Yeah they can. Not everyone has the mental fortitude to withstand emotional abuse. Someone can be driven to suicide and just because they died at their own hand doesn't mean there weren't contributing factors.
And remember this was a 12 year old CHILD who not only didn't have the maturity or impulse control to know to turn off and ignore the cyber bullying but also lacked the emotional capacity to handle what was being thrown at her. Especially when it's being dished out by someone you believed to be your friend.
By that logic, anyone who asks for a divorce or breaks up with someone who doesn't want to let them go could also be accused of making them commit suicide. Companies who lay off people by the thousands could be accused of being responsible for the people who respond by blowing their brains out or going on a shooting rampage. That's where I don't want to see this lead. Just for the record, imo, this woman is a despicable cunt who is beneath contempt for her cruelty and immaturity and I would love to see her get her face bashed in with a couple of bricks. However, who is to know when someone will react in such an extreme way because their feelings are devastated, because they are rejected, or whatever?
And I agree with Sweetie: this child's mother is responsible for monitoring her and could have been more involved in protecting her child by monitoring her internet activities, as all parents should be doing in this day and age. I'm sure she feels guilty about that,too, but no one wants mom to feel guilty in addition to the grief she's already going through. That doesn't absolve her parental responsibility, much like the parents of the kids who fall in love with 46 yr old pedos on the net. This mother knew better than anyone how sick her kid was and had the opportunity to be more proactive. Bullies on the internet are the leat of parents' concerns when it comes to who can get ahold of and influence their kids.
Much like everyone else here,though, this kind of blatant cruelty by anyone to intentionally cause someone (especially a kid) pain and heartbreak is morally unforgivable. I'm just wary of putting people in jail for crimes of immorality. I also disapprove of some of the implied accusations (not necessarily by posters here) that anyone who doesn't agree that jail is the answer must be siding with that bitch of a woman or saying that what she did was 'okay' or not 'that bad'. Plenty of horrible, horrible things are done to people that are far from okay in the moral or ethical sense but that to me doesn't indicate that all mean assholes should be in jail for being mean assholes.
I hope they sue the bitch for everything she's got, ever had, or ever will have and that it ruins her marriage and family. Maybe she will then commit suicide.
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