DETROIT
(AP) -- Tysen Benz was at home when he saw social media posts
indicating that his 13-year-old girlfriend had committed suicide. The
posts were a prank, but the 11-year-old boy apparently believed them.
Moments
later, his mother found him hanging by the neck in his room in
Marquette, Michigan. Now a prosecutor is pursuing criminal charges
against a juvenile accused of being involved in the scheme, which
Katrina Goss described as "a twisted, sick joke."
Goss described her son as appearing "fine" just 40 minutes before she found him.
"I
just want it be exposed and be addressed," Goss said of school bullying
in general and cyberbullying in particular. "I don't want it be
ignored."
Using a cellphone he bought without
his mother's knowledge, Tysen on March 14 was reading texts and other
messages about the faked suicide and decided he would end his life too,
his mother said.
After seeing the posts about
his girlfriend, Tysen replied over social media that he was going to
kill himself, and no one involved in the prank told an adult, Goss said.
The boy died Tuesday at a Detroit-area hospital.
Authorities
would not release the age of the juvenile charged or comment on what
relationship the person had with Tysen. The juvenile is being charged
with malicious use of telecommunication services and using a computer to
commit a crime.
The girl whose death was
faked and friends who were in on the prank attended the same school as
Tysen, Goss said. Even though the prank occurred outside of school, she
said, the school should have done more to protect her son.
"The principal, the assistant principal - that's their job, especially for little kids," she said. "Kids take things to heart."
In
a statement released Thursday, Marquette Area Public Schools
Superintendent William Saunders agreed with Goss's concerns about the
dangers of social media. He said the district has been educating
students and parents through its health curriculum, health fairs,
community forums and other efforts.
"After the gut-wrenching loss of a student, we ask ourselves, 'How can we do more?'" Saunders wrote.
Most states, including Michigan, have enacted legislation designed to protect children from bullies.
Michigan's
anti-bullying act, signed in 2011 by Gov. Rick Snyder, requires school
districts to have anti-bullying policies on the books. It was known as
"Matt's Safe School Law" after Matt Epling, a 14-year-old who killed
himself after a 2002 hazing incident.
The law was updated two years ago to direct school districts to add language to those policies that address cyberbullying.
Former
Republican state Rep. Phil Potvin, who sponsored the original bill,
said schools have a responsibility to do more than include
anti-cyberbullying rules in their written policies.
"They
have to have a person - spelled out - to make sure that policy is
followed," said Potvin, of Cadillac in northern Michigan. "Some schools
have failed to do that. They may have put something in, but there is no
follow-up. There is no checking up on these things."
In
2006, Megan Meier committed suicide after a woman who lived in her
family's neighborhood in St. Charles County, Missouri, encouraged the
13-year-old to kill herself. The woman had created a fake MySpace
admirer named "Josh," who befriended Megan.
The woman was convicted in a California federal court of three misdemeanors, but a judge overturned the conviction.
Pranks
"definitely happen," said Tina Meier, who runs a national bullying and
cyberbullying prevention foundation named after her daughter.
"The
problem is when they are pranking somebody ... to them it's just been a
joke," Meier said. "To the other person, it's been real."
