I really wish each and every parent would understand their children in different level so as to know their true feelings and desire to who they are really, rather than who the parents want them to be.

Dharun Ravi is one spoilt kid. How else can you explain an immigrant kid being so brave as to use a webcam and take picture of his roommate. Send it out on twitter. Drive a BMW to school. IT is almost like using a smartphone and going to restroom and taking webcam of all the people using the restroom. Would the law allow that?. This is just my opinion.

Read about another case of a parent doing right one of many such stories:
Teenage Texas Bank Robber Turned In By Mom Heads To Prison

DALLAS (April 9, 2012)—Anthony Blue, 19, of Garland, whose mother identified him to the FBI, was sentenced Monday to almost five years in federal prison after pleading guilty to three counts of bank robbery.

Blue pleaded guilty in January.

U.S. Attorney Sarah R. Saldana said U.S. District Judge David C. Godbey sentenced him Monday to four years and 11 months in prison.

Investigators said Blue held up State Bank of Texas in Garland on June 14, 2011, and then later that day robbed Community Bank in Rockwall, using the same note demanding cash.

Authorities say Blue robbed American Nation Bank in Quinlan on July 8, 2011, using a different note.

His mother called the FBI after visiting a website that tracks bank robberies.

DHARUN RAVI is GUILTY OF TERRORIZING AND MURDER
Hope he is sent to a jail here in the us for a good 10 years and that the parents of Tyler Clementi sue him in civil court as well.

I just found out (maybe I overlooked it earlier) that Clementi had left a suicide note but that note was not allowed to be made public. Clearly, Clementi had not mentioned Ravi as a cause for his suicide decision in that note: the fact that the contents of the note were not revealed in court makes it clear. One can only guess as to the contents of that note. Maybe Clementi mentioned his dismay at his mother’s reaction to his announcement; maybe he wrote that nobody was responsible for his death; maybe he wrote about his fears of having to live out his life in a callously homophobic world; whatever. It is possible that the note’s contents may have led to reduction in Ravi’s culpability by placing the blame elsewhere–and that the prosecution may not have wanted Ravi to receive that benefit.

It is easy to conclude that Ravi should have been more farsighted, etc. The unfortunate fact of life is that this is the lot of the young–to generally be unable to perceive the long-term consequences of their actions. As Bernard Shaw had observed, youth is wasted on the young. How many of us have pulled out a chair from behind someone just as they were about to sit down? I read about the case of a student victim of such a prank in the school canteen, who landed hard on the floor on his butt, received severe spinal damage and was significantly paralysed for the rest of his life. For me, instant death would be far more preferable to existing helplessly and dependent on someone for the rest of my life. I wonder what we would have said about the student who played this prank.

In our younger days, did we ever label someone as “Motu”, “Donne”, “Gundan”, “Fatty”, etc. because they were somewhat chubby? Read about people who have suffered from serious body image issues as adults and even died of anorexia, because they were psychologically scarred by being called such “fat” names in their childhood. But didn’t we do it playfully, with no malice aforethought–and even as a “sign of affection”?

In our own younger days, did we all perform a full physiological cause-and-effect analysis and medical prognosis of our potential victim’s impending condition before we engaged in such pranks? How deeply did we think about consequences before playing practical jokes on others?

I look at the way many adults interact with young people and think, was this person ever young himself? Has he already forgotten what it was like to be young and with an immature mind lacking in life experiences?

All this of course does not change my view that Ravi should have accepted some level of blame and shown remorse by agreeing to do community service in a plea bargain. Maybe he didn’t receive the right guidance from his parents and his attorney. They were all probably too engaged in legal games to pay any attention to personal ethics.

On the one hand, it is wrong to blame this boy alone for being phobic to homosexuals. There are all kinds of conservatives right here in the US who have anti gay views, for example gay marriage is still not legal in all the states…Europe is probably a much more open society.

What went wrong was that the basic teaching of kindness and respect to people was simply forgotten. Somehow, we should always be cognisant of not hurting anybody with our actions. According to the Hindu belief, conscience starts developing in a human after age 6. We become responsible for right and wrong. We should treat others as we treat ourselves. Compassion and respect to others should be taught at home and in the educational institutuions. As long as we remain righteous in our conduct, the question of this kind of a consequence to action will not arise. The punishment to Ravi is due because somehow he did not think that his action was going to cause
deep suffering and misery to Clementi…such pain that he took his life….the deeper question that arises is why his conscience permitted this boy to proceed with his actions..what happened to ” right and wrong debate”…was it never ingrained in his mind??

Shri, I wish you good luck . Yes, unfortunately, it has not been easy for you. Hopefully, your journey will take you to happier shores.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/20/opinion/make-the-punishment-fit-the-cyber-crime.html

This suicide in some ways reminds me of the movie “Prayers for Bobby”, where Bobby’s mother’s lack of support and understanding clearly had a deep influence on his decision to commit suicide. In this case too, Clementi’s mother’s reaction and attitude towards his announcement of being gay must have had a similarly significant bearing on his decision to commit suicide. Yet, that issue could not be explored because Clementi had not recorded his thoughts on it. We can only surmise; but to me it seems pretty obvious. That must have been one of the last thoughts raging through his mind even as he threw himself off the bridge.

I thought it was foolish of Ravi not to accept a plea bargain earlier, especially when they were ready to consider not deporting him. He should even have welcomed community service as some form of personal atonement for his own unfortunate role–however small he considered it–in this sordid issue, especially because there was a suicide involved. It seems to me that he was poorly guided by his parents and his attorneys. This refusal itself may have adversely influenced the jury in arriving at their strong verdict against him: they may have seen him as unrepentant and as having no regrets for his role in this tragedy.

I understand that you are upset. Believe me, I am too. There are no winners in this tragic case. Two young lives ruined. Although I am glad that justice has been served, I feel sentence in this case should be minimal and symbolic. We are not going to get even by ruining Dharun’s life.

Having said that, I disagree with your opinion that the media was all over this case because the defendant was a Desi brown kid. It is simply not true! Yes, you are right when you say there were other crimes in which Desis were victims and those didn’t get this much media attention. The overwhelming media attention in Tyler Clementi’s case was because it was not an isolated incident. Tyler’s case represented an epidemic of LGBT teen suicide which is still a major issue in this country. In 2010, it was especially worse! I will list few suicides that happened in 2010, just before Tyler ended his life.

1) Seth Walsh, a 13-year-old in Tehachapi, Calif., died after 10 days on life support after he hanged himself a week before. Police say he had been mercilessly taunted by fellow students over his perceived sexual orientation.
2) Billy Lucas, 15, hanged himself Sept. 9 at his grandmother’s barn in Indiana after years of reported harassment by students who judged him to be gay.
3) Asher Brown, a 13-year-old in Harris, Texas, who had recently come out, shot himself in the head Sept. 23 after, his parents say, their efforts to alert school officials to ongoing bullying were not acted upon.

And many more! This is still happening!

In all the other cases, there was no one perpetrator identified, but in Tyler’s case Dharun and Molly were identified as the bullies. That is why the media was all over this case, not because Dharun was brown. Lets face it, the Desi community in the US wouldn’t have shown any interest in this case, if Dharun was white. Racism/Reverse racism exists in all communities.

Being a mother, I hope you can understand the pain and suffering young and innocent kids go through at schools because they are gay or people think they are gay. These vulnerable kids (like Tyler) usually don’t do anything to hurt other people, but they are constant target of bullies. While I appreciate your concern that Dharun shouldn’t be made a scapegoat, he shouldn’t be able to walk away free either.