Teacher World

Just a quick update tonight on the Tyler Clementi case as it pertains to Dharun Ravi, Tyler’s former roommate at Rutgers University.

I’m sure you all remember reading and hearing about the tragic suicide of Tyler Clementi this past September shortly after his roommate, Dharun Ravi, and Molly Wei, allegedly videoed a romantic encounter Tyler had with another man in his dorm room and streamed it online for others to see.

I have reported already in a previous blog, that Molly Wei appeared in court earlier this month where she pled not guilty in two counts of invasion of privacy for watching the video with Ravi. Per court orders, Wei must complete a three-year counseling program on cyber bullying as well as alternate and cultural lifestyles. She must also complete 300 hours of community service.  Included in her plea deal was her agreement to testify against Ravi. If she completes the counseling and community service without further legal problems, the invasion of privacy charges will be dropped from her record.

So, that leaves us with Dharun Ravi whose attorneys entered a not guilty plea today on behalf of their client. No surprise there, right? He is charged with streaming the video of this physical relationship which, according to prosecutors, was allegedly accessed from another room and then advertised on Twitter, making this private encounter, without Tyler’s knowledge, publicly available to others.

Ravi is facing a 15-count indictment of hate crime charges involving invasion of privacy and evidence tampering. Prosecutors claim that after the incident (I’m sure when Ravi realized what kind of trouble he was in) he tried to cover up his actions by deleting a previous Twitter post, replacing it with one he hoped would mislead investigators. Additionally, prosecutors claim that he asked witnesses not to testify against him.

The tragic suicide of Tyler Clementi has sparked grave concern for young people like Tyler who face bullying on school campuses leading to an increase in anti-bullying sentiment all across our nation. It sparked President Obama less than a month after his death to condemn what had transpired at Rutgers University and to say to others like Tyler, “You are not alone. You did not do anything wrong. You didn’t do anything to deserve being bullied and there is a whole world waiting for you filled with possibilities.”

And it prompted the proposed federal anti-harassment legislation called the “Tyler Clementi Higher Education Anti-Harassment Act.” If this law is passed, it would require any school that receives federal student aid to develop policies which would prohibit the harassment of any student on a school campus.

In the meantime, I will continue to update you regarding Dharun Ravi’s case. I can only hope the courts remember the family of Tyler Clementi before agreeing to any deals which keep Ravi from facing up to the consequences of his misguided and bigoted actions. A slap on the wrist this time would be criminal! 

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Is it me, or is the month of May turning into bullying-plea-bargain season? Just when I think I’ve covered every plea bargain out there, here’s one more, this time from Trenton, New Jersey.

You remember the case from Rutgers University involving the video taping of Tyler Clementi in an encounter with another boy by his roommate, Dharun Ravi who was aided by Molly Wei. The video was posted online for others to see leading to Tyler’s apparent suicidal jump off the George Washington Bridge.

This past Friday, Molly Wei pleaded not guilty to two counts of invasion of privacy. The deal she accepted requires she be admitted into a three-year pretrial intervention program. If she completes that program without additional legal troubles, the two invasion of privacy charges, which she received for allegedly watching the video with Tyler, will be dropped, according to a statement from the Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office.

But, that’s not all! Wei will also have to complete 300 hours of community service, participate in counseling which centers on cyber bullying and alternate and cultural lifestyles, and (and this is a biggie) she must testify against Ravi.

According to authorities, Ravi was the one who placed the camera in the room without Tyler’s knowledge and accessed it remotely. Then, according to Middlesex County Prosecutor Bruce J. Kaplan, he “provided others an opportunity to view the encounter.”

As if this wasn’t bad enough, Ravi tried to view a second encounter between Tyler and the same male two days later. He then alerted others on Twitter of the planned meeting. Then, according to the statement, he deleted the tweet, replacing it with a false one in order to mislead investigators.

Ravi has been indicted by a grand jury on 15 counts which include invasion of privacy, bias intimidation, tampering with physical evidence, witness tampering, and hindering apprehension of prosecution. He is to be arraigned on May 23.

Wei remained silent after the brief hearing, but her lawyer claimed that she isn’t a bully and has been cooperative with both the investigation and the prosecutor’s office.

In the meantime, Tyler’s father, Joe, read a statement outside the courtroom in which he said that the charges were a direct result of Wei’s “bad decisions without regard for another person’s privacy or dignity. … We are here to say that we are committed to do what we can to reinforce calls for compassion and respect for human dignity that have been made in response to Tyler’s experience…”

“Actions have consequences,” he concluded. “We hope Ms. Wei will become a better person and show kindness to people.”

I reported earlier today regarding the plea agreements in the Phoebe Prince case. As I compare these two situations, I must applaud the judge of this West Windsor, New Jersey court, and anyone else who helped draft this agreement, for a job well-done. This, as far as I am concerned, is a much more appropriate plea agreement; one that better fits the crime.

The extended length of time, three years rather than just one or less than one year, seems fairer. And I think it is awesome that during this time she will do 300 not just 100 hours of community service. This service will take time, it will be inconvenient, and it will be a constant reminder to her of what she did and what she must never do again.

And why wasn’t counseling a criteria in the Prince pleas? How appropriate that Wei will be a captive audience as she explores the difference between insensitivity and compassion for people who face cyber bullying or who live an alternative lifestyle.

Molly has been offered the chance of a lifetime; the chance to learn from her mistakes, to be a better, more sensitive person who accepts others even when they are different from her.

This agreement lends itself to true restitution and rehabilitation. I commend this court for coming up with a set of firm, yet fair, requirements which, if followed, will strengthen this girl’s spirit rather than crush it.

Good luck to you, Molly Wei. Use this time wisely, for your sake and for Tyler’s.

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My first follow-up of the Tyler Clementi blog posted this weekend deals with the two young people whose poor judgment and malicious bullying were indirectly responsible for this young man’s apparent suicide. If you recall, Dharun Ravi, Tyler’s roommate, was allegedly responsible for using the webcam on his computer to tape a private moment Tyler had with a man. Then, he and Molly Wei allegedly streamed this intimate video on the Internet for other students to see. So what has happened to these two Rutgers students and how have their precipitous actions affected their lives? That is the subject of this blog.

First, Dharun Ravi and Molly Wei, both residents of New Jersey, have each been charged with two counts of invasion of privacy for using a camera to view and then transmit live images of Tyler during this intimate encounter. They face the possibility of up to five years in prison which is the maximum sentence if found guilty. Additionally, Dharun faces two more counts of invasion of privacy for trying to send a similar live feed on the Internet the day before Tyler’s suicide on September 21.

The investigation is ongoing and could possibly involve additional charges. Some people are going so far is to call the death of Tyler Clementi a result of a hate crime. Steven Goldstein, chairman of Garden State Equality, a gay rights group, made the following statement about Ravi and Wei’s actions: “We are sickened that anyone in our society, such as the students allegedly responsible for making the surreptitious video, might consider destroying others’ lives as a sport,”

Molly Wei was released on her own recognizance, and Dharun Ravi was freed on bail. And what has happened to their lives since then? Apparently they both faced some major repercussions for their actions, to the extent that they were “shunned and vilified”. They also faced disciplinary action if they had stayed at Rutgers. Therefore, Ravi transferred to another school, and according to Molly’s lawyer, she quit out of fear for her own life. She is studying to take her SAT’s again in order to go back to school at some future time.

Now, here is the sad truth. These two people made a terrible decision meant to humiliate and publicly destroy another person. No one with an ounce of decency would treat another human being in such a devastatingly hateful manner. Whether this was a hate crime or not, it has certainly been about hate. Either they hated Tyler, hated what he was doing, or have no respect for other people’s privacy as long as they get a laugh. Are they really surprised that they are being “shunned and vilified”? Hate tends to beget hate. That old adage comes to mind that you reap what you sow. I surmise that it isn’t so funny to them now, and I would hazard a guess that if given the same opportunity now, their actions would be very different.

So, two more lives have forever been altered due to this tragic incident. The difference is that Tyler’s life is over, but Ravi and Wei’s futures still hang in the balance. I can only hope that they use this tragedy to grow, to take responsibility for their actions, and to learn from their terrible mistakes. Moving on, even if they do not go to prison, will not be easy for these two.

May this tragic event and it’s equally tragic repercussions send a strong message to our young people to stop using the Internet to bully and harass others.

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I’m sure you all remember September’s sad news reports about Tyler Clementi, his roommate’s betrayal, and Tyler’s resultant suicide. Such a terrible loss in and of itself, but apparently, a rash of teenage suicides are being linked to this case, so I am going to revisit Tyler’s sad story in this blog and will talk about the national ramifications of his suicide in a future one.

What happened to Tyler is one of the most brutal forms of high-tech bullying I have ever heard about. On September 19, Tyler Clementi, a quiet, shy Rutgers University student with a love for and a talent for violin, was videoed by his roommate in the privacy of Tyler’s room as he engaged in an intimate moment with another male. Allegedly, Dharun Ravi, Tyler’s roommate, used a webcam on his computer to make the video and then posted a message on his Twitter account telling his friends what he had seen. Although Ravi and Molly Wei, another student accused of involvement in Tyler’s harassment, claim they only watched the video for a few minutes in private, they are being accused of streaming the video on the internet for their friends to view as well. Ravi is also being accused of trying a similar live feed on the Internet on September 21, the day before the suicide.

Whatever the extent of the cyber bullying, the effect was tragic as only three days after the original internet posting, Clementi wrote the following note on his Facebook page: “Jumping off the gw bridge sorry.” And that is exactly what he did! On September 22, Tyler Clementi jumped from the George Washington Bridge into the Hudson River in an apparent suicide. A life lost due to on-line bullying by two misguided teenagers who decided that they had the right to tell the world something Tyler wasn’t ready for the world to know in the most humiliating way possible. How sad that these young people felt the need to judge someone who had never hurt them out of some misguided sense of power! And three lives have been forever altered due to ignorance and intolerance.

But it doesn’t end here. And that is the topic of a future blog…

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This spring I read the book Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult, and the effect it had on me and on my classroom was powerful. The book is about a high school student who was bullied every day of his school career starting in kindergarten. The chilling fictional story depicts one devastating possible outcome of this kind of constant abuse; the young man finally breaks, takes weapons into his high school, and kills or wounds several fellow classmates. What made this story so frightening is that our news is riddled with stories about the sometimes devastating result of unresolved bullying. We are bombarded with tragic tales of retaliation, suicide, and the affects of the newest form of bullying; cyber bullying.

After reading this book, I felt compelled to do something powerful to take a stand against bullying in my classroom and in our school. My students and I engaged in some heartfelt conversations about bullying; how it makes us feel, why we do it ourselves, and what we could do to take a stand. The students openly discussed the feeling of powerlessness a victim of bullying feels and several got emotional as they told of times they felt this way. Without a doubt, if you were to ask me to share my best memory of this past year it would be those moments of complete honesty we shared and the difference it began to make in my students. 

We made a declaration against bullying and teasing which everyone signed. Some of my students shared personal experiences about how they felt when they were bullied or why they had bullied in the past over the morning announcements and invited anyone who felt as we did to sign our petition, which hangs proudly in the front hall. It was a life-changing moment for all of us, and the proudest I have ever been of a group of students.

I share this with you to ask for your support in your classrooms and in your schools in the upcoming school year. We need to be more tuned in to our students and confront bullying when we hear of it. We need to involve our students in the task of rethinking how they interact with each other, and we need to openly address problems as they occur with the goal of resolution. We need to put our students to work to help stamp out this destructive behavior, too. Give them a sense of ownership in the solution, and they will join in.

In one of our discussions, one of my students said, “How can we make a difference? We are just one class.” I told them, “We are only one class, but each student in our class will have an impact on everyone they know, and those people will impact everyone they know, and over time maybe we will begin to see the difference we made.”

I am asking all of you to make a difference. Read Nineteen Minutes. It will touch you deeply. I am including a link here for you to sign the “Stop Bullying! Pass the Safe Schools Improvement Act”.  Please log-on and sign this important document.

Get involved in this most important fight. It impacts all of us.

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