The day of September 22, 2010 ended as a heart-wrenching one for many friends, peers, families, and even strangers at Rutgers University in Piscataway, New Jersey. Mortality became a reality to many college freshman who believe, “I won’t let that happen to me,” a widespread belief in immortality. 18 year old Tyler Clementi, a freshman at Rutgers University, at just one month into school, leapt to his death off the George Washington Bridge.

Prior to the suicide, a possibly coinciding event took place. On the evening of September 19, Clementi’s roommate, Dharun Ravi, tweeted on his Twitter page the following: "Roommate asked for the room till midnight. I went into Molly's room and turned on my webcam. I saw him making out with a dude. Yay.” Following this, on September 21, he again tweeted, "Anyone with iChat, I dare you to video chat me between the hours of 9:30 and 12. Yes it's happening again." Reportedly, Tyler asked for the room until midnight, and proceeded to use his personal time to engage in intimate activities with another male. Ravi proceeded to turn his webcam on before he left the room for his friend’s, Molly Wei (another Rutgers freshman), to record and stream the video live on the internet. Very quickly, a stupid teenage prank turned lethal.

After posting "Jumping off the gw bridge sorry." on his Facebook page the night of September 22nd at 8:42 p.m., witnesses say they saw a man jump off the bridge at around 9 p.m. After investigations, the student’s freshman I.D. card and driver’s license were found by the bridge.

Dharun Ravi and Molly Wei have each been charged with two counts of invasion of privacy, which sentence a maximum of 5 years prison time. Additional counts will be speculated upon as the trial unveils additional information.  They also violated Rutger’s University school policy and will be tried by the school.

Reports of Clementi’s character by his peers were positive, saying that he was a shy, but seemingly happy student.  He was an accomplished musician.  Classmate Courtney Ayukawa found a memorial Facebook group in memory of him and posted, "I will always remember everything from our preschool's Halloween party to your amazing musical talents. When you picked up the violin and began to play, it was as if everything just paused until you put it down again. We will never forget you Tyler. May you rest in peace." This post was one of the most heart-wrenching ones, and demonstrates the impact that he had on the world, and the impact he will have in the hearts of many forever. The family of Clementi’s attorney, Paul Mainardi, comments, “Tyler was a fine young man, and a distinguished musician. The family is heartbroken beyond words.”

Tyler Clementi’s story is unfortunately not unaccompanied. Suicides due to all forms of harassment, not just cyber, and not just because of someone’s sexual orientation, sweep our nation; this is true especially of young people. Although cyber-bullying is such a problem in our country, we also must ask ourselves if this is not the only trouble in this situation; is the lack of acceptance of the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) community (including countless other communities) causing these suicides? Will you let this happen to someone else? As a society, and even more importantly as a school, we must come together to fight harassment and understand that in a world of so many different people, we must be accepting of others, despite qualities they have that you may not agree with.

On October 20, 2010, many students in our school and many people around the nation participated in an event simply called, “Wear Purple Day.” This day entails wearing something purple to show your memorial for the recent six suicides allegedly due to anti-gay harassment, and for the countless others who have been a victim of this throughout the years. Whether you agree or not with their choices, remember that they too, were only human; remember that they had families, friends, and lives just as you do, and that they were cut short due to something so simply preventable. Please show your support to not only end anti-gay harassment, but any kind of harassment completely.

For more information and support for suicide related issues visit:
The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention; http://www.afsp.org/
Here, you can navigate to find out how you can help, how to detect these thoughts in others, and support groups for every state in the country.

For more information on, and support for the LGBT community visit:
Being Gay is OK; http://www.bgiok.org.uk/
Log on to read stories and gain advice about being gay, and to learn how to show your support for the gay community.

Information courtesy of:
ABC News, NY Times, & Rutgers University