Loathsome, But Not Illegal

"A federal judge on Thursday threw out the conviction of a Missouri woman [Lori Drew] on charges of computer fraud for her role in creating a false MySpace account to dupe a teenager, who later committed suicide." ("Judge Throws Out Conviction in Cyberbullying Case")

For those of you unfamiliar with the case, some background:

On October 17, 2006, Megan Meier, a 13-year-old girl from Dardenne Prairie, Missouri, committed suicide by hanging herself. Subsequently, it was revealed that what drove this girl, who had been treated for depression for years, over the edge, was a series of cruel, taunting e-mails from "Josh Evans," an online "friend" whom Megan had never actually met. In his last message to Megan, "Josh" said, among other things, "The world would be a better place without you."

Thing is, "Josh Evans" didn't exist. He was the creation of Lori Drew, the mother of Sarah Drew, a former friend of Megan's, with whom Megan had at some point had a falling out. Details are a bit vague, but apparently Lori, Sarah, and Ashley Grills, a young woman who worked for Lori, created the MySpace account in order to (according to Lori) monitor Megan and what she might be saying about Sarah: Lori was concerned that Megan was being mean to her daughter. At various times, Lori Drew has claimed that she had nothing to do with the actual messages and that she was not completely aware of the vicious tenor of some of the later notes. We will accept that she had no intention of driving Megan Meier to suicide, and that, had she known what was going to happen, she would have put a stop to things. We will also state here that Judge George Wu, who dismissed the charges against Drew, was correct in his interpretation of the law (more on this later).

That being said, we also think that Lori Drew might--just might--be the worst person in the world.

Hey, we know virtually nothing about parenting--much less about raising a teenage girl. But let's assume the BEST of Lori Drew; let's assume that Megan Meier was spreading vicious gossip about Sarah Drew, and that Lori wanted to help her daughter deal with this. Now, off the top of our head, we think the proper reactions would have been, in descending order of appropriateness:

1) Have a heart to heart talk with our daughter, explaining that children can be cruel, but that she should just try to ignore it and carry on with her own life.

2) Have a chat with Megan's parents and/or teachers and/or other school officials, explaining that Megan was spreading vicious gossip and that she wanted appropriate disciplinary steps taken.

3) Write a letter to MySpace, including any of Megan's vicious missives, and demand that her account be closed.

You see what we mean. We think, "Create a false persona of a teenage boy and play cruel mind games with an emotionally fragile teenager" probably doesn't crack the "Top 50" of appropriate responses.

Look, if Sarah Drew had, on her own initiative, created "Josh Evans" to torment her onetime friend, it would have been heinous. But we could have chalked that up to typical mean-girl queen-bee behavior: Ugly, but hardly unprecedented. And, y'know, Sarah would have had the excuse of being thirteen. Ashley Grills, who may have been the primary author of the offensive e-mails, worked for Lori Drew (not that "just following orders" is really an excuse, but it does mitigate her situation somewhat). Plus, she was only eighteen, so we don't know how fully-developed her moral sense was. Plus, she at least had the decency to suffer psychiatric problems as a result of her role in the proceedings--makes one think she at least has a conscience.

But Lori. . . . Oh, Lori Drew is a whole different kind of evil. What's truly troubling is that, in all the coverage we have reviewed of this case, nowhere do we find any hint that Lori Drew feels contrition for her role in this situation. According to a neighbor quoted in the Los Angeles Times, "there's never been any sense of remorse or public apology from the Drews, no 'maybe we made a mistake.'" Indeed, all we could find in the various news coverage was a statement from Drew's attorney, assuring us that she feels "terrible." Well, nice to know, but even if we accept it at face value, the cynic in us can't help but wonder whether she feels terrible about what happened to Megan or about what happened to Lori.

Let's go back to the legal case. Lori Drew was initially convicted last year of three misdemeanor charges of fraud, the idea being that Drew misrepresented herself by posing as a hunky teenage boy. While it does appear that Drew violated MySpace's terms of service, it is by no means clear that this constitutes a crime--particularly a federal crime. If you break it down, the crime for which Drew was convicted was essentially creating a false online identity--a persona, if you will. But if creating an online persona is a crime, then who among us is innocent? Brace yourselves, good readers, but even "The Solipsist" is something of a persona: We did NOT, in fact, graduate from the South Dakota Institute of Mines and Technology. (Everything else is true, though, we swear it! Please don't kill yourselves!)

Which brings us to the point of this ramble: What Lori Drew did was morally reprehensible, ethically unconscionable, and fundamentally loathsome. But it does not rise to the level of a crime. Nor, frankly, should it. The Solipsist is firmly against the legislation of morality (see also our stance on the legalization of drugs). This does not mean that Lori Drew should escape punishment. Since her crime was essentially social, though, her punishment should be as well.

And she has been punished. After her identity became public in November 2007, Web-based vigilantes took the law into their own hands, publishing Lori Drew's photo, her home and work addresses, and her phone and cell numbers online. She has had to close her advertising business (probably due in no small part that people began shunning businesses that advertised with Drew). She will probably have to move out of the neighborhood.

It wouldn't take much for Drew to rehabilitate herself. A public apology would be a good start. Perhaps a financial contribution to a teen-suicide prevention program? Or even to Tina Meier's (Megan's mother) efforts to combat cyberbullying? Seems to us that it's largely her choice to be ostracized--so everybody should just keep up the ostracism. (Although we can't really condone those who threw a brick through the Drews' window: Let's keep things classy, people.)

(Image of "Worst Woman in World and Daughter" from wired.com)