The H Line

I’m kind of writing a song about Megan Meier, the young girl who committed suicide over taunts sent by her MySpace crush – which later turned out to be a phony profile manned by her ex-friend’s parents.

I’m serious about it, though I’m sure that the final product will incite some giggles because it deals with the internet and we’re still in that stage (though growing out of it) where we deny that we have as much involvement and attachment to it as we do. It’s still just that silly, weird thing that we use for amusement. But of course that’s exactly why this story is so important. It’s not just a toy. Clearly. It’s not.

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But I don’t want it to just be a song about a poor, young girl who was taken advantage of by demonic parents who used social networks to perform an unforgivable deed. As in all big stories that involve an unfortunate end for a young girl, it seems that the media has defaulted to portraying Megan as innocent and pure (if a little disturbed) and her parents as perfectly loving. Clearly from the reports about the state of her mental health, there was a little more going on there. If this song is going to be a real tribute to a real person and say something potentially meaningful about online relationships, I need a balanced story to work with.

So I did some searching and found a blog supposedly written by one of her classmates called Megan Had It Coming.

Here is perhaps the most representative passage. “Laura” is a made-up name for the girl with whom she had a falling out.

Oh and I don’t think Lori Drew is so evil as everyone says. Megan was a total bitch to everyone around her especially Laura so if I was her mom I would be mad at Megan too and I would check up on her to see what shit she was spreading about my daughter. And Megan totally talked shit about everyone, including Laura. After she told Laura off, she went around to all her friends to get everyone on her side as if it was this huge divorce or somethingcalling Laura a slut and a bitch so whatev. So yeah Laura’s mom checked up on Megan to see what was up and give her a taste of her own medicine. And it’s not like Laura’s mom did this whole campaign like you see on the news. She was pretending to be this nice guy for six weeks and then said two mean things in one day and that was it.

This is, frankly, fucked up in a lot of ways. Most sane adults agree that being a “bitch” and a “psycho,” as she’s called earlier, does not mean that you deserve to die. But it’s also absolutely fascinating. Here is (supposedly) a teenager laying bare for us the criteria for a death sentence in today’s teen social scene.

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Big two conclusions drawn here:

1) Teens (and everyone, really) need to be educated about mental illness and how to cope both with their own and others’.

2) Teens are taking death way too lightly. I’m not going to presume to know why, but if this doesn’t prove it…