Viciousness Goes Viral with Deadly Consequences

by: Jay Lassiter

Thu Sep 30, 2010 at 09:20:00 AM EDT

#TylerClementi Twitter feed

Though not as bothered with his roommate's actions as he likely should have been (Clementi) is clearly disturbed by the disregard for his privacy-and the bigoted disgust-shown by both his roommate and the people commenting on his roommate's Facebook page "with things like 'how did you manage to go back in there?' 'are you ok?'" He says he'll file a roommate change request form, and "see what [the school] can offer" him.

NJ Senator Loretta Weinberg suggests that, " this terrible tragedy demonstrates a bigger problem. Despite anti-bullying laws and efforts to teach children tolerance and acceptance, unprovoked acts of cruelty continue to take place, resulting in tragic deaths of youngsters across our country (like this.)"

Students at RU: "stunned, angry." Photo courtesy Santiago Melli-Huber

I awoke to 100+ email messages about this incident (see sampling below the fold) and the "seizure of conscience" it evoked feels reminiscent of Matthew Shepherd's murder in 1998.

It's too early for the blame game or for silver linings, I can't help but hope this incident spurns our own legislature in Trenton to renew their commitment to anti-bullying legislation to protect youngsters from the viral viciousness which led to Tyler Clementi's death.

Sean wrote: "I cant seem to get this story out of my head, it blows my mind how sad it is. its like a bad movie plot that youd never expect to acually happen to someone."

Shannon wrote: "Why is stuff like this STILL happening in 2010?!? Why can't people just live their lives??? Sadly this is just part of the downside of social networking, immature & disrespectful room-mates, and intolerance."

Ben wrote: "Totally sucks"

Mizell wrote: "fourth degree privacy violations my ass! this was a hate crime!"

Cheryl wrote: "horrible - so sad. so young. so unnecessary."

Danica wrote: "These two should be charged with invasion if privacy and a hate crime, and be required to do community service of some sort that would educate others about the consequences of thus type of ignorance and malice. And the state should have a better legal term and sentencing guidelines for this sort of thing, one for illegal taping of the sexual activity and another for distributing it. Oh, and they should definitely get expelled from school."