Megan Taylor Meier (November 6, 1992 – October 17, 2006) was an American teenager who died by
suicide by
hanging herself three weeks before her 14th birthday. A year later, Meier's parents prompted an investigation into the matter and her suicide was attributed to
cyberbullying
Cyberbullying or cyberharassment is a form of bullying or harassment using electronic means. Cyberbullying and cyberharassment are also known as online bullying. It has become increasingly common, especially among teenagers, as the digital ...
through the
social networking website
MySpace. Lori Drew, the mother of a classmate of Meier, was found
guilty
Guilty or The Guilty may refer to:
* Guilt (emotion), an experience that occurs when a person believes they have violated a moral standard
Law
*Culpability, the degree to which an agent can be held responsible for action or inaction
*Guilt (law) ...
of cyberbullying in the 2009 case ''
United States v. Drew
''United States v. Drew'', 259 F.R.D. 449 (C.D. Cal. 2009), was an American federal criminal case in which the U.S. government charged Lori Drew with violations of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) over her alleged cyberbullying of her 13-ye ...
''. However, her conviction was overturned by the judge.
Background
Megan Taylor Meier was born on November 6, 1992, to Christina "Tina" Meier and Ronald Meier in
O'Fallon, Missouri
O'Fallon ( ) is a city located along Interstates 64 and 70 between Lake St. Louis and St. Peters in St. Charles County, Missouri, United States. It is part of the St. Louis metropolitan statistical area. As of the 2020 census, O'Fallon had ...
.
From the third grade in 2001–02, after she had told her mother she had wanted to kill herself, Megan had been under the care of a
psychiatrist. She had been prescribed
citalopram
Citalopram, sold under the brand name Celexa among others, is an antidepressant of the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) class. It is used to treat major depressive disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder, panic disorder, and so ...
(an
antidepressant that has a possible
side effect of increasing suicide risk in young people),
methylphenidate
Methylphenidate, sold under the brand names Ritalin and Concerta among others, is the most widely prescribed central nervous system (CNS) stimulant medication used to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and, to a lesser exten ...
, and the atypical
antipsychotic
Antipsychotics, also known as neuroleptics, are a class of psychotropic medication primarily used to manage psychosis (including delusions, hallucinations, paranoia or disordered thought), principally in schizophrenia but also in a range of ...
ziprasidone
Ziprasidone, sold under the brand name Geodon among others, is an atypical antipsychotic used to treat schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. It may be used by mouth and by injection into a muscle (IM). The IM form may be used for acute agitation ...
. She had been diagnosed with
attention deficit disorder
Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterised by excessive amounts of inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity that are pervasive, impairing in multiple contexts, and otherwise age-inap ...
,
depression, and
self-esteem issues regarding her weight. She was described by her parents as a "bubbly, goofy" girl who enjoyed spending time with her friends and family.
Meier attended
Fort Zumwalt public schools, including Pheasant Point Elementary School and
Fort Zumwalt West Middle School in nearby O'Fallon, Missouri.
Megan befriended the popular girls so that the boys who picked on her would stop. The girls soon turned on Megan and the bullying became even worse than before. For eighth grade in 2006, her parents enrolled her at Immaculate Conception Catholic School
in Dardenne Prairie.
Soon after opening her own MySpace account, despite her mother's objections, Meier received a friend request from a fellow user claiming to be a 16-year-old boy named Josh Evans. Meier and "Josh" became online friends, but never met in person or spoke. Meier thought "Josh" was attractive. As Meier began to exchange messages with this person, her family said she seemed to have had her "spirits lifted". This person claimed to have moved to the nearby city of
O'Fallon, was
homeschooled
Homeschooling or home schooling, also known as home education or elective home education (EHE), is the education of school-aged children at home or a variety of places other than a school. Usually conducted by a parent, tutor, or an onlin ...
and did not yet have a phone number.
A 16-year-old male named "Josh Evans" was registered on the account that was later attributed to bullying Meier. But Lori Drew, the mother of Sarah Drew, a former friend of Meier, later admitted to creating the MySpace account. At the time of the suicide, the Drew and Meier families were neighbors, living four doors apart.
Lori Drew was aided by Sarah and by Ashley Grills, an 18-year-old employee of Lori. Lori and several others ran the
hoaxed account. Witnesses testified that the women intended to use Meier's messages sent to "Josh" to get information about her and later humiliate her, in retribution for her allegedly spreading gossip about Drew's daughter.
[Exclusive: Teen Talks About Her Role in Web Hoax That Led to Suicide]
." ''ABC News
ABC News is the news division of the American broadcast network ABC. Its flagship program is the daily evening newscast ''ABC World News Tonight, ABC World News Tonight with David Muir''; other programs include Breakfast television, morning ...
''.
Suicide
On October 16, 2006, the tone of the messages changed. After Megan got home from school, Tina Meier signed into MySpace for Megan. She was in a hurry because she had to take her younger daughter, Allison, to the orthodontist. Before she could get to the door, Megan was upset. "Josh" sent troubling messages to Megan, including one that said: "I don't want to be friends with you anymore. You're not a nice person."
More messages of this type were sent, some of Megan's messages were shared with others, and bulletins were posted about her. Tina told her daughter to sign off, and went to the orthodontist. She called her daughter to ask her if she had signed off, and she hadn't. Megan was sobbing hysterically. When her mother got home, she was furious that Megan hadn't signed off. She was shocked at the vulgar language her daughter was firing back. Megan then told her mother, "You're supposed to be my mom! You're supposed to be on my side!" and then left from the computer and went upstairs. According to her father Ron Meier and a neighbor who had discussed the hoax with Drew, the last message sent by "Josh" read: "Everybody in O'Fallon knows who you are. You are a bad person and everybody hates you. Have a shitty rest of your life. The world would be a better place without you".
Megan responded saying, "You're the kind of boy a girl would kill herself over." The last few exchanges were made via
AOL Instant Messenger
AIM (AOL Instant Messenger) was an instant messaging and presence computer program created by AOL, which used the proprietary OSCAR instant messaging protocol and the TOC protocol to allow registered users to communicate in real time.
AIM w ...
instead of MySpace. When she ran upstairs, she ran into her father. She told him about the trouble and went to her room. Ron went downstairs to the kitchen where he and Tina talked about the cyberbullying and made dinner. Twenty minutes later, Tina suddenly froze in mid-sentence, and ran up to Megan's room. Megan had already hanged herself with a belt in the bedroom closet. Despite attempts to revive her, Megan was pronounced dead the next day on October 17, three weeks before her 14th birthday.
Investigation
Local
Several weeks after her death, Megan Meier's parents were told that the mother of one of their daughter's friends—with whom Meier had a falling out with—had created the "Josh Evans" account. The parent, Lori Drew, who created the fake account, admitted that she and her daughter had the password to the account, and characterized the hoax to a reporter as a "joke". Initially, Drew denied knowing about the offensive messages that were sent to Meier. She told the police that the account was aimed at "gaining Megan's confidence and finding out what Megan felt about her daughter and other people". The neighborhood mother who had told the Meiers that Drew had the hoax account said "Lori laughed about it", and said she had intended to "mess with Megan".
While Drew's name was excluded from most early news stories,
CNN
CNN (Cable News Network) is a multinational cable news channel headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable news channel, and presently owned by ...
disclosed her name through the inclusion of the police report in its broadcast of the story; it was featured on many
blog
A blog (a truncation of "weblog") is a discussion or informational website published on the World Wide Web consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries (posts). Posts are typically displayed in reverse chronological order s ...
s.
It was more than a year between Meier's suicide and the first media report of the Internet hoax. The
FBI
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic intelligence and security service of the United States and its principal federal law enforcement agency. Operating under the jurisdiction of the United States Department of Justice, t ...
was investigating the matter and had asked the Meier family to refrain from speaking publicly about it to keep the Drews from learning about their investigation. Shortly after the first anniversary of Meier's death, her aunt, Vicki Dunn, saw an article written by Steve Pokin of the ''
Suburban Journals'' about Internet
harassment. She contacted Pokin to share Meier's story with him. Once the story broke, it quickly spread to national and international news outlets.
At a press conference on December 3, 2007, Jack Banas, the prosecuting attorney of
St. Charles County
St. Charles County is in the central eastern part of the U.S. state of Missouri. As of the 2020 census, the population was 405,262, making it Missouri's third-most populous county. Its county seat is St. Charles. The county was organized Oct ...
, said that Lori Drew's 18-year-old temporary employee, Ashley Grills, wrote most of the messages addressed to Meier and that she wrote the final "Josh Evans" message addressed to Meier. Grills said she wrote the final message to end the
MySpace hoax and get Meier to stop communicating with "Josh Evans".
Banas stated that he did not interview Grills because, at the time, she was under psychiatric treatment for her participation in the Meier case. He did not plan to interview her at a later date.
The Meiers criticized the prosecutor's statements, saying that Banas did not interview any party other than the Drews and that Banas was solely relying on the testimony of the Drews. Banas said that the original FBI investigation into the matter, during which Grills was interviewed, established her role in the event. The Meiers have said they do not hold Grills responsible for Megan's death. Banas said Sarah Drew, by then 15, was attending a different school and not living in Dardenne Prairie. He said Lori Drew was fearful of telling him where her daughter lives. According to Lori Drew's attorney, she had to close her advertising business in the wake of publicity about her role in the Internet account and messages. Neighbors shunned the Drews following the revelations.
[. '']Associated Press
The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. ne ...
'' at ''CNN
CNN (Cable News Network) is a multinational cable news channel headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable news channel, and presently owned by ...
''. December 7, 2007. Retrieved on September 8, 2010.
Internet webloggers posted photographs, telephone numbers, e-mail details, and addresses of the Drews and the employee on various websites.
Businesses that advertised in Drew's coupon book business were also shunned.
[Hutcheon, Stephen]
''Net vigilantes target MySpace mum''
. ''The Age
''The Age'' is a daily newspaper in Melbourne, Australia, that has been published since 1854. Owned and published by Nine Entertainment, ''The Age'' primarily serves Victoria, but copies also sell in Tasmania, the Australian Capital Territory ...
'' Sarah Wells, a weblogger who revealed the
given and
family
Family (from la, familia) is a group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its members and of society. Idea ...
names of Lori Drew, said, "I don't regret naming Drew." After reviewing the case, county prosecutors decided not to file any criminal charges in relation to the hoax.
Federal
Lori Drew was indicted and convicted by a jury of violations of the
Computer Fraud and Abuse Act
The Computer Fraud and Abuse Act of 1986 (CFAA) is a United States cybersecurity bill that was enacted in 1986 as an amendment to existing computer fraud law (), which had been included in the Comprehensive Crime Control Act of 1984. The law pro ...
in 2008 over the matter. Her conviction was vacated by a federal judge on a post-trial verdict, on grounds that the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act did not intend to criminalize the conduct of which Drew was accused. The government chose not to appeal this post-trial ruling.
Reactions
When Megan Meier's story was first reported in the ''St. Charles Journal'', readers were concerned about the unnamed adults implicated in the hoax.
Later, the focus was on the decision by the St. Louis ''
Suburban Journals'' not to print the names of the Drews. In an interview, the reporter said that names had been withheld to protect the minor child in the family.
Webloggers learned and reported the names of Lori and Gary Drew, after they found the latter in minutes.
Media eventually revealed Lori Drew's name and published her photograph.
Banas said he was aware of the national outrage against the Drews, which originated on the Internet in response to the Steve Pokin article in the ''O'Fallon Journal''.
[''UPDATE: No charges to be filed over Meier suicide'']
. ''Suburban Journals''. December 3, 2007. The Drews have had their home and work addresses, phone and cell phone numbers, and aerial photos of their home posted on the Internet. The Drews' property had also been vandalized. Banas said some of these actions against the Drews could constitute
Internet stalking.
"Because we can't prosecute somebody it certainly does not justify violating the law," Banas said. "We live in this country by the rule of the law." He described Lori Drew as "upset, cautious and guarded" when he interviewed her. Banas said that she felt "terrible" about Meier's death.
A vigil was held for Meier on November 24, 2007. The crowd gathered in a nearby parking lot and walked past the homes of the Meiers and the Drews. A small piece of ground adjacent to the Drews' house was the scene of remembrances by friends of the Meiers.
The case has caused several jurisdictions to enact or to consider legislation prohibiting harassment over the Internet. The Board of Aldermen for the City of Dardenne Prairie passed an ordinance on November 22, 2007, in response to the incident.
The ordinance prohibits any harassment that utilizes an electronic medium, including the Internet, text messaging services, pagers, and similar devices. Violations of the ordinance are treated as misdemeanors, with fines of up to $500 and up to 90 days imprisonment. The city of
Florissant,
Missouri
Missouri is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking 21st in land area, it is bordered by eight states (tied for the most with Tennessee): Iowa to the north, Illinois, Kentucky and Tennessee to the east, Arkansas t ...
also passed a "Cyber Harassment" law, with other municipalities, counties, and states considering following suit. The state of Missouri is to revise its harassment laws in response to the case, updating them to cover harassment through computers and mobile phone messaging, and creating a new crime to cover adults 21 and over harassing children under the age of 18.
The new legislation went into effect on August 28, 2008, and was intended to cover loopholes in the current law. According to the ''St. Louis Daily Record'', the new language "expands the definition of the crime of 'harassment' to include knowingly intimidating or causing emotional distress anonymously, either by phone or electronically, or causing distress to a child." It also "increases the penalty for harassment from a
misdemeanor to a
felony
A felony is traditionally considered a crime of high seriousness, whereas a misdemeanor is regarded as less serious. The term "felony" originated from English common law (from the French medieval word "félonie") to describe an offense that resu ...
, carrying up to four years in prison, if it's committed by an adult against someone 17 or younger, or if the criminal has previously been convicted of harassment." This is one of the first comprehensive
cyberbullying
Cyberbullying or cyberharassment is a form of bullying or harassment using electronic means. Cyberbullying and cyberharassment are also known as online bullying. It has become increasingly common, especially among teenagers, as the digital ...
and
cyberstalking
Cyberstalking is the use of the Internet or other electronic means to stalk or harass an individual, group, or organization. It may include false accusations, defamation, slander and libel. It may also include monitoring, identity theft, thre ...
state laws that protects children and adults from harassment on social networking sites. The bill is a reaction to Lori Drew's case dismissal
and Governor
Matt Blunt
Matthew Roy Blunt (born November 20, 1970) is an American former naval officer and politician who served as the 54th Governor of Missouri from 2005 to 2009. Before his election as governor, Blunt served ten years in the United States Navy, was e ...
, the politician who signed the law into effect states, "
issourineeds tough laws to protect its children." A bill was introduced in the
111th Congress
The 111th United States Congress was a meeting of the legislative branch of the United States federal government from January 3, 2009, until January 3, 2011. It began during the last weeks of the George W. Bush administration, with th ...
on April 2, 2009, as H.R. 1966. Both houses of the Missouri State Legislature voted unanimously on May 15, 2008, to criminalize usage of the internet to harass someone, the existing statute was expanded to prohibit abusive ''"communication by any means"'' and is known as "Megan's Law." (not to be confused with New Jersey's and subsequent federal
Megan's Law
Megan's Law is the name for a federal law (and informal name for subsequent state laws) in the United States requiring law enforcement authorities to make information available to the public regarding registered sex offenders. Laws were creat ...
). On May 22, 2008, Congresswoman
Linda T. Sanchez introduced H.R. 6123 as the "Megan Meier Cyberbullying Prevention Act" to "amend title 18, United States Code, with respect to cyberbullying."
Tina Meier started the Megan Meier Foundation, headquartered in
Chesterfield, Missouri
Chesterfield is a city in St. Louis County, Missouri, United States. It is a western suburb of St. Louis. As of the 2020 census, the population was 49,999, . The broader valley of Chesterfield was originally referred to as "Gumbo Flats", deriv ...
. The organization states that it exists to promote "awareness, education and promote positive change to children, parents, and educators in response to the ongoing bullying and cyberbullying in our children's daily environment."
[Mission Statement]
." Megan Meier Foundation. Retrieved on December 9, 2010.
See also
*
Bullying and suicide
*
Catfishing
Catfishing is a deceptive activity in which a person creates a fictional persona or fake identity on a social networking service, usually targeting a specific victim. The practice may be used for financial gain, to compromise a victim in so ...
*
''Cyberbully'', a film loosely based upon Meier's case
*
Cyberstalking legislation
Cyberstalking and cyberbullying are relatively new phenomena, but that does not mean that crimes committed through the network are not punishable under legislation drafted for that purpose. Although there are often existing laws that prohibit stal ...
*
Death of Conrad Roy
Conrad Henri Roy III (September 12, 1995 – July 13, 2014) was an American teenager who died by suicide at the age of 18. His girlfriend, 17-year-old Michelle Carter, had encouraged him in text messages to kill himself. The case was the subjec ...
*
Social media and suicide
Social media and suicide is a phenomenon concerning social media's influence on suicide behavior. Suicide is one of the top leading causes of death worldwide, and as of 2020, the third leading cause of death in those aged 15–24. According to the ...
*
Suicide of Amanda Todd
Amanda Michelle Todd (November 27, 1996 – October 10, 2012) was a 15-year-old Canadian student and victim of cyberbullying who hanged herself at her home in Port Coquitlam, British Columbia. Before her death, Todd posted a video on YouTube ...
*
Suicide of Near
*
Suicide of Tyler Clementi
Tyler Clementi (December 19, 1991 – September 22, 2010) was an American student at Rutgers University–New Brunswick who jumped to his death from the George Washington Bridge over the Hudson River at the age of 18, on September 22, 2010. On S ...
References
External links
*
Megan Meier FoundationH.R. 1966 Megan Meier Cyberbullying Prevention Act
{{DEFAULTSORT:Meier, Megan Taylor
1992 births
2006 deaths
2006 suicides
Deaths by person in Missouri
Female suicides
Youth suicides
Myspace
Suicides by hanging in Missouri
Victims of cyberbullying
2006 in Missouri
Bullying and suicide
Bullying in the United States
People from O'Fallon, Missouri
Internet-related activism