Sexting Tragedy: Shaun Hautly

While suicide is a sobering fact in this story, it's also not something she was forced to do. If she had been murdered as a hate crime, this would be much different. However, she wasn't, nor was she forced to take the picture, send it, or even date this dude. These were all choices that she made. If she had walked into an all black school and said something racist, she should expect to be treated with hostility. The same rules apply when you take something risque and give it to high-schoolers (or adults, really). As Dave Barry said, there is no more destructible force in this world than gossip. Well, it gets even worse when there are pictures to back up the rumors.

The one point I agree on is that to some small degree, the school board is at fault. ONLY in that students were throwing things at her during graduation. Students bullying other students in the presence of officials shouldn't be tolerated. The rest of it though, as cold as this sounds, she deserved. Yes they're young and stupid, but that doesn't un-impregnate a sexually active teen. That doesn't un-kill students in a drunk driving accident. And it certainly doesn't un-text naked pictures you send to someone VOLUNTARILY. 

This is just another reminder to people that we share information quickly these days. This isn't something where you have to make photocopies and distribute them, this is where you click "forward" and get on with your life. If you're going to send those pictures, crop 'em better, download some from the internet and say that it's you in the pic. Teens commit suicide all the time, and many of them for things they didn't start. Maybe we should be more worried about them. Again, my heart goes out to people who lose someone, but lets just own up to our own mistakes from now on. 

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