That would be me. I'm probably the only person here that can say that between 7th and 12th grade I LOST 15 pounds. Was I picked on, sure. Did it bother me, not really. I dreaded seeing certain people wondering what new line they'd come up with to poke fun at me. It was quite funny because the lines were never original (usually something from a comedian) and I'd always call them on it.
Quote:
Originally posted by Brad
Wow. I'm pretty surprised by how callous some of you guys are. I guess I just empathize with the kid since I too have been institutionalized for depression and related phsychological problems.
I'm sorry to hear that....
I think that most people here are just fed up with lawsuits over silly things, and this is a silly thing. I do feel bad for the kid, but not all of it is bad. Did anyone see the SWK 2.0 one? I loved that one! Especially the tag "Drunken Jedi Master" (he is probably too young to realize that it is a reference to a Jackie Chan flick)
Bottom line for me is that while I feel for the kid, it is nothing to get sued over.
The problem with depressed people is that they just aren't happy enough. So who knows how a regularly adjusted kid might have reacted, but that's besides the point, really.
You need releases to publish any video or picture that makes a person easily identifiable, when used for non-news commercial purposes. All the web sites that posted his image without a release from him would be liable, that they may have gotten the video from bullies (with their permission) means nothing, they were still negligent in NOT checking whether the actual person featured had signed a release or not.
For some reason this didn't work for Pam and Tommy, which leads me to believe there was some weird for of promotion at the root of that case, but for "star wars kid" he had all the reasonable expectation of privacy that someone could hope for, and definitely has a case against any web sites that hosted his video without his permission. And he has a case against the boys who stole it aswell, whatever you may think of that, he has some clearly violated civil rights (privacy, consent, property) and is entitled to his recourse.
Especially in the case of bullies. That's why the law exists, to help people who can't resort to natural law for whatever reasons.
Have you any idea what it is like to be singled out as a fatty ?
Its a form of ostracisation that cuts young adolecents very deeply.
Him filming himself, may have been a dumb idea, but since when does that give someone else the jackass right to break into his locker, steal his video camera and put his display on the net.
If he wasn't super concious of his own weight problem or foolish actions, then putting it all on video must have made his life a living hell.
As for the bullies...they usually grow out of such behaviour but not before leaving a trail of devestation behind them....
Suing the parents of the bullies is wrong....
Suing the internet companies that allowed such material to go on unchallenged, along with the media outlets that all profitted from his escapades..they're the one's I'd put in my cross hairs...
I did, and aside from being the fatty, I was short too, AND the resident science fiction loser. But one of the things I learned, and all fat-short-science fiction lovers learned, or should have learned as kids, was to develop an armadillo-like hide and to take everything with a big grain of salt.
Of course, the occasional dust up to straighten out one of the bigger assholes with the bigger mouths ususally helped too. One of the better aspects of carrying around extra mass (regardless of body shape) is that if you can throw a good punch, you usually don't need to land more than one to get your point across.
I admit it, I watched all 38 clips, and you know, I do empathize with the kid. I saw myself in those clips, and I laughed. It's sad that he took it so hard, which suggests a real lack of self esteem (I know because I was there for several teenage years), but I hope things work out for him in the future.
You make some good points in principle -- and I am a jaded bastard sometimes I realize. However, my main point isn't that I can't empathize with the kid for being humiliated, or even that the kids that put the video onto the net shouldn't be made to make ammends somehow.
My point is that if the kid is now truly institionalized, this was the straw that broke the camels back, not all of the straws, if you take my meaning. Further, rarely are lawsuits a good answer to personal problems IMO. Did his parents ever stop to think how much MORE attention this is going to get now due to their suit? Did they stop and consider if they'd make a bad problem worse? No. They knee-jerked and called a lawyer.
I probably never would've heard about this incidient (still haven't watched the video out of principle) until I saw this thread. Why is this thread here? Because his parents filed suit. Moronic. This is what happens when parents don't know how to instill a sense of confidence or pride in their child, and then take it out on everyone else when something goes bad.
They should look in the friggin mirror. End of story IMH(but jaded)O.
2. Getting picked on everyday will have a lasting and negative effect on someone.
Of course he had a self-esteem issue! He's 15 for f*cks sake. Give the kid a break. People's lack of empathy is really disturbing.
I can empathize with the kid to a certain extant. But the fault shouldn't lie solely on a group of jackass teenagers. If they're going to lay blame at all, it should be the school board or the websites that still have the video up.
I completely disagree with your second point. Getting picked may have a lasting effect on some people. But it is not a given. I was picked on relentlessly in high school as I was one of those unfortunate kids that didn't hit puberty until.. well I'm 25 so it should happen any day now, and it had no lasting effect on me.
Some kids can handle it, some can't. Maybe his parents should have done a better job of preparing their kid for the hell that is high school.
This is such a non-event that words fail me. That kid, apparently, is one sad cookie and was a nutcase waiting to happen. Good thing some institution caught him before he starting slaying his classmates. I'd love to have my light-saber exploits cause servers into DoS. Yes. That would give meaning to my life.
der kopf, this has got to be the most ignorant thing you have ever posted. next, you'll say that any kid dressing in goth clothing in high school is the #1 suspect for future school shootings, because they're just a "nutcase waiting to happen"?!?!
i am almost speechless -- but not postless. and perhaps you didn't read where he did not authorize distribution of this video. here's hoping some hideously embarrassing moment from your childhood gets uncovered and posted to the internet without your say-so. 'course, i am assuming that you have a few years on this kid and could handle the embarrassment and ridicule better than a 15 year old can. hmph.
A friend of mine was caught skull-f*cking one his old teddy bears by a large group of friends when he was in high school. You can't get much worse than that.
I had a friend who got caught (on video tape) putting a small lego in his butthole, and humping a teddy bear. That was 4 years ago, he turned out fine, and didn't have to sue anyone to do it.
It's one of those hard lessons he'll have to learn in life. Deal with it and move on.
Matt, you and Inaction man need to get out more / find new friends I think. This whole teddybear humping thing should be a not-so-subtle sign to you guys....
I had a friend who got caught (on video tape) putting a small lego in his butthole, and humping a teddy bear. That was 4 years ago, he turned out fine, and didn't have to sue anyone to do it.
It's one of those hard lessons he'll have to learn in life. Deal with it and move on.
if you're fifteen, it might be written off as "experimentation." if you're twenty-five, it's logged as "what were you thinking?!?"
hey, does anyone have that image of the derailed train? 'cause i think that's what has happened to this thread...
Anyway, I don't feel good about what happened to this kid - it was mean as sin - but that doesn't make his parents' decision to sue any wiser or more helpful. If the kid is "in the bin", there was a lot more building up inside him before this ever happened.
I feel for the kid but I blame the parents -- especially at that age.
Comments
Originally posted by aquafire
So how many of you grew as fat kids ?
That would be me. I'm probably the only person here that can say that between 7th and 12th grade I LOST 15 pounds. Was I picked on, sure. Did it bother me, not really. I dreaded seeing certain people wondering what new line they'd come up with to poke fun at me. It was quite funny because the lines were never original (usually something from a comedian) and I'd always call them on it.
Originally posted by Brad
Wow. I'm pretty surprised by how callous some of you guys are. I guess I just empathize with the kid since I too have been institutionalized for depression and related phsychological problems.
I'm sorry to hear that....
I think that most people here are just fed up with lawsuits over silly things, and this is a silly thing. I do feel bad for the kid, but not all of it is bad. Did anyone see the SWK 2.0 one? I loved that one! Especially the tag "Drunken Jedi Master"
Bottom line for me is that while I feel for the kid, it is nothing to get sued over.
And don?t even get me started on his parents??
The problem with depressed people is that they just aren't happy enough. So who knows how a regularly adjusted kid might have reacted, but that's besides the point, really.
You need releases to publish any video or picture that makes a person easily identifiable, when used for non-news commercial purposes. All the web sites that posted his image without a release from him would be liable, that they may have gotten the video from bullies (with their permission) means nothing, they were still negligent in NOT checking whether the actual person featured had signed a release or not.
For some reason this didn't work for Pam and Tommy, which leads me to believe there was some weird for of promotion at the root of that case, but for "star wars kid" he had all the reasonable expectation of privacy that someone could hope for, and definitely has a case against any web sites that hosted his video without his permission. And he has a case against the boys who stole it aswell, whatever you may think of that, he has some clearly violated civil rights (privacy, consent, property) and is entitled to his recourse.
Especially in the case of bullies. That's why the law exists, to help people who can't resort to natural law for whatever reasons.
Originally posted by aquafire
So how many of you grew as fat kids ?
Have you any idea what it is like to be singled out as a fatty ?
Its a form of ostracisation that cuts young adolecents very deeply.
Him filming himself, may have been a dumb idea, but since when does that give someone else the jackass right to break into his locker, steal his video camera and put his display on the net.
If he wasn't super concious of his own weight problem or foolish actions, then putting it all on video must have made his life a living hell.
As for the bullies...they usually grow out of such behaviour but not before leaving a trail of devestation behind them....
Suing the parents of the bullies is wrong....
Suing the internet companies that allowed such material to go on unchallenged, along with the media outlets that all profitted from his escapades..they're the one's I'd put in my cross hairs...
I did, and aside from being the fatty, I was short too, AND the resident science fiction loser. But one of the things I learned, and all fat-short-science fiction lovers learned, or should have learned as kids, was to develop an armadillo-like hide and to take everything with a big grain of salt.
Of course, the occasional dust up to straighten out one of the bigger assholes with the bigger mouths ususally helped too. One of the better aspects of carrying around extra mass (regardless of body shape) is that if you can throw a good punch, you usually don't need to land more than one to get your point across.
I admit it, I watched all 38 clips, and you know, I do empathize with the kid. I saw myself in those clips, and I laughed. It's sad that he took it so hard, which suggests a real lack of self esteem (I know because I was there for several teenage years), but I hope things work out for him in the future.
You make some good points in principle -- and I am a jaded bastard sometimes I realize. However, my main point isn't that I can't empathize with the kid for being humiliated, or even that the kids that put the video onto the net shouldn't be made to make ammends somehow.
My point is that if the kid is now truly institionalized, this was the straw that broke the camels back, not all of the straws, if you take my meaning. Further, rarely are lawsuits a good answer to personal problems IMO. Did his parents ever stop to think how much MORE attention this is going to get now due to their suit? Did they stop and consider if they'd make a bad problem worse? No. They knee-jerked and called a lawyer.
I probably never would've heard about this incidient (still haven't watched the video out of principle) until I saw this thread. Why is this thread here? Because his parents filed suit. Moronic. This is what happens when parents don't know how to instill a sense of confidence or pride in their child, and then take it out on everyone else when something goes bad.
They should look in the friggin mirror. End of story IMH(but jaded)O.
1. The video was stolen from him.
2. Getting picked on everyday will have a lasting and negative effect on someone.
Of course he had a self-esteem issue! He's 15 for f*cks sake. Give the kid a break. People's lack of empathy is really disturbing.
http://www.petitiononline.com/Ghyslain/petition.html
there's a petition to get him a cameo/walk-on in the last Star Wars movie.
Originally posted by chu_bakka
Two things...
1. The video was stolen from him.
2. Getting picked on everyday will have a lasting and negative effect on someone.
Of course he had a self-esteem issue! He's 15 for f*cks sake. Give the kid a break. People's lack of empathy is really disturbing.
I can empathize with the kid to a certain extant. But the fault shouldn't lie solely on a group of jackass teenagers. If they're going to lay blame at all, it should be the school board or the websites that still have the video up.
I completely disagree with your second point. Getting picked may have a lasting effect on some people. But it is not a given. I was picked on relentlessly in high school as I was one of those unfortunate kids that didn't hit puberty until.. well I'm 25 so it should happen any day now, and it had no lasting effect on me.
Some kids can handle it, some can't. Maybe his parents should have done a better job of preparing their kid for the hell that is high school.
Originally posted by der Kopf
This is such a non-event that words fail me. That kid, apparently, is one sad cookie and was a nutcase waiting to happen. Good thing some institution caught him before he starting slaying his classmates. I'd love to have my light-saber exploits cause servers into DoS. Yes. That would give meaning to my life.
der kopf, this has got to be the most ignorant thing you have ever posted. next, you'll say that any kid dressing in goth clothing in high school is the #1 suspect for future school shootings, because they're just a "nutcase waiting to happen"?!?!
i am almost speechless -- but not postless. and perhaps you didn't read where he did not authorize distribution of this video. here's hoping some hideously embarrassing moment from your childhood gets uncovered and posted to the internet without your say-so. 'course, i am assuming that you have a few years on this kid and could handle the embarrassment and ridicule better than a 15 year old can. hmph.
A friend of mine was caught skull-f*cking one his old teddy bears by a large group of friends when he was in high school. You can't get much worse than that.
did your friend go to school in MN by any chance?
Originally posted by chu_bakka
Are you still a virgin?!
Yes! And it's really starting to annoy my girlfriend.
Self-Deprecating humour is a good thing, not a bad thing.
did your friend go to school in MN by any chance?
No, perhaps teddy bear skull-f*cking is more wide-spread than I had thought.
It's one of those hard lessons he'll have to learn in life. Deal with it and move on.
Originally posted by Matt Danger
I had a friend who got caught (on video tape) putting a small lego in his butthole, and humping a teddy bear. That was 4 years ago, he turned out fine, and didn't have to sue anyone to do it.
It's one of those hard lessons he'll have to learn in life. Deal with it and move on.
if you're fifteen, it might be written off as "experimentation." if you're twenty-five, it's logged as "what were you thinking?!?"
hey, does anyone have that image of the derailed train? 'cause i think that's what has happened to this thread...
I'm sorry if this in insensitive... but people who put Lego in their ass and then hump teddy bears ARE NOT NORMAL.
(here's your pic, but I helped get the train off that track too I guess)
How come I didn't think of that snappy comeback?
Anyway, I don't feel good about what happened to this kid - it was mean as sin - but that doesn't make his parents' decision to sue any wiser or more helpful. If the kid is "in the bin", there was a lot more building up inside him before this ever happened.
I feel for the kid but I blame the parents -- especially at that age.