When too much becomes too much

In the case of Tyler Clementi’s suicide case, Dharun Ravi is also a victim, much like Tyler Clementi.  Teenagers play, and teenagers these days play different games in a whole new level. It is a fact that, “there was no posting, no observed sex, and no closet”. As a teenager, Ravi was just curious and the boy just had to feed his curiosity. As one of the Ravi’s family friends put it, Ravi’s actions were just “’kid’s prank that went wrong,’ in a culture of celebrity tweeting and ‘American Pie’ (a comedy in which a young man sets up a secret webcam broadcast). The judicial system had taken things too far, he said. In addition, the fact that Ravi and Clementi barely talked to each other should be considered. Clementi’s request to have the room to himself on the night of September 19^th, merely triggered Ravi’s curiousity which led him to take a peek at what’s going on. He barely saw anything, and only enabled iChat/Skype for a few seconds. “He never saw anything pornographic he never recorded anything,” Clementi posted on Justusboys.

Although Ravi’s actions might not be the only cause of Clementi’s suicide, reading the entirety of the article makes me believe that he played the biggest role in the incident. Clementi was already caught in his own dilemma of “coming out” and not really having a solid support system, and Ravi’s actions only exacerbated the situation. Ravi probably did not really have the intent to expose Clementi, however his actions following his unintended viewing of the events on the night of September 19^th proves otherwise. One can probably say that he did not know what he was going to see once he video called his own account from a different computer that night, but him setting up his computer and planning to use the device to see why Clementi wanted the room to himself is alone an invasion of privacy already. Had Ravi not intended to violate his roommate’s privacy, then there would be no justification to Clementi noticing “that the webcam on top of Ravi’s monitor was ‘pointed right at me.’ In addition to the use of video-calling to “spy” on Clementi, also utilized the social media by posting tweets on his account on September 21^st, “’Anyone with iChat, I dare you to video chat me between the hours of 9:30 and 12. Yes, it’s happening again.’” This tweet was later on deleted and replaced with a less evasive one, which I believe was done to protect himself from the officials.

It wasn’t exactly easy to defend Ravi’s side and claim him as not guilty of the incident when everything I have read from the article tells me that he is. For me, the issue is not about exposing Clementi’s sexual orientation. I look at the story and what bothers me the most is how Ravi not just tried and planned, but actually invaded his roommate’s privacy. No matter what the situation is, I don’t think Tyler’s request of Dharun to leave the room gives him the right to investigate what was going on. It could just be one of the many crazy pranks teenagers pull these days, but once someone in the picture is being exploited in any way, the circumstances change. In this case where Tyler Clementi felt so unsafe that he had to take his life, justice should be made and those responsible should pay. 


-Kate Bolfango