shortformblog:

Ravi faces charges of invasion of privacy, bias intimidation and hindering apprehension. Prosecutors say he watched his roommate, Tyler Clementi, during an intimate moment with another man and wanted to expose Clementi as gay and intimidate him.

Several other people were in the room on Rutgers’ Busch campus when an incident of alleged spying occurred, including Cassandra Cicco, who lived across the hall from Ravi and Clementi. She shared a room with Molly Wei, who was also arrested in September 2010 but was admitted into a pre-trial probationary program in return for testifying against Ravi.

Cicco was in the room when Ravi, Wei and others allegedly activated a webcam in Ravi’s room from Wei’s computer across the hall, which showed them what was going on in Ravi’s room, where Clementi had a guest over.

“it came up for a split second, it was a quick video, we saw two males leaning against the bed making out,” Cicco said.

“We were all just like, ‘Oh okay, that happened,’ and that was the end of it,” Cicco said.

Clementi’s 2010 death sparked a nationwide anti-bullying movement (the “It Gets Better” movement), whose impact is felt to this day.

If you haven’t read the New Yorker’s feature on the subject, we’d recommend you get to that this weekend.

(via shortformblog)

Even if they are acquitted, it’s clear their lives are forever altered—their names and faces international symbols of teen callousness. None completed school last year; Mulveyhill has already lost a football scholarship to college. One family has received death threats, prank calls, and a rock thrown through a second-story window—along with a stream of nasty unsigned letters delivered to their door. Some call for their daughter to be “raped and killed”; others hurl insults and racial slurs. “I don’t know if I can even describe what my family has been through,” says the mother of Sharon Velasquez, who agreed to speak exclusively to NEWSWEEK. “The cameras in our faces, the harassment, the letters—I’d come home and people would be in the parking lot waiting for me.

Jessica Bennett looks back at the students charged in connection with the suicide of 15-year-old South Hadley High School student Phoebe Prince. Schoolyard bullying can have tragic consequences, she writes. But should it be a crime?

nprfreshair:

“I got picked on. I got mocked. I got a little scar on my chin when a bully turned my desk over in study hall, with me in it, and my face hit the floor. That was seventh grade. But you know what? It gets better.”

via NPR Arts Editor Trey Graham.

The latest genius of Dan Savage, editor of our little hometown alt-weekly, The Stranger. (We only learned recently what “the stranger” stands for. Sick.)

(via theweekmagazine)

equalitymyth:

Michel Martin became one of our heroes today. In “No, We’re Not Going to Sit Down and Shut Up,” she manages to satisfyingly shame Don Imus and Chris Wallace for sexist comments that, even for them, were particularly egregious; broaden the argument to make larger points about American culture, power, and the question of “entitlement;” and wrap up with a thrillingly bad-ass line. We dare you to read the final graph and not swell with solidarity:

It used to be, and often still is, that one set of values or perspectives dominates the way we look at issues and talk about them. You can see where the people who share that particular perspective begin to feel they are entitled to shape the conversation for all time. But things change — new voices rise, different people win elections, or dare we say it, get on the radio. Maybe some people have a problem with that. Tough. Because we’re not going anywhere.

YES!

The other day around the office we started having a discussion about bullying, and your shadow Tumblr wondered, “why is it that when we talk about bullies, and bullying behavior, we always talk about it in the context of children?”

Because, of course, those bullies grow up; we see that kind of behavior all the time; in our public life, in business, even, as we’ve seen recently, the Catholic Church. Which is one of the points of Lisa Miller’s very fine piece this week; having a diversity of viewpoints in power can help prevent the kind of abuses we’ve seen over the years in government, business and elsewhere.