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After girl's suicide, Missouri town outlaws online harassment JOEL CURRIER DARDENNE PRAIRIE, Mo. — City officials declared online harassment a crime Wednesday, fewer than two weeks after they learned of a 13-year-old girl who killed herself after receiving hurtful messages on a popular social networking website. The Board of Aldermen unanimously passed an ordinance making online harassment a misdemeanor in this city of about 5,500. "It is our hope that by supporting one of our own in Dardenne Prairie, we can do our part to ensure this type of harassing behavior never happens again, anywhere," said Mayor Pam Fogarty. "After all, harassment is harassment regardless of the mechanism or tool." The ordinance outlaws harassment using electronic communication, which includes the Internet, email, paging services and mobile phone text messaging.
Violators face a maximum $500 fine and up to 90 days in jail, the maximum penalty for the fourth-class city. The goal of the ordinance, said Assistant City Attorney John Young, is to punish people who use threatening or obscene language or images through electronic communication to inflict emotional distress on another person. Young said he researched similar legislation in other cities and states in drafting the ordinance. Megan Meier hanged herself with a cloth belt from a support beam in a closet in her Dardenne Prairie home Oct. 16, 2006, shortly after receiving cruel messages on MySpace, a popular social networking website. Megan had been exchanging messages with a 16-year-old named Josh Evans for about six weeks before her death.
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