In Michigan, Tysen Benz, an 11-year-old boy, hanged himself after reading text messages and posts on social media that lead him to believe that his 13-year-old girlfriend had killed herself. This entire incident took only 40 minutes to unravel. Tysen’s mother, Katrina Goss, found him in his room, unresponsive. He attempted suicide on March 14, 2017, but he died this last Tuesday (April 4th) after being taken off of life support. Later, the family discovered the girlfriend was still alive and that she had faked her death as a prank. A group of her friends were also involved in the prank. The mother alleges that Tysen expressed his thought of suicide to the girl's friends. The name of the juvenile charged has not yet been released to the media because of her age. The charges involved were "malicious use of telecommunication services" and "using a computer to commit a crime". The family is completely heartbroken over this tragedy that could have been avoided.
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Questions:
Do you think that the teenage girl should be charged?
How would you react if you were Tysen’s parent?
Do you agree with their decision to take Tysen off of life support?
My Answers:
I think that the girl should be charged with something because she used her death as a prank on purpose to negatively affect Tysen. I know that she didn’t actually, physically murder him, but she sent him private text messages and directed social media posts toward him which lead him to kill himself. Although, maybe the child was depressed before and the suicide prank just sent him over the edge. There could have been preexisting symptoms of depression the parents could have detected. If I were Tyson's parent, I would definitely blame the girl somewhat, mostly out of anger, but I would also blame myself for not checking up on him in that brief gap of time. I think that if Tysen’s conditions weren’t treatable, and that he wouldn’t wake up, taking him off life support was okay. If it were me, I wouldn’t want to live like that; I would want to find peace and not live off of a machine.
Replies
Well yes because suicide and the death of anyone should not be joked about. I would be sad of course but angry because he obviously liked this girl and didn't want to live without and she faked her suicide which led to the death of the kid. No, I don't agree with that.
No I don't think she should because it was just a prank and was just messing around and ment no harm. If I was Tysen's parents I would want to press charges because I would be heartbroken and need someone to press charges against. I agree with their decision because personaly if I was on life support for that long then hopefully my parents would know that I wouldn't make it.
No I don't think she should be charged because she didn't try to hurt anyone and she is really young. It was just a big mistake, and a joke taken too far. It was unfortunate that it happened.
Even though she is young, do you think that should impact the charges she gets? I understand what you're saying about the joke being taken too far, but why would she joke about her death to begin with?
I don't think they should be charged. From my understanding no one had any intention of actually hurting anyone, so it was just a really really unfortunate misunderstanding. I would be incredibly sad for many years. If there was no hope of him making a recovery, then yes I agree.
I think the girl should definatly be charged because that is not something to joke about. I would be devastated if I was the boys parents and now they will have to go through life not getting to see their boy grow up.
I agree she should be charged because a matter like this should not be left alone. Attention needs to be brought and the girl needs to learn what she has done. I would also be very devastated knowing you had such a young son and now you will not even get to watch him grow up and live his life.
I think the girl should be charged with something because her prank caused someone else to die and she should not have joked about that in the first place. I would be very upset if I were his parents. If he was not going to live then I think taking him off life support would be okay.
I feel the girl did not mean to cause this harm on her boyfriend and was just trying to pull a prank but it sounds like it went to far. I would be devestated as they just lost there son over a prank. I hope the parents made the right decision for the boy.
I agree she did not mean to cause harm, but she needs to learn from what she did. This prank gone wrong should not be taken lightly at all. I would be very devastated losing my son over a prank also. Choosing to stop life support would be so hard but I also agree I hope they can feel they made the right choice.
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