Rutgers University has spent the last two weeks mourning the tragic death of Tyler Clementi, a freshman who committed suicide on Sept. 22 after his roommate secretly filmed his sexual encounter with another young man and streamed it live over the Internet. Before jumping off the George Washington Bridge, the 18-year-old posted to his Facebook page, “jumping of gw bridge, sorry.” A day later, a male body was retrieved from the Hudson River. The New York City Medical Examiner’s office has confirmed that it was Clementi.
Spokeswoman Grace Burgess said the cause of death was ruled a suicide by drowning and blunt-force injuries amassed from the impact of the jump from the bridge. Upon confirmation of suicide, the Clementi family attorney released a statement that said, “Tyler was a fine young man, and a distinguished musician. The family is heartbroken beyond words. They respectfully request that they be given time to grieve their great loss and that their privacy at this painful time be respected by all.”
Two students, Dharun Ravi and Molly Wei, have been charged with two counts each of invasion of privacy. The two 18-year-olds allegedly placed a camera in Clementi’s room and streamed the feed online through remote activation while in Wei’s dorm room on Sept. 19. Ravi, who was Clementi’s roommate, posted this message via Twitter on† Sept. 19: “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.”
Ravi then tried it again two days later on Sept. 21, an act which earned him two more counts of invasion of privacy. That night he Tweeted, “Anyone with iChat, I dare you to video chat me between the hours of 9:30 and 12. Yes it’s happening again.” Both students surrendered peacefully to police and if convicted could face up to five years in prison.
Despite these criminal charges, which have the possibility of increasing if it is decided bias intimidation was involved, it may be the moral guilt which weighs the most on Wei and more so Ravi, knowing that what was meant to be a practical joke directly lead to the suicide of a fellow student.
Former College of Wooster student Capra Basolis, who is now a student at the Rutgers University, was deeply startled by this news, a sentiment reflective of the entire campus.
“I personally cannot even believe that this type of thing would happen. I have never witnessed any type of discrimination at Rutgers. Even though Rutgers is an extremely large school I have always felt safe. There is so much diversity at Rutgers and I have never met anyone with an issue of diversity. I think that is why so many students were affected by Tyler’s death. Everyone was just so shocked that this kind of thing could occur at our school,” she said.
A moment of silence was held in Clementi’s honor before Rutger’s last home football game. With any moment of tragedy like this, some think focus must be put on any positive theme available. Basolis thinks that “more people are just focused on what can be done to stop this kind of thing from ever happening again and honoring the life of Tyler.”