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Online safety and Lori Drew

Submitted by Elizabeth Bennett on Fri, 08/07/2009

Lori Drew is once again in the news. Recently, her case was dismissed in a Los Angeles Court which enraged me. It only set a precedence for more cases such as this and the fact that people will get away with online impersonations as she has done. I have felt strongly that social justice was not sought in this case. The Meier family will never have Megan again thanks to this woman. Yet she gets to go home and continue to watch her own daughter grow into adulthood. She has yet to pay for what she has done to the Meier family. An apology would be nice but appears that this is not going to happen. According to recent events, Ms. Drew is asking to use the internet again as she recently got a job offer that would require her to use it at work. Since June of 2008, she had been banned from going online. Evidently, the woman has moved to an undisclosed state and found possible employment.

I find this behavior problematic.  For starters, this woman took the life of a young girl who suffered from clinical depression by using the internet. She manipulated, plotted and set up a fake account as a 16 year old boy named Josh. As most abusers do, she showed her cruel streak and Josh turned against Megan which led to Megan committing bullycide. This woman was well aware of the fact that Megan was vulnerable, clinically depressed and knew her weak spots. After Megan died, she had the nerve to ask the Meier family to keep a game for her that she was giving someone for Christmas. No admission, apology or any of that. She behaved as if nothing was ever wrong. If you ask me, this is scary behavior. One would have thought she would have been burdened with guilt. Yet no remorse was or has been expressed. Plus, she involved a young woman who worked for her in this act. This is the stuff that adult bullies are made of. True, I have never conducted a clincial assessment of her. However, from what I have seen, she has no regard for rules and comes across as a sociopath.

As Mrs. Drew was not punished or held accountable for her crimes or Megan's death, who is to say she is not going to go back online and pull this stunt on another child that her daughter may be feuding with? As she expressed no remorse or apology for Megan, who is to say she has changed or learned anything? MySpace is still in existence and is still a online hangout for teens. People who have internet access at their jobs are always sneaking peeks at their email or coming on places to chat like Facebook or Twitter so who is to say she won't do the same thing?  It does not appear she has learned a lesson the first time around and the fact that she may be going online again concerns me. Why are the powers that be not taking this into account? Serial killers continue to kill and stop only when they are caught. It would not shock me if Mrs. Drew pulled the same thing.

Parents, please make sure your children are safe when they go online. There are safe places to go such as Safewave where there is no online impersonators, cyberbullies, predators or any adults like Lori Drew. Make sure you know your childs friends both on and off the internet. Keep an eye on who they add as friends if they do go to these sites. MySpace is very popular for children and this is where Mrs. Drew created the fake account. Its these type of adults who can get your children into trouble. As you see, Mrs. Drew was not held accountable for her actions so who is to say anyone else will be if they pull the same thing?

I understand Mrs. Drew has to work so she can care for her family. I am not trying to judge her here but educate on why she does not need to go back online and why parents need to make sure their children are safe when using the internet.  I do not trust her whatsoever when it comes to the internet. She has proven that she cannot behave responsibly online and will repeat these same behaviors because she knows she will not be punished for her actions. That was the lesson that was learned the first time around. Besides, allowing this woman back online is like handing a serial killer a loaded gun. Now would anyone in their right mind even go there? Something to think about.

Resource Cited:

http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/laworder/story/5ED2247517BFA59D8625760A00134EAC