# Teen Attacked Over Text Message



## MJS (Apr 7, 2010)

http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/36214079/ns/today-today_people/

This makes me sick!  My heart really goes out to this girl, because nobody deserves to have this happen.  The kid who did this, should be locked up for a long, long time.  Maybe he'll learn his lesson, when he's in prison with guys who wouldnt think twice about killing you and going right back to eating their lunch.


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## LuckyKBoxer (Apr 7, 2010)

This community has some issues, apparantly this is the same school that the Brewer kid went to.... the one whos classmates doused him in lighter fluid and set on fire over an argument about a video game.
Brewer and this girl went to at least one class together...

Sounds like a bunch of seriously screwed up kids to me..
I wonder why this girlw as even involved in text messages with a person she did not even know? Parents really need to start working with their kids and giving them tools to stay out of this kind of trouble to begin with.
I am not blaming the parents or the girl, its absolutely horrible, I am just saying what if her parents had taught her not to talk to people she doesnt know.... would it have prevented this?

Horrible story... I hope the girl makes as complete a recovery as she possibly can.



> &#8220;We&#8217;ve learned over the past three weeks that things are different with the 21st century technology. Us as parents don&#8217;t completely understand it,&#8221; Freedman said. &#8220;None of us have sat around the kitchen table and talked to our kids about the proper etiquette in terms of how to post on Facebook and how to send a text message. With the nonverbal communications people are sending, that can result in you getting beaten to within an inch of your death.&#8221;
> 
> ​


 
that quote from the family should be discussed within every single family having a child on this planet.


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## Carol (Apr 7, 2010)

LuckyKBoxer said:


> I wonder why this girlw as even involved in text messages with a person she did not even know?



Because of their common friend:



> Police say the two had exchanged increasingly hostile text messages  about Treacy&#8217;s romantic relationship with 13-year-old Kayla Manson, who  was also a friend of Ratley&#8217;s.




​


> Parents really need to start working with their kids and giving them tools to stay out of this kind of trouble to begin with.
> I am not blaming the parents or the girl, its absolutely horrible, I am just saying what if her parents had taught her not to talk to people she doesnt know.... would it have prevented this?


Probably not.  She may not have gotten involved at all had it not been for her friend.   Plus...15 years old and still in middle school...not all kids (or parents) are created equally.  



> Horrible story... I hope the girl makes as complete a recovery as she possibly can.


Me too.  Unfortunately though, I'm afraid she's got a lifetime of painful rehab ahead of her. 




> that quote from the family should be discussed within every single family having a child on this planet.



Agreed, but does it go far enough?  I think even a reasonable teen could get seduced in to "don't talk to strangers" as something that does not apply to a friend's bf/gf that you haven't met yet.


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## Blade96 (Apr 7, 2010)

Zomg....

There are really some crazy sick mofo's out there.......


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## MJS (Apr 7, 2010)

Sounds like the victim was upset over this relationship.  She obviously hit a nerve with her suicide comment.  The 13yo certainly doesnt sound like much of a friend, if she set her up for a beating.  I'm going to assume that the victim knew something about her attacker, ie: I doubt he was a total stranger. I say this because if she didn't why would they have each others cell numbers?

In that other thread on bullying, it was said that times have changed.  Bullying is apparently very different from what it once was, as I dont remember people getting put in the hospital, lit on fire over a game, or any other extreme use of violence. 

IMO, there is a failure somewhere in the system.  Either the parents are not doing their job, or the school system isn't doing theirs.


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## Bob Hubbard (Apr 7, 2010)

wtf!?!  Some folks need a lesson in reality.


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## ShelleyK (Apr 7, 2010)

I am SO glad that I am a "vigilante" mom!  I have ALL the passwords and everything I need, to access whatever my son is doing online, in his emails, facebook and texts, if I say hand over the phone he does with no questions.  Im sure that he erases stuff but I eventually find out things...he is just 15 but still...
I really dont like the way technology has alienated our kids from us parents and taken away the GOOD communication!


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## Gordon Nore (Apr 7, 2010)

ShelleyK said:


> I am SO glad that I am a "vigilante" mom!  I have ALL the passwords and everything I need, to access whatever my son is doing online, in his emails, facebook and texts, if I say hand over the phone he does with no questions.  Im sure that he erases stuff but I eventually find out things...he is just 15 but still...
> I really dont like the way technology has alienated our kids from us parents and taken away the GOOD communication!



You're a smart mom. What I've learned about kids and technology is that we adults think they know a lot. In reality, I find many kids can *do* a lot of things with a computer or a phone, but they don't have the sophistication to understand far reaching consequences. So if nothing bad happens immediately after doing something they've been told not to, they can think they're made of steel.

It's worthwhile to sit down with a kid and go line by line through the security on their facebook account. Often they haven't thought about what's private, what's not.


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## CoryKS (Apr 8, 2010)

> When *Ratley texted something about the suicide of Treacy&#8217;s brother*, Treacy became enraged and vowed to kill her.​


 
Fail. ​


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## sjansen (Apr 8, 2010)

This doesn't read like an unaggravated beating. It would qualify as aggravated in most precepts in the courts as far as far as it reads. You can't post your feelings without recourse as you can't tell someone their loved ones are pieces of crap without expecting recourse. Although we have free speech in this country. That does not mean that the others do not have a recourse.

Atlhough this recourse was well over the table, this may fall under the realm of bullying on the internet. Free speech does have its price when it goes too far and this seems to be the case in this event. The poster was not in her rights as far as saying that suicide would be an option. She should have been taken to court in this case. But, most can't afford this recourse and so the lowest commen denominator was used.

This is not the case of a fallen angel, but the case of excessive force.


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## Malleus (Apr 8, 2010)

I agree with the above totally.

The aggressor was provoked. Making a comment about a suicide in the family is uncalled for, and whether it be to someone's face or through a text, you should expect repercussions. I'm not saying that what he did was right, just that I can understand it. He's a 15 year old child who may have been being antagonised by this girl for an extended period of time, and then along comes the straw that broke the camel's back. 

The article makes a point about 'new technology' having the potential to get you beaten to within an inch of your life. I'd posit that it isn't 'new technology' at all, but 'old stupidity' acting through modern mediums. 

Many's the man whose mouth broke their face.


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## Bruno@MT (Apr 8, 2010)

Malleus said:


> The article makes a point about 'new technology' having the potential to get you beaten to within an inch of your life. I'd posit that it isn't 'new technology' at all, but 'old stupidity' acting through modern mediums.
> 
> Many's the man whose mouth broke their face.



+1

This is not a technology problem. This is about people and communication. The communication media itself is irrelevant.
If you provoke someone with comments about the suicide of a close loved one like a brother, you have it coming.
What happened was over the top. But it happened because Josie got personal and nasty and did something incredibly stupid.


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## Gordon Nore (Apr 8, 2010)

MJS said:


> She obviously hit a nerve with her suicide comment.



I caught this later when I looked at the previous news videos posted. This story is hip-deep in poor impulse control and bad judgment.


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## Andy Moynihan (Apr 8, 2010)

No law against being stupid, and enough people are that it would be unenforceable anyway.

Hopefully this case will be publicized enough to get the point across to all future "Waynes" concerning control of one's temper enough to function in society, and to all future "Josies" concerning letting one's mouth(verbal or otherwise) get one into trouble.

If not, well, the gene pool needed a little chlorine anyway.


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## Jade Tigress (Apr 8, 2010)

The thing with texting is that it's easier to say something via text than it is face to face. This girl is only 13, her friends brother committed suicide. I'm sure it had an impact on her. When I was 15 a friends brothers friend died in a car accident at age 17. I had met him once or twice and didn't know him well. But I knew him, and his death stuck with me because it was the first person close to my age that died.

We don't know that she provoked him with an insensitive comment. He was supposedly the boyfriend (romantic interest, whatever) of her friend. For all we know all she said was that she was really sorry about her friends brother. 

Regardless, provoked or not, this is a 13-year-old girl beaten almost to the point of death by a 15-year-old? And over a text message (no matter what it said) to boot? WTF?!


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## Drac (Apr 8, 2010)

MJS said:


> http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/36214079/ns/today-today_people/
> 
> This makes me sick! My heart really goes out to this girl, because nobody deserves to have this happen. The kid who did this, should be locked up for a long, long time. Maybe he'll learn his lesson, when he's in prison with guys who wouldnt think twice about killing you and going right back to eating their lunch.


 
Let this punk wind up as Bubba's Bride..They will prolly have to place him in PC and not GP to save his worthless ***...No pun intended...


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## LuckyKBoxer (Apr 8, 2010)

Malleus said:


> I agree with the above totally.
> 
> The aggressor was provoked. Making a comment about a suicide in the family is uncalled for, and whether it be to someone's face or through a text, you should expect repercussions. I'm not saying that what he did was right, just that I can understand it. He's a 15 year old child who may have been being antagonised by this girl for an extended period of time, and then along comes the straw that broke the camel's back.
> 
> ...


 
You know something just struck me about this, and it seems incredibly ironic.

we have recently heard about a couple teens who were bullied and committed suicide from text messaging, and crazy bullying messages on the internet... now we have the opposite, where a kid was harrased with the same kind of tactics and instead of taking his own life goes out and beats the aggresor to within an inch of hers. I find it Ironic that the girls who committed suicide were completely given sympathy and people wanted the heads of the cyber bulliers... yet in this case the cyber bully is the victim and everyone wants the head of the bullied kid...

something to think about...
the story really does not get into any detail about what was exchanged in the text messages, so its entirely possible this kid is the aggressor anyways... but this type of incident sure seems to be becoming the hot issue now days.

personally I think the entire thing is a failure with everyone involved. This entire online culture that our youth are growing up in is crazy... I am on a couple of our young karate students facebook pages, and am regularly shocked by some of the information they post. I have long thought that parents should be more active in what their kids do, and am still adamant about that, but given the wide use of this and the seemingly increasing problems from it I am thinking a class in the style of some sex ed classes to raise the kids awareness to the dangers, and possibly even some ettiquette...


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## Carol (Apr 8, 2010)

LuckyKBoxer said:


> personally I think the entire thing is a failure with everyone involved. This entire online culture that our youth are growing up in is crazy... I am on a couple of our young karate students facebook pages, and am regularly shocked by some of the information they post. I have long thought that parents should be more active in what their kids do, and am still adamant about that, but given the wide use of this and the seemingly increasing problems from it I am thinking a class in the style of some sex ed classes to raise the kids awareness to the dangers, and possibly even some ettiquette...



Some of these parents don't even know the software, let alone have the capabilities of going through it line by line with their kids as Gordon suggested.  GenX isn't as universally techno-savvy as some folks think they are.

I did some pickup work for Geek Squad during layoffs past, and met one family a couple of towns up from me.  Parents were my age, very bright and successful.  The complaint was the computer used by the 12 and 13 year old was not working properly.  After I de-gunked the system of spyware and the like, I found some stuff on the computer that disturbed me...revealing Xanga pages (in more ways than one), bookmarks for alternative dating communities  

How the hell do you tell your client that their 12 or 13 year old daughter posted pictures of herself online wearing little more than a bra and a skirt?  I told Mom bluntly what I found on the machine, she didn't even know what Xanga was....let alone how her daughter was putting out on the internet.


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## BlueDragon1981 (Apr 9, 2010)

This made me sick also but more over I grew even more deep hatred for lawyers.


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## crushing (Apr 9, 2010)

Bob Hubbard said:


> wtf!?! Some folks need a lesson in reality.


 
Bob, isn't that what this story does?  Gives us the lesson in reality?


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## Bruno@MT (Apr 10, 2010)

crushing said:


> Bob, isn't that what this story does?  Gives us the lesson in reality?



It also gave Josie a lesson in reality: don't get nasty and personal, because you migh bite off more than you can chew.
It also gave Wayne a lesson in reality: don't overreact, because you will face legal trouble.

Both were in the wrong here.


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## theletch1 (Apr 10, 2010)

crushing said:


> Bob, isn't that what this story does? Gives us the lesson in reality?


 Us? If you mean those of us discussing it here, well, maybe a little, but most of this particular "us" are already taking a pro-active approach to safety.  If you mean "us" as in the general public then no.  There will be knee jerk reactions on both sides of the fence for this one and folks will ***** and moan for a week or two and then the story will be forgotten.  I don't see this as a technology problem at all.  Technology just happens to be what goes into a head line to grab the eye of the average reader now a days.  It's the latest avenue of delivery for bullying.  Personally, I think that the comments of "We need to teach our kids how to handle technology" or "We need to teach our kids about safety on the net" are missing the point entirely.  The phrase needs to be "We need to be parents and step up and teach our children how to be quality citizens of our society."  It wouldn't have mattered if they were scratching messages on a frickin' rock and tossing it back and forth.  The problem here is that we have two children who thought that it was ok to use violence of an extreme nature to settle a problem.  One used psychological violence, the other used physical violence.  Technology? Not a problem as it allows me to sit here with my cat in my lap and dog at my feet and discuss things I find interesting with all of you (whom I also find interesting) without any problems.  People who refuse to be parents and a society in general who has decided that this kind of behavior is acceptable... that's the damn problem.


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## Bruno@MT (Apr 11, 2010)

A good approach to communication is to always think: 'Is this something I would say face to face'. I avoid conflict online as much as in real life. As in real life, yelling is virtually never a constructive way to go about arguing.


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## MJS (Apr 11, 2010)

Carol said:


> Some of these parents don't even know the software, let alone have the capabilities of going through it line by line with their kids as Gordon suggested. GenX isn't as universally techno-savvy as some folks think they are.
> 
> I did some pickup work for Geek Squad during layoffs past, and met one family a couple of towns up from me. Parents were my age, very bright and successful. The complaint was the computer used by the 12 and 13 year old was not working properly. After I de-gunked the system of spyware and the like, I found some stuff on the computer that disturbed me...revealing Xanga pages (in more ways than one), bookmarks for alternative dating communities
> 
> How the hell do you tell your client that their 12 or 13 year old daughter posted pictures of herself online wearing little more than a bra and a skirt? I told Mom bluntly what I found on the machine, she didn't even know what Xanga was....let alone how her daughter was putting out on the internet.


 
Thus, the reason why when something does happen, the majority of the parents have the "Oh no, not my Johnny." attitude.  Considering the state of things today, parents should try to stay with the times.


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