A First Cyber Bullying Story by Dilan Williams In what is considered one of the first cyber bully stories, the perpetrator was not a naive kid who may not have known better, nor was the bully an anonymous Internet troll that was just acting cruel. The bully in this story was a 49-year old mother in Missouri, and the person being bullied was a teenager on MySpace, one of the first social media sites to gain popularity and wide-spread use. The first of the two sad bullying stories below showcases that bullies do not all come from the same walks of life. His name was Josh Evans. He was 16 years old. And he was hot. "Mom! Mom! Mom! Look at him!" Tina Meier recalls her daughter saying. Josh had contacted Megan Meier through her MySpace page and wanted to be added as a friend. Yes, he's cute, Tina Meier told her daughter. "Do you know who he is?" "No, but look at him! He's hot! Please, please, can I add him?" Mom said yes. And for six weeks Megan and Josh - under Tina's watchful eye - became acquainted in the virtual world of MySpace. Josh said he was born in Florida and recently had moved to O'Fallon. He was homeschooled. He played the guitar and drums. He was from a broken home: "when i was 7 my dad left me and my mom and my older brother and my newborn brother 3 boys god i know poor mom yeah she had such a hard time when we were younger finding work to pay for us after he left." As for 13-year-old Megan, of Dardenne Prairie, this is how she expressed who she was: M is for Modern E is for Enthusiastic G is for Goofy A is for Alluring N is for Neglected. She loved swimming, boating, fishing, dogs, rap music and boys. But her life had not always been easy, her mother says. She was heavy and for years had tried to lose weight. She had attention deficit disorder and battled depression. Back in third grade she had talked about suicide, Tina says, and ever since had seen a therapist. But things were going exceptionally well. She had shed 20 pounds, getting down to 175. She was 5 foot 5½ inches tall. She had just started eighth grade at a new school, Immaculate Conception, in Dardenne Prairie, where she was on the volleyball team. She had attended Fort Zumwalt public schools before that. Amid all these positives, Tina says, her daughter decided to end a friendship with a girlfriend who lived down the street from them. The girls had spent much of seventh grade alternating between being friends and, the next day, not being friends, Tina says. Part of the reason for Megan's rosy outlook was Josh, Tina says. After school, Megan would rush to the computer. Megan Meier Megan Meier was like most 13-year old girls. She was a bit boy-crazy, she wore braces, and she was insecure about her body. She also struggled with depression and ADD, but was described as a generally happy girl who enjoyed spending time with friends and family. When Megan was entering eighth grade, her parents enrolled her in a private school, hoping that the policy of uniforms and no makeup would help her fit in. At around the same time, Megan became active on MySpace, under the strict supervision of her mother, Tina. One day, an older boy named Josh Evans sent Megan a message through MySpace and they became online friends. Josh was attractive and Megan was excited to receive attention from a boy, although she never met him in person or spoke to him on the phone (Josh claimed that he did not own a cell phone and his family did not have a landline). Tina Meier says on the Megan Meier Foundation website, Megan had a lifelong struggle with weight and self-esteem. And now she finally had a boy who she thought really thought she was pretty. Unfortunately, Josh began sending Megan hurtful and mean messages. Megan became extremely upset, and although her mother told her to sign off from MySpace and stop reading the messages, Megan continued to converse with Josh. The last message Josh is believed to have sent stated, “Everybody in O’Fallon knows how 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.” After reading the message from Josh, Megan ran past her parents and up to her room, crying. Megan’s parents discussed the MySpace account with one another and made dinner until Tina had a sudden bad feeling in the pit of her stomach. Tina ran upstairs to Megan’s room to check on her daughter, and found that Megan had hung herself in the closet. Megan died the next day. Approximately six weeks after Megan’s death, it was determined that Josh Evans never existed. A fake MySpace account was created by the mother of a classmate and former friend of Megan’s who was allegedly upset about things Megan had said about her daughter. The mother contended that it was never her intention to drive Megan to suicide, despite allegedly being aware of Megan’s history of depression and self-esteem issues. The mother was never implicated in Megan’s suicide because, at the time, she had technically not broken any laws. As sad bullying stories go, Megan Meier’s story ended in tragedy.
