A kid's 'prank' gone wrong

The argument that Ravi was not connected to Tylers death is supported by the fact that he was simply caught up in regretful online commentary and an accidental viewing of Tyler.  Ravi was a descent roommate to Tyler. He let him have his own space, and dealt with Tylers intimate relations in their bedroom. He claims that he was showing Wei his webcam setup, the night he’d caught a glimpse of Tyler, and adds that this was ‘accidental.’ In his defense he told other people about the occurrence to get advice on the situation. Ravi had innocent intensions when it came to this breach of privacy and says he acted according to give Tyler the privacy he needed, “I turned my camera away and put my computer to sleep so even if anyone tried it wouldn’t work. I’m sorry if you heard something distorted and disturbing, but I assure you all my actions were good natured” (p. 12). Ravi’s rejection to plea deals also say strongly that he believes his intensions were of good nature and that he is innocent.

On the other hand, there is the argument that Ravi acted in a consciously aggressive way. For example, he tweaked his iChat settings to intentionally spy on Tyler. Too his surprise he saw things that he probably wish he hadn’t, but the fact that he set this up on several occasions, as well as attempting to broadcast a viewing online only proves that he truly did try to expose Tyler, to back up his online postings about his roommate. This dialogue between Ravi and Wei after being questioned by police shows that he knew he had done something wrong, and that his actions were intentional…“ RAVI: Did you tell them we did it on purpose?
WEI: Yeah . . well that we didn’t know
what we were gonna see
Where is tyler . .
RAVI: Because I said we were just messing around with the camera. He told me he wanted to have a friend over and I didn’t realize they wanted to be all private.
WEI: Omg dharun why didnt u talk to me first i told them everything”

I believe that Ravi acted in a way that was almost stalker-ish of his roommate, Tyler. In the sense that, he went online to get to know his new roommate before they moved on-campus together, then after he dug enough to learn that Tyler was gay, and after they had moved in, he proved to be nice face-to-face, yet online he posted his truthful thoughts about Tyler. This is the first line in which I think Ravi crossed. I frown upon people who broadcast their ideas of others on networks such as facebook, and I think it was a selfish act that Ravi committed in talking about Tyler in a way in which he discriminated against his sexual orientation, as well as labeling and judging him for being ‘poor.' I believe that our online access to information about others and the way in which information can spread about people online has definitely presented us with new ethical challenges. These challenges include mainly cyber bullying in which Tyler was definitely a victim of due to Ravi’s actions. With the access of information being so easy to get a hold of these days, if it gets in the wrong hands, things can go drastically wrong if the person is not held accountable for their actions. I started off thinking that Ravi’s actions were definitely intentional and aggressive and exposed Tyler in a way that he did not want to be exposed. After reading the article, I still stand by my judgment that Ravi should be accountable for Tyler’s death because had Tyler not been exposed in such a malicious way, he would not have felt violated and as though his fresh new start at college had actually turned into his high school days in which he dreaded.