Right down the road from where I live, a girl committed suicide after her best friend stopped being friends with her and turned to bullying her. Sheriff Grady Judd threw the book at the bullies, hoping to convict them with charges. The main instigator, who even acknowledged on her Facebook that she didn't care that her former friend had killed herself over some of her comments, had charges dropped against her this week. No matter her involvement, she is now a free girl.
The whole thing is despicable, and so will be the upcoming counter suit filed against the Sheriff.
This quotation really rubs me the wrong way, too. Emphasis, mine.
“I’m very relieved,’’ Katelyn's mother, Roseanne Gill, told Guthrie. “It’s been a horrible experience for me and my daughter and my whole family. This can happen to any child in America, and we have to make sure that we watch our children’s Facebooks. This can happen to anyone, not just my daughter. It could’ve happened to anyone.”
Out of context, a reader might see that quotation and think, "Oh no! That poor girl!"
Now, it's probably the case that the media frenzy that disrupted from Sheriff Judd's charging circus disrupted their lives greatly. They probably received hate mail and hate visitors. It probably has been a devastating situation for such a young girl. But when you bullied and bullied and bullied and then got caught, your response is NOT allowed to be, "Look at what happened to me."
Something happened to the victim. You're not the victim. You're the bully. At least be strong enough to admit to that.
Katelyn also remarked "No, I do not feel I did anything wrong." That's unacceptable. What would have been acceptable? If Katelyn had said, "I'm glad it's all over" or "I'm sorry for what I did" or, as she did acknowledge, "You should stand up to bullying." These parents are letting their daughter skate by, at least to the public eye, without even acknowledging her culpability.
That's a sick trend in today's world and it is, as Sheriff Judd remarked, despicable.