The Dangers of MySpace

We all know children can be cruel to one another, but for adults to participate takes it to a whole new level.

The single mother, for this story, requested that her name not be used. She said her daughter, who had carpooled with the family that was involved in creating the phony MySpace account, had the password to the Josh Evans account and had sent one message - the one Megan received (and later retrieved off the hard drive) the night before she took her life.

"She had been encouraged to join in the joke," the single mother said.

The single mother said her daughter feels the guilt of not saying something sooner and for writing that message. Her daughter didn't speak out sooner because she'd known the other family for years and thought that what they were doing must be OK because, after all, they were trusted adults.

On the night the ambulance came for Megan, the single mother said, before it left the Meiers' house her daughter received a call. It was the woman behind the creation of the Josh Evans account. She had called to tell the girl that something had happened to Megan and advised the girl not to mention the MySpace account.

Read the entire article here. HT: O'Donnell Web Myspace, a fake homeschooler, and a dead teenager

We Must Stop Bullying

Officials did nothing to stop students from teasing Eric Hainstock despite complaints, a friend testified Wednesday at a hearing to determine whether adult charges should stand in the shooting death of the teenagers' school principal.

Other kids called Hainstock names and pushed and punched him for being messy and smelling bad, said Morgan Gudenschwager, a 15-year-old eighth-grader who described himself as Hainstock's best friend. Hainstock - who could be sentenced to life in prison if convicted on adult charges - told Gudenschwager his parents wouldn't let him shower at home.

Authorities say Hainstock, a freshman, walked into school before classes Sept. 29 and shot John Klang three times as the Weston Schools principal tried to wrestle him to the ground. Klang managed to disarm Hainstock but died later that day.

Hainstock, then a 15-year-old freshman, told detectives he went to the school with guns because he was tired of getting picked on and wanted to make people listen to him, according to a criminal complaint.

Adults simply must prevent students from bullying those less fortunate. Read the rest of the article in The Sun Herald.

Daughter's attacker still allowed in school

Regayla Woods choked back tears as she described how scared her daughter is to attend school following an alleged assault by another student that sent the 10th-grader to the emergency room Friday. "She's scared. She cries. She says, I don't want to go to school,'" Woods said about her daughter, Shakara Davis.

Children should not be afraid to go to school.

Woods said her daughter heard Wimbley threatening her while she was leaving school in her car. At one point, while the car was stopped in a traffic jam, Wimbley allegedly opened the driver's side car door and used a brick to hit Davis on the head. The police report stated that Davis fell out of the car and was hit several more times with the brick. Davis was released from the hospital that evening with "cerebral contusions," according to the discharge papers. Woods said that after she found out Wimbley was allowed back in school, she was told by district officials that because the incident occurred once students were in their cars, off-campus and out of the range of the cameras, the district could not punish anyone. Since then, Davis has still been verbally bullied, even after repeated meetings with school officials who know about the situation, Woods said.

You would think they could at least put a stop to the verbal abuse while Woods is at school.