I was asked my opinion on if the students who filmed Tyler Clementi should be charged with some sort of punishment. This was my answer.

When I heard this story I was heartbroken and horrified to say the least. This is a topic I’ve been trying to raise awareness on for quite some time now which is why I was so grateful to see that it was this week’s question of the week. When I was younger I heard a similar story to this and I have been passionate about this topic ever since.

 I can only imagine how Tyler Clementi must have felt after discovering what should have been completely personal to him became a public event. The way those students treated him is heart dropping and disgusting! Maybe they thought it was just a practical joke and that it would be funny but a young college student who had his whole life in front of him is dead because of them. How could this be funny or human at all? Those who are gay should be treated no differently than those who are not but instead in way too many cases they are treated horrible as if they’re bad people. The humiliation he felt drove him to killing himself and a lot of people I know are acting like it’s not a big deal. How is this not a big deal?

I absolutely believe this was a hate crime and I believe those students should be charged without a doubt! It’s basically manslaughter in a somewhat different form. If they wouldn’t have invaded his privacy and purposely tried to ruin his life then he would still be alive today. The way that parents, churches and even communities treat people when they find out that they’re gay is shameful. What could be so important or matter so much that a young boy or young girl or anyone for that matter should feel like they have to kill themselves over.

 I am disgusted with those who hate “gays” so much that they will go out of their way to make signs and protest just to make them feel like they don’t belong. I honestly couldn’t say enough to tell everyone how important this is. It’s this week’s topic and it’s going to be a topic for the rest of our lives if we don’t try to raise awareness for it now.  Gays are not treated equally and it’s so ridiculous that they’re not.

Social networking wasn’t made so that we could humiliate our classmates in the worse forms possible. People that do these kinds of things need to be charged with something to show that their actions have consequences. The people who are doing these online hate crimes aren’t young adolescent children who don’t know what they’re doing. They know that their actions will cause humiliation and pain and still they continue with it. To me this means they should be punished. The students that filmed Tyler knew what they were doing and maybe they didn’t know it would be the cause of his death but I’m pretty sure any average person would realize that it was wrong and that it would cause horrible problems in his life.

We all need to open our eyes and realize nothing as immature as the “fun” of online bullying is worth the death of anyone. I read in a news report that his classmates said it was a joke. What was the punch line? His death?

~Anna