This Story Just Keeps Getting More Sad
Over the past two days it seems like I have spent a great deal of time reading about Rutgers student Tyler Clementi who apparently killed himself by jumping off the George Washington Bridge last week. The common theory is that he killed himself because his college roommate watched him making out with another guy via a remotely operated webcam. In fact, his roommate and a female college student were both charged with two counts of invasion of privacy.
Although Clementi's body has not been found, his wallet was found on the bridge, someone spotted a young man on the bridge at the time Clementi was thought to have jumped and he posted the following on his Facebook page shortly before the event.
“Jumping off the gw bridge sorry”
Gawker today found messages they think are from Clementi which are from a gay message board. I read all of them and Clementi does not seem all the upset about what his roommate did. Yes, he was ticked off, but he does not seem suicidal at all. The first thought I had when I read through them was Clementi talks about getting back at his roommate through a prank. I thought OMG maybe this is revenge that went horribly wrong.
I think what Clementi's roommate did was awful, but I am not 100% convinced that the actions of the roommate led to the suicide. Read the messages for yourself and see what you think. You can read them here.
