The story of Tyler Clementi's tragic death told in an article, from The Guardian, responds, "is the latest example of the damage that can be inflicted when the age-old habit of pranks between teenagers meets the huge social power of technology," is absolutely right. Pranks amongst teenagers have been altered by the use of technology faster than the consequences have been applied, or even understood. I do believe All whom were involved, including Tyler, his roommate, fellow students, all of their parents, and the school too, are responsible for the outcome of Tyler's decision to end his life. Parents should be responsible for teaching their children to respect others' rights to privacy, and that all schools should now have zero tolerance for cyber-bullying.
The invasion of privacy act carried out by Clementi's roommate, Dharun Ravi, may have been prevented or maybe it was already too late. From the information I have gathered, via the World Wide Web, I would have to say that under the circumstances neither Clementi nor Ravi made the right decisions; after all they are and were young people not yet equipped to fully understand the consequences and effects of their actions on themselves and others. As for the other students involved I agree with Shayla Reed in an article, written by Kelly Rouba, for The Trenton Times, wherein she responds to students reactions to the incident, “they were surprised that something like this would happen, and I think that they didn’t think it would get turned into such a big deal and to be so serious," and also replies,“I think that most people would agree that (Ravi) was just messing around and it just got out of hand.” Reed also disagrees with the idea of the situation being referred to as a hate crime.
As to how anti-bullying laws will impact cases similar to Clementi's will no doubt be through trial and error. The anti-bullying laws being put into place recently are all reflective of the misuse of a form of communication that is more influential than most of us have been, or are, aware of. Maybe the new anti-bullying laws will raise awareness while creating some balance to what laws will be effective. At the same time I believe setting a bunch of laws may curb the amount of bullying, but at what point do we stop and recognize the core of the bullying problem and start by teaching civility, awareness, and individual rights.
http://www.nj.com/mercer/index.ssf/2011/06/clementi_suicide_continues_to.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/sep/30/tyler-clementi-gay-student-suicide
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