he said, "I don't know. All I know about that is in the story."
I'm thinking that's a "not so much."
Now, the laws don't hold them responsible, though I'm pretty sure the laws would find a way of holding them responsible if they happened to be Allah-worshipers, though that's neither here nor there. In the end, if these people are just plain evil, the only thing you can do is try and teach your kids, "Hey kids, this is evil, so please do think about that next time you see a popular kid fling a booger on some harmless fat kid, or whatever this generation of kids do to pointlessly torture their peers, and fail to call him out on it."
In other news, Pokin informed me that Megan's parents were being interviewed this afternoon by CNN, so we'll watch for them in hopes they at least get their chance to pass this lesson along.
Comments
Did you seriously say "fuck you"? Haha, AWESOME.
Oh, god. Poor baby. How could she think she was ugly? Ugh, my heart just hurts.
BRAVA MOE!
Whee! Jezebel embarks upon investigatory journalism!
So sad.
But I do have one question. Has Lauren Conrad single handedly brought out the term "bad person" as being the new "cunt"?
Okay, so Curt and Lori Drew...I don't see how they have a daughter in middle school, when they are clearly stuck there themselves.
Sounds like a little country justice is in order.
well, if i was the secretary, i'd say "fuck you too. and have a nice day." but that's just me.
and this story is so sad on so many levels I wish I didn't read about it.
Something sort of like this happened to a good friend of mine and someone she was corresponding with online. It went on for years and this person went to such great lengths to decieve her--having friends call and pretend to be the guy. It was so horrific and pathetic, how far people go to pointlessly hurt a stranger.
wow she was adorable. for lack of words I'll just say fuck those parents.
@staceymcgill: seriously. love it!
she was pretty.
just looking at her, she would have been enormously popluar in my middle school. she was adorable.
i certainly some sort of protective services is looking into the perpitrating family. and that if they're religious folk (i'm putting it at an 85% chance that they are), i hope that they repent. or that the pastor brings it up in a fiery, condemning sermon.
ok here's what to do, ship those assfaces to Saudi Arabia to get 400 lashes (200 each) then send the Saudi Arabian woman here for treatment and a longer, better life
Aw she was really cute. It makes me so sad that she thought she was ugly. She was adorable. From the story, it seemed like she was such a nice, innocent girl.
My heart hurts.
i wish there was a way to really communicate with teen girls that everything get so much better once you graduate and have the power to leave your hometown. i mentored for awhile, and sometimes it was rewarding, and sometimes it was just too hard. i'm just glad i made it through that shit myself- honestly, if myspace had existed when i was thirteen, i might not have.
Wow... She was so pretty. Such a sad story.
I can't believe how fucking sad this story is making me. Even though I'm the product of awful parenting, I guess I've still clung to the delusion that adults are there to protect kids, not act as bad as or worse than them. Cheesy, but it's reminding me that words do matter, even if they're said lightly. Heartbreaking.
i have to say, this is sad, and those two fucked up parents are awful, but it's not their fault she killed herself.
@HoneyLush:
oh and have them gang raped by the six men and then kill them all
It doesn't matter if the reality if if she was actually pretty or the homeliest thing on the face of the earth - SHE believed she was ugly, that was her reality, and therefore she was vulnerable to this shit. I can't even IMAGINE the thought of these two wastes of skin siting around baiting a little girl on MySpace. What the fuck is wrong with this world, I mean seriously. Jesus
Seriously? Seriously?! (shit, I gotta stop watching Grey's Anatomy)
How fucking old are these parents anyway? Unreal!
Also, Moe - I'm in j-classes and they've never told us about the "oh, fuck you then" technique when working with sources. This is good to know and I'm going to use it in my interview this afternoon with a city of chgo official. Awesome!
Fuck you then! Can I just start saying that now, to whomever? Because that would feel good. Damn good.
I really hope you were being facetious with the 'fuck you' to the secretary. The person who answers the phone is just doing what she's been told to do, which is NOT ANSWER YOUR QUESTIONS.
I'm a bit sensitive to this having been the phone answerer.
My other favorite? When the police would pull the "If you don't tell me now I'll come back with a warrant." Go right ahead and get one. Ass.
FUCK those people. i hate them.
I also tried calling. They are in my phone under "Assholes".
I can't help thinking about how John Fitzgerald Page was saying he was getting death threats after his phone number and email came out. And he was just rude to some anonymous girl. Can you imagine the level of harrassment the Drews must be getting? And everything that is said to them is just what they did to this poor girl, and they have to think about that every time the phone rings, or someone knocks at their door. If they really can't be charged with anything, at least they've created their own hell.
I'm a little weirded out - she looks a lot like I did at 13. I thought I was ugly, too. Sigh.
@BAngieB: "country justice" I love it. Seriously, though, now that the word is out, I'm pretty sure those parents will have to go into Witness Protection, because I get the feeling some baaaaad shit is going to happen to them.
@BAngieB: Agreed! ...and I don't even know what country justice is.
God, fucking "Pokin Around." I don't give a shit if that's what your column is normally named--that's really fucking tacky to have headlining a story about a poor 13 year old girl who killed herself.
Yeah, so what if she WASN'T genuinely pretty? Would it be any less sad.
This reminds me of 7th grade when that woman killed her two children and I announced out loud in class "Yeah, and they were so cute too!" and my teacher publicly berated me. I felt damn dumb and didn't like her after that but I learned my lesson.
@Hamsterpants: i agree that it has nothing to do with whether or not she actually was "pretty"; it has everything to do with how ugly everyone else can be.
Dude, they pressed charges concerning a fooseball table that was destroyed when they people who stored it for them found out THEY KILLED THEIR DAUGHTER.
THEY PRESSED CHARGES! THEY ARE FUCKING PSYCOPATHS! People need to know who the fuck they are so they can stay clear!
@BiscuitDoughJones: Word.
@boomboomangie: "Country Justice"...I'll give you an example. Back home, a teenage girl was raped. The rapist was released on bond. The next day, her uncles went to his trailer, dragged him out, tied him to a tree, and cut off his dick. This is a true story. We don't fuck around in the country.
@Mollyboo: Right on, that is exactly what I was thinking. She was adorable, but it would be a tragedy either way.
@BAngieB: Did he survive? It's a better story if he has to live peep free.
The entire situation is appalling. The legal system needs to catch up to the 21st century and make shit like this a crime.
@southernbitch: Yeah. When my kid was about to go to middle school, I told him that if he didn't remember anything else I ever told him, he must remember this: everybody is weird and afraid of their weirdness being discovered. Everybody feels like they are on the outside at some point. Your friends today might be your enemies tomorrow and then your friends again the day after. People can do strange things and can be very mean. But at the end of the day, it's how you treat others that matters. You don't have to put up with their bullshit and be their personal punching bag. Just don't become like them. These kids will have sad, sad lives if they don't change. And the kind people always find each other.
After I read this story, I did some searching online and there are several web sites confirming the names of the family who 'contributed' to her death. Aparently after the name was revealed, people have been calling their house non stop and everyone is pretty outraged at the family. I am sure the name will be plastered all over the news very soon.
@BAngieB: I see - like Irish justice, but with knives instead of baseball bats.
that is seriously the most evil thing. Ever. I mean, we all know girls are mean. But a parent? You know, they don't get the hormone defense. These parents are on a par with the mother of that cheerleader in TX. You know, the Lifetime Movie with Michele Lee as the mom. Yeah, that one.
It bring me such joy to know the same medium which enabled Lori Drew to be such a despicable cunt to a 13 year girl also was capable of finding her with ease and shaming her right back into hopefully, the back of her closet.
Ugggggh.
Somebody mentioned this in the post yesterday, but at the very least someone should sue their asses. If this were Law and Order: SVU they'd totally be convicted for reckless disregard of human life, or whatever. DO IT.
@southernbitch: Too true. You know, we jump through hoops to get permission to do anything - driver's license, marriage license, business license, but we allow these fucking asshats to reproduce with impunity, and then perpetuate their serious lack of a moral compass on their kids, and by extension society. Is it any freaking wonder, really, that shit like this happens. As an earlier poster said, these people HAVE the mental age of a 13 year old, perhaps a seriously disturbed one.
@HeyLady: True, but she wouldn't have killed herself but for what those parents did to her. They may not be criminally liable, but I bet there's a good lawyer out there who could bring a hellacious civil case against them. They intentionally and purposefully made that account for the sole purpose of tormenting her - fully aware of her vulnerabilities bc of her age and self esteem - and poor Megan committed suicide directly because of it.
I saw this story and it brought a tear to my eye. Especially since it was Parents that were the perpetrators. In no way should they be able to get away with this. This wasn't a child being bullied by another child that didn't know any better.
I can see how this happens since my daughter is in first grade and coming home asking why girls and boys are calling her a slut and ugly, and she is only 6! So I wonder what will be going on when she gets to middle school.
Yeah, not terribly surprising that a school wouldn't release information about a minor who committed suicide.
I just went back and looked at the original article. I can't believe this took a year to go public. A year! That is insane!