Clementi Parents Reserve Right to Sue
The parents of 18-year-old Rutgers University student Tyler Clementi, who leapt to his death from the George Washington Bridge in September, have filed a notice that they may bring suit against the school, the Associated Press reported on Dec. 22. The young man's suicide followed an alleged incident of cyber-spying in which two other students watched remotely as the youth had a romantic encounter with another man.
The notice alleges that "Rutgers University failed to act, failed to put in place and/or failed to implement, and enforce policies and practices that would have prevented or deterred such acts, and that Rutgers failed to act timely and appropriately," the AP story reported. The notice was filed on Dec. 17; under law, any suit would commence six months after the notice was filed. Notices must be filed within 90 days, the AP reported. Filing the notice does not mean that the family has decided to follow through, but was necessary if the family wished to keep the option available.
A university spokesperson expressed sympathy for the Clementi family, but said that Rutgers should not be held accountable for the young man's death. "We at the university share the family's sense of loss of their son, who was a member of our community," said Rutgers spokesperson E. J. Miranda. "We also recognize that a grieving family may question whether someone or some institution could somehow have responsibility for their son's death." Added the spokesperson, "While the university understands this reaction, the university is not responsible for Tyler Clementi's suicide."
Tyler Clementi's leap from the George Washington Bridge, which connects northern New Jersey with New York City, took place after his roommate, Dharun Ravi, 18, allegedly used a web cam to monitor a romantic encounter between Clementi and another man. Media reports said that Ravi spied on Clementi via computer from the room of another student, Molly Wei, also 18, and then blogged about it. Ravi also allegedly issued an invitation for others to log on and watch a subsequent episode of cyber-spying. Online postings indicate that Clementi may have found and disabled at least one camera that was set up to record him having a second tryst.
Ravi and Wei have been charged with invasion of privacy, and there has been some talk of adding hate crimes charges. Both Ravi and Wei left Rutgers in the wake of the tragedy. Ravi reportedly enrolled in another school. Wei's lawyer, Rubin Sinins, told the press that the young woman left Rutgers out of concern for her personal safety, but had hopes of returning to the university. Sinins said that Wei is "a student in good standing" with Rutgers, but an Oct. 29 New York Daily News article noted that Ravi and Wei would have been subject to disciplinary action from the school's administration had they remained enrolled at Rutgers.
Ravi and Wei were reported to have posted a video of the encounter online, but they have denied that anyone else saw the images, and also claimed that what they witnessed was only a few seconds' worth of video, according to a Nov. 10 Huffington Post story.
"When the forensic evidence from all the seized computers is revealed, the truth will come out," Ravi's lawyer, Steve Altman, told the press. "Nothing was transmitted beyond one computer and what was seen was only viewed for a matter of seconds." If convicted, Ravi and Wei could face up to five years in prison.
Clementi is thought to have issued a cry for help at a gay chat site just before his suicide. Postings begun on Sept. 21 at JustUsBoys.com seem to describe a situation very similar to the one 18-year-old Tyler Clementi faced in the final days of his life. The posting talks about how the author's college roommate was trying to record his activities using a web cam, and describes having asked for the exclusive use of the shared dormitory room on a Sunday night. The postings also say that the author noticed that the roommate seemed to have pointed his web cam at the author's bed, and described how this "set off" the posting's author, who then searched his room for any additional cameras.
"so the other night i had a guy over," the initial Sept. 21 posting, made under the name cit2mo, begins. "I had talked to my roommate that afternoon and he had said it would be fine w/him. I checked his twitter today. he tweeted that I was using the room (which is obnoxious enough), AND that he went into somebody else's room and remotely turned on his webcam and saw me making out with a guy."
This description of events is the same as that provided in media stories that report on how Clementi's roommate had been asked to stay out of the room until midnight, and had activated his computer's web cam remotely. Ravi tweeted on what he said he observed via the video link: "I went into molly's [sic] room and turned on my webcam. I saw him making out with a dude. Yay."
The images captured by Ravi's web cam were sent out for all to see. Ravi later attempted to spy on Clementi once again: a Sept. 21 message from Ravi invited readers to tune in once more: "I dare you to video chat me between the hours of 9:30 and 12," Ravi sent out. "Yes, it's happening again."
"so my question is what next?" the JustUsBoys posting continued. "I feel like the only thing the school might do is find me another roommate, probably with me moving out...and i'd probably just end up with somebody worse than him....I mean aside from being an asshole from time to time, he's a pretty decent roommate...
"the other thing is I that don't wanna report him and then end up with nothing happening except him getting pissed at me," cit2mo added.
In a subsequent posting that same day, cit2mo wrote, "I guess what he was doing was...he was in another person's room, with other people... and so I feel like it was 'look at what a fag my roommate is'--other people have commented on his profile with things like 'how did you manage to go back in there?' 'are you ok?'."
Cit2mo continued, "and the fact that the people he was with saw my making out with a guy [w]as the scandal whereas i mean come on...he was SPYING ON ME....do they see nothing wrong with this? unsettling to say the least...."
Cit2mo and others swapped ideas over the course of the thread on how cit2mo might respond, with cit2mo saying at one point that he would talk to the dorm's resident advisor and contemplating possible ways to get back at his roommate. But, "revenge never ends well for me, as much as I would love to pour pink paint all over his stuff.....that would just let him win," cit2mo wrote.
On Sept. 22, cit2mo posted further descriptions of events that seemed to match those that the media said Clementi had endured. "so I wanted to have the guy over again," the posting read. "I texted roomie around 7 asking for the room later tonight and he said it was fine."
But, cit2mo continued, "when I got back to the room I instantly noticed he had turned the webcam toward my bed. And he had posted online again....saying....'anyone want a free show just video chat me tonight'...or something similar to that...."
Cit2mo wrote that he informed the dorm's resident advisor of this apparent attempt at violating his privacy a second time. "I haven't even seen my roommate since sunday when i was asking for the room the first time...and him doing it again just set me off....so talking to him just didn't seem like an option," cit2mo wrote. "meanwhile I turned off and unplugged his computer, went crazy looking for other hidden cams....and then had a great time."
In his final post on the thread, on Sept. 22, cit2mo wrote about having provided his dorm's resident advisor with a written description of events. "he seemed to take it seriously," cit2mo wrote. "he asked me to email him a written paragraph about what exactly happened... I emailed it to him, and to two people above him...." Clementi jumped that same day, after posting a message at his Facebook page that read, "Jumping off the gw bridge sorry."
As others continued to discuss the situation at JustUsBoys.com, cit2mo fell silent. On Sept. 29, one chat participant wrote, "Ok... I seriously hope this just a coincidence... but I just saw this story on reddit and remembered this post." The message included a link to a Gawker story on Clementi's suicide.
The wider debate on the blogosphere has come to include defenders of Ravi and Wei, the Associated Press reported, going on to say that the online discussion has been "emotional and sometimes vitriolic. Some postings call the suspects 'sickos' and 'cold-blooded killers' while others display homophobia and racism (both suspects are minorities), even thanking the suspects for their possible role in a gay man's death."
Clementi's suicide took place in the midst of a cluster of youth suicides. Not all of the suicide victims were gay, but all had endured anti-gay harassment and bullying by schoolmates.