I am!

as crappy as it is, I think legally nothing should happen. I obviously think the offending family should move, etc. I just think that, while in this case it is clearly their fault, setting precedent for punishment in these sorts of cases opens up a lot of gray area.

To reiterate,

The thing that pisses me off the most is that the parents don't even feel guilty about it (outside of the obvious things that piss me off).

BLARRRRRR.

The parents that did this are total scum obv, and I would not hold it against the parents of the dead girl if they killed them (obv they'd go to jail/face consequences/whatever, but ethically, I wouldn't be too turned off), I just think that it's the edge of a slippery slope legally is all.

Hypothetical: Instead of killing herself she goes on a shooting rampage and kills a bunch of people at school. You guys holding myspace trickster liable for those deaths?

No. Her mother said she "talked" about suicide in third grade and had been in counseling since.

It was the other parent who said she tried it before to limit her own guilty conscience.

I think it is worse. I am not certain it is much worse, because I think the intentions and awareness of results are probably usually pretty similar. I'm guessing that the reaction a lot of people are having is probably based on an analogy to "A guy should not hit a girl." It is also obviously far less common, and so I think people haven't been as numbed to it as they are by kids doing it to each other.

Legally, as has been said, it seems like a very very slippery slope.

Karmically (heh), I'm fine with those parents dying.

It's worth noting that this girl's parents are partly at fault for letting her get so fat. Bad parenting led to a very unhappy child.

this is basically all I meant to say in my previous a million posts ITT... lol

it is much much much much much worse for an adult to do this. Not even close imo

I really hope they do. I really hope everynight they lay awake for a while feeling absolutely tormented. Which is possible, the kind of person who would do that in the first place, isnt the kind of person to say they feel bad about it for a newspaper interview, they are gunna say they dont feel bad and it wasnt their fault, cuz that would be admiting they were wong and accepting blame and thatsnot what [censored] human beings do. But they truly might realize they are to blame and be tormented about it. Tho its also entirely possible they dont feel bad about it, because thats what [censored] human beings do, and they are definitely that.

This is complete B.S. and conjecture with no facts to back it up. From the article it appears her parents were trying to take every reasonable precaution with their daughter's welfare.

How is anybody ever responsible for the actions of someone else (not speaking legally)? If you make fun of a poor person and call them dirty and make fun of their raggedy clothes, are you responsible for them consquently robbing a dept store? Or if you make fun of a depressed person and call them worthless and make fun of their boring life, are you responsible for them consequently ending their own life?

People's actions are their own. Being cruel to someone is a mean thing to do. Taking someone's life is a mean thing to do. Those are all things you choose to do yourself. But you can't be held morally responsible for the actions of others, which are completely out of your control. That the girl happened to kill herself immediately afterward is not their responsibility - it's her own and nobody else's.

gump,

I don't think the awareness of results is at all similar. The intentions might be similar, agreed. The awareness though, should be really really really different because a 40 year old adult has about a 25-0 edge in years of "life experience" in dealing with dramatic situations like this.

That would be, I guess, what I was trying to disagree with you about. Thanks for making an articulate post though so I could piggyback and explain my side clearly.

It's not the parents fault shes fat, its corporations like McDonalds who are to blame for that. im kidding

Here's something else that I'm wondering about:

So a lot of people in this thread have suggested they'd [censored] with the guilty parents after all of this, punishing them in some informal way for their actions. Fair enough. Reading the article, it seems like the guilty ones said that they got into doing this because they thought the dead girl was [censored] with their daughter. Obviously this was an inappropriate response, and I don't condone it. But I am curious to think about it and try to see where they are coming from.

Suppose you're those parents, and you hear from your kid that somebody has been bullying her and making her miserable. How do you respond? It seems to me like the same inclinations that lead to a desire for revenge/vigilante justice here are also the same ones that pushed the guilty parents down the road to their terrible action.

How can you compare off-handed trolling of a bum to premeditated harassment of a child?

BS. Her parents have complete control over her diet. Don't try to absolve them of doing a good job of raising their child. Plenty of parents do it just fine. I know if I ever have children they won't be getting fat and "corporations" aren't going to somehow make it happen behind my back.

wow I agree with you 100% here... the instinct to punish/judge/get revenge is involved in so many things like this...

I'm pretty sure he was being sarcastic fwiw

Yes.

Yes.

No, they're not, as you already pointed out. Not making fun of depressed people is entirely in your control.

Sorry, I spend too much time in Politics where such things are said seriously all too often.

I can't help you too much on this one. While I might have some slight urge to burn their house down or something, in reality I would just cry about my loss. I am a passive person by nature and I'm pretty sure the last time I got seriously mad or angry was like 4 years ago (possible exemption being once with my ex-gf).

I don't see how actual vengeance is the answer (for me) but I totally could see myself wishing harm on them in the heat of the moment.

The offense may be more despicable, but imo fundamentally nobody is ever responsible for the actions of another. You can't control what other people do, just like nobody can control what you do. Your actions are your own. It's pretty easy to shirk off that responsibility by blaming circumstance or environment or outside forces, but everybody's actions are still their own responsibility and nobody else's.