Megan Meier's parent were interviewed at CNN. A partial transcript of the interview with Ron and Tina Meier follows.
As the names of those who created the fake "Josh" character which led to Megan's suicide become widely known (Google the mother's name and you get almost 2 million references), the MySpace Suicide story will shift to whether they should be named at all. Another aspect will be the possible public backlash.
CNN Transcript of Interview with Megan Meier's Parents
AZUZ: And teachers, that's why we urge you to preview this segment, which discusses a teenager's suicide. Now, bullying has been around for a long time, and we've probably all seen some form of it: kids getting picked on for what they wear, something they say, sometimes for no reason at all. With social networking sites, bullying has moved online. Gary Tuchman tells us the tragic story of one teen who became the object of this kind of cyber-harassment.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GARY TUCHMAN, CNN REPORTER: What happened here is horrifying. Why it might have happened will leave you incredulous.
TINA MEIER, MOTHER: She was just a good girl.
TUCHMAN: Tina Meier of suburban St. Louis is the mother of Megan Meier, who had lived a challenging childhood.
MEIER: She got bullied in school, and she had big self esteem issues, and she had struggled with depression since she was in the 3rd grade.
TUCHMAN: Megan's mother and father allowed her to set up a MySpace account under their supervision, and said their 13-year-old swooned when she got her first affectionate note ever from a boy named Josh Evans.
MEIER: He thought she was really pretty. Posted on her comments on her pictures. This is beautiful, your eyes are beautiful.
TUCHMAN: For about a month, Josh sent her instant messages saying things like, "Lucky me and lucky u...cause you're my number one." But Megan's mother and father started getting suspicious because, although the notes were not explicit, their parental instinct told them something wasn't right.
MEIER: I did contact the police department. I asked to be transferred to the cybercrimes division to see how I could check to see if this MySpace account is real. Nothing you can do.
TUCHMAN: And then one day....
MEIER: It was a whirlwind. It was Josh saying horrible things to Megan; Megan saying things back to him.
TUCHMAN: Nasty messages from a boy who just a day before meant everything to this lonely girl. One in particular cut deep.
RON MEIER, MEGAN'S FATHER: The world would be better off place without you, and have a EXPLETIVE rest of your life.
TUCHMAN: Megan was distraught beyond words.
MEIER: This is the part I'll never forgive myself for, because she was looking for me to help calm her down like I always did and be there for her. And I was upset with her because I didn't like the language she was using, and I was upset that she didn't listen to me sign off when I told her to. I was aggravated with her and that and told her she knew better. She just said to me, "You're supposed to be my mom, you're supposed to be on my side," and she took off running upstairs.
TUCHMAN: It was too quiet for too long in that upstairs bedroom. Megan was pronounced dead the next day. When Ron Meier came home from the hospital, he wanted to find Josh Evans, let him know what he had done to his little girl. The first place he tried to look was Josh's MySpace page.
RON: He was deleted. The whole Josh Evans no longer existed.
TUCHMAN: A month passed as the Meiers struggled with their grief, seaching for answers why their daughter went to such extremes and who was the boy that drove her there. Then a neighbor told them something stunning: Josh Evans was actually the creation of a mother who lived on the same block as the Meiers, a mother who actually went to Megan's funeral. According to an official police report, that mother acknowledged it, the report saying, "In the months leading up to Meier's daughter's suicide, she instigated and monitored a MySpace account which was created for the sole purpose of communicating with Meier's daughter." The Meiers were told that the other family wanted to find out from Megan why she was having a dispute with their own 13-year-old daughter.
RON: It's as if my daughter killed herself with a gun, and it's as if they loaded the gun for her.
TUCHMAN: We are not reporting the name of the other family to protect the identity of their daughter, but did go to their home to try and get their side of the story.
TUCHMAN: Is anybody home?
TUCHMAN: The woman's father answered the door. In a soft voice, the grandfather said it was sad, but then would not say if he thought the police report was wrong.
TUCHMAN: Have you talked to these people since then?
MEIER: Yes, I have.
TUCHMAN: What have you said to them?
MEIER: Probably things that I can't say on camera.
TUCHMAN: And what did they say back to you?
RON/TINA: Give it a rest. Give it a rest.
We think it's entirely natural for people reading about the Megan Meier story to experience outrage and shock.
We do not, however, think it is natural for vigilante justice to come into play. The punishment these people will or will not receive is not to be meted out by anyone experiencing anger. That's what the courts are for.
It is worse that reports we've read indicate they feel no remorse for their actions. DBKP will address that issue in a later story. From the above transcript, these reports appears to be true.
In our view, one punishment is: they will have to live with the knowledge of what they did the rest of their lives.
Some will argue that this may not bother the hoaxers. That may be true. But there is one thing those people might think about. Anyone who did this kind of thing to a 13-year-old girl will not make good choices in other matters. We would hope that is not true, but experience argues against it.
They have already received the worst punishment: they are condemned to live the rest of their lives as themselves.
by Mondoreb
[image:foxnewsstlouis]
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