An 11 year old boy, 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 and thought his girlfriend had really died. Using a cellphone he
had bought without his mother's knowledge, Tysen on March 14, read texts and
other messages about the fake suicide of his and decided he would end his life
too, his mother Katrina Goss said.
After seeing the posts about his girlfriend,
Tysen replied over social media that he was going to kill himself, yet no one
involved in the prank told an adult or even told Benz that it was a joke, not
even the supposed girlfriend, Goss said. Moments later, his mother found him
hanging by his neck in his room in Marquette, Michigan.
Now a prosecutor is pursuing criminal charges
against one of the juveniles accused of being involved in the prank, which 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."
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.
After Goss found her son hanging, she cut the
rope and immediately called 911. They were able to resuscitate him and rushed
him to a Detroit hospital where he was placed on a life support.
Doctors informed his parents that he was brain
damaged and most likely would never recover from the coma. His parents decided
to take him off life support. The boy died Tuesday at a Detroit-area hospital.
The girlfriend 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. She said:
"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 in the US, 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."
Source: AP
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