This week, a New Jersey county grand jury handed down an indictment for the student who webcast Rutgers student Tyler Clementi having a sexual encounter with another male.
After the September incident, 18-year-old Clementi committed suicide, jumping from the George Washington Bridge.
The student, Dharun Ravi, was indicted on 15 counts, including bias intimidation, invasion of privacy, witness and evidence tampering and other charges. Charges against a second student, Molly Wei, in whose room Ravi viewed and broadcast Clementi’s encounter, are pending.
Clementi’s suicide, as well as several others at the time, generated media and public attention, and resulted in New Jersey passing one of the toughest antibullying laws in the country.
There is still discussion around the invasion of privacy and bias issues in this case, and the degree to which, if he’s found guilty, Ravi should be punished.
On some level, Ravi’s actions are indicative of immaturity and lack of forethought of the consequences, both to himself and Clementi.
Certainly, if found to be true, Ravi showed that he could plan and carry out the spying, but then what? Get a good laugh with his friends?
What his intentions were remain to be seen.
In addition to lack of maturity (he was a college freshman), webcasting another’s sexual encounter is a lack of respect. No matter the person’s sexual orientation, it’s not OK to secretly broadcast it.
It seems unlikely that Ravi could have intended for his actions to result in Clementi’s death. If he had never dealt with coming to terms with being a sexual minority or didn’t know anyone who had, he likely had no idea how difficult it could be.
Perhaps if Clementi had been a homophobic, closeted politician, there might be a justifiable argument for letting people see for themselves with whom he’s amorous. But he wasn’t. Clementi was a freshman college student, likely still trying to come to terms with his sexual orientation.
Perhaps Ravi thought this would be a harmless prank, with no foresight beyond the next few days, or the end of the semester. Certainly not into how his actions could directly impact and change the lives of (at least) three people, one of whose life ended in suicide. And certainly not the impact his actions had on the families and friends of those involved and the American psyche in general.
If convicted, Ravi would face at least five years in jail.
Whatever the outcome, hopefully he, and others who would be so careless with issues of privacy, will learn from this and learn to respect others, perhaps even advocate for more sensitivity and better protections.