Astrotoy7 Posted April 10, 2006 Share Posted April 10, 2006 Hehe. some of you, particularly in Canada may have been following the civil case of the "SW Kid" Who was suing former schoolmates for $350k in damages. Linky to news article The case concluded recently, with an out of court settlement. Although he probably didnt get $350k, he definitely has gotten some payback I also think it sets an interesting precedent for similar such pranks... for those who missed out on SW kid and his subsequent re-incarnations, check out HERE mtfbwya Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Commander Obi-Wan Posted April 10, 2006 Share Posted April 10, 2006 lolz, I never knew that, and I live in Canada.....oh noes!!!!!!1 Funny though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Det. Bart Lasiter Posted April 10, 2006 Share Posted April 10, 2006 What an a******. $351,000? I'd tell him to go f*** himself and then leave the country. ***Edit*** $351,000 is enough for him to trap himself in a glass case of emotion (pictured below) for a long time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChAiNz.2da Posted April 10, 2006 Share Posted April 10, 2006 damn.. I need prick-type friends that I can ca$h in on when making an ass out of myself... considering I'm doing it FREE here all the time... hehehe Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Doctor Posted April 10, 2006 Share Posted April 10, 2006 I'm on his side, actually. I've had... well, nothing similar, but I've been bullied pretty bad in the past. Good for him. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff Posted April 10, 2006 Share Posted April 10, 2006 I think it's kind of ironic that he's getting a lot of money when he's the one who made a fool of himself his friends just helped spread the word Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RaV™ Posted April 10, 2006 Share Posted April 10, 2006 I think this case should've been dropped, because now people will think they can sue for crazy amounts just for being bullied. Besides he made a fool of himself...why the hell would you even do something like that? Plus TAPE IT!? Either charges should have been dropped to a much smaller amount or dropped together. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jae Onasi Posted April 10, 2006 Share Posted April 10, 2006 ^I wouldn't call what those kids did to him 'friends.' I've suffered my share of bullying (weird geeky girl with thick glasses and a really high IQ who studied weather and rocks and liked science and math more than boys in junior high. Go figure.), so I can feel for the kid. I can't imagine going to school every day and having to deal with the chants and whispers in the hallways all day long. I turned out generally OK in spite of the teasing, but not everyone does--some suicides can be attibuted directly to bullying. It's a problem that is misunderstood ('boys will be boys') and handled either inadequately, incorrectly, or plain ignored. I think the monetary award is entirely excessive (ridiculously so) and doesn't solve the problem, but I agree the bullying problem was a big one that had to be addressed (and I suspect there was more went on besides the video and subsequent taunting). It's also obvious that a. the parents (or, to be fair, the lawyers, don't know which) saw big dollar signs for their kid's pain (I don't think the suit would have happened if the defendants didn't have a lot of money) and b. the kid had entirely inadequate resources to deal with the bullying (which may include parental issues). I suspect some of the money will be used to pay for the kid's psychologist visits. The principal of the high school should be fired for allowing it to go on to the degree it did at that school. He couldn't stop the video, but he could have put a halt to much of the rest of the teasing, and that's an institutional problem in that school at least. If we don't allow two adults to speak to or have physical contact with each other in certain ways, we shouldn't be allowing kids to do it either. Abuse is abuse no matter what the age is. And yes, when my son started getting teased by a kid nearly twice his age at daycare, you better believe I got involved really fast to put a stop to it. My kids are products of two intelligent geeky parents. What are the odds they'll get some of those genes? It's my job to keep an eye out for my kids' welfare, and that includes their security. [/rant] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Emperor Devon Posted April 10, 2006 Share Posted April 10, 2006 What an ****hole. He got depressed because people called him 'Star Wars kid', then stopped lifting weights and got depressed? That fat little **** is one of the most weak-willed people I've ever heard about. People's opinions don't matter that much. That shouldn't cause depression. When I was in school I was insulted and ridiculed daily for how I would read history books for fun, and for how I blew the prom and other school dances to read marxism. But did I file a lawsuit against the other kids in my school? No, I simply realized that their opinion is completely irrelevent. Why should whether anyone calls me a loser or geek affect how happy I am? The fact that other people called him names forced him to get counseling and a lawsuit shows plain and simple weakness. Grow up, kid. I definitely hope that little piece of **** loses the lawsuit. On a side note, those videos were hilarious. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RaV™ Posted April 10, 2006 Share Posted April 10, 2006 Trust me I've gone through an amount of bullying, but nothing like that. I don't consider his 'friends' true friends. True friends are the ones who would never put something like that on the internet or even laugh about it. I totally agree with you about the principal being fired, because he didn't do enough to avoid the pains for this kid. Impossible for him to stop the video being on the net, but no where near impossible to stop the chants and other teasings at school. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shinyjedi Posted April 11, 2006 Share Posted April 11, 2006 I'm on the side of the SW Kid. Firmly so. I put up with bullying in school from both ends; I was kind of geeky, but also inventive enough to exact payback in a number of colorful ways. Suffice to say I gave as well as I got. So, with my bonidides out of the way, we all make fools of ourselves here and there, and we pay for it one way or another (have a security video of my oldest son doing a "pimp walk" through the store, which on a 2 second increment security recorder takes on a whole new flavor!). Mostly, it flares and then goes away. Yes, it was stupid to leave the tape where others without his best interests in mind could find it, but far more irresponsible were the ones who posted it on the internet. Particularly without written permission. Putting someone's image on a public forum is a dangerous act, particularly one that holds them up to ridicule. It should be punished in such a way as to discourage similar behavior by others. Perhaps that's what the big number is about? Not everybody is a greedy sod, despite what popular media would like us to believe. Maybe we have parents who see what their son is going through and don't want anybody else's son to have to go through the same. That in mind, and with (one assumes) jail time out of the question, there's only one reasonable avenue left for deterrent value. Oh, I suppose they could require the perpetrators to do something humiliating on film and distribute it freely, but that hardly seems likely to help matters. I don't know anybody in the case, I never saw the video, and I don't live in Canada, but I do know that no skin is thick enough to protect you beyond a certain point. A constant monkey show following you around everywhere you go seems pretty evidently to be beyond what might reasonably be ignored. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Det. Bart Lasiter Posted April 11, 2006 Share Posted April 11, 2006 The only people who sue and actually need the money are people with medical bills that were created as a result of the incident in question. Either medical bills or lost wages due to being in a hospital. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shinyjedi Posted April 11, 2006 Share Posted April 11, 2006 er......huh? I don't think anybody thus far in the thread has said anything about NEEDING the money. Typically, large sums like this are in the nature of punitive damages. The concept is that you punish hell out of somebody who did something bad in the hopes that word gets around and prevents some other idiot from duplicating the event. That isn't always the way it works, but it is the way it's supposed to work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Det. Bart Lasiter Posted April 11, 2006 Share Posted April 11, 2006 er......huh? I don't think anybody thus far in the thread has said anything about NEEDING the money. Typically, large sums like this are in the nature of punitive damages. The concept is that you punish hell out of somebody who did something bad in the hopes that word gets around and prevents some other idiot from duplicating the event. That isn't always the way it works, but it is the way it's supposed to work. Perhaps I didn't convey what I was thinking at the time... I meant to say those people (the ones I mentioned needed the money) are the only ones who should recieve money. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hallucination Posted April 11, 2006 Share Posted April 11, 2006 I've been bullied a bit, not quite as bad as this, and I don't think that suing for that much money is necessary. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Doctor Posted April 11, 2006 Share Posted April 11, 2006 ^ That's because you're popular. You most likely don't know what the extremes of bullying feel like. Being unpopular is nowhere near fun. I should know, I'm the height of unpopular at school, being both a Trekkie and a Star Wars fan. Not to mention Doctor Who, which most people have never heard of. Writing at lunch also doesn't help the situation. People who are unpopular are treated like **** (pardone mon francais). But this is worse. I may be biased, but I think he deserves every penny. Just my two cents. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Det. Bart Lasiter Posted April 11, 2006 Share Posted April 11, 2006 ^ That's because you're popular. You most likely don't know what the extremes of bullying feel like. Being unpopular is nowhere near fun. I should know, I'm the height of unpopular at school, being both a Trekkie and a Star Wars fan. Not to mention Doctor Who, which most people have never heard of. Writing at lunch also doesn't help the situation. People who are unpopular are treated like **** (pardone mon francais). But this is worse. I may be biased, but I think he deserves every penny. Just my two cents. I can count the amount of friends I've had since I started school on one hand and calculus and programming during lunch (since my sophomore year in high school; before that it was nothing at all) seem slightly worse than writing as well. I still think he doesn't deserve a cent. If he wanted to do something about it he should have kept lifting weights and ground one of them into the pavement instead of putting up with it and getting walked all over. Maybe this is biased, since I feel that anyone who sues someone else should have been in a hospital (or otherwise incapacitated) for physical injuries or mental disorders brought on by the event (and have lost wages during the time they could have been working or in the future), dead, or crippled. Basically I think you should be in a cast, babbling incoherently, or in a casket if you or your family is suing someone. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jae Onasi Posted April 11, 2006 Share Posted April 11, 2006 ^ That's because you're popular. You most likely don't know what the extremes of bullying feel like. Being unpopular is nowhere near fun. I should know, I'm the height of unpopular at school, being both a Trekkie and a Star Wars fan. Not to mention Doctor Who, which most people have never heard of. Writing at lunch also doesn't help the situation. People who are unpopular are treated like **** (pardone mon francais). But this is worse. I may be biased, but I think he deserves every penny. Just my two cents. Jae's 2 cents of advice on this, for anyone (not picking on the Doctor here, he just had the relevent post).... a. Know that the folks who are geeky in school grow up to be intelligent, creative people who do come into their own. It just takes some of us (OK, me) a little longer to figure it out (read, well into my college years). At my HS reunion (no, I'm not saying how many, thank you), the people who were kind of 'geeky' in HS had transformed into secure, interesting people who were doing some fascinating things with their lives. b. Make sure to let someone who can do something about bullying know what's going on. (i.e. principal, parents). They can't fix the problem if they don't know about it, and most bullies are sophisticated enough to make sure they're doing their work where no one is really seeing it. This is imperative if the abuse is physical. Physical abuse is assault, plain and simple, and is just as criminal whether it's being perpetrated by a 16 year old or a 26 year old. c. Build social skills (with live people around you, not just us forumites! ). There are plenty of books out there, I liked Dale Carnegie (a bit dated now, but still useful). Social skills are not intuitive, though some people just seem to have a natural talent for it. They're learned. d. A martial art is a good thing to know, even if you never use it. It's fabulous exercise (and that's coming from a confirmed exercise hater). You don't have to beat the crap out of someone, but it's nice to know you can defend yourself if someone tries to do it to you. e. Humor can defuse a lot of situations. f. Bullies often have some underlying insecurity that's driving their actions. Some of them are also just jerks. g. Not everyone is going to like you. None of us has the exact same interests, so that's to be expected. If you try to make everyone like you, you'll go crazy. It's better to have a few deep friendships than a bunch of shallow ones. h. For those who are blessed with more intelligence than most of the people around you, be aware that some of the 'attitude' from others around you may actually be happening because they're intimidated by your intelligence, whether you intend that or not. Of course, if you flaunt it, that's not going to help. i. There's always a way out if it gets really bad. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shinyjedi Posted April 11, 2006 Share Posted April 11, 2006 I feel we're missing the point, my fellow geeks. First of all, particularly in this case, the use of martial arts (or the use of Chicago karate, alley whips, paid thugs and etc...) will not only not solve the problem, it will generally result in the original victim being the one in serious trouble. Remember, when the cops show up, they carefully observe the situation, question all witnesses, and then arrest whoever's on top. In this kid's case, whomping on the guys who humiliated him would have simply resulted in him being humiliated while in jail/juvie. The proper techniques for foiling bullies only works if you can foil them BEFORE you're humiliated. By the time the entire school/town/city/country/internet dogpiles on, it's. too. freakin'. late! The concept of punitive damages needs to be understood. Please read the following carefully rather than glossing over it. Given that you cannot legally pound the cretin into the ground, and that humiliation isn't criminally actionable, you have a limited arsenal at your disposal. Civil penalty is pretty much what's left. That means spank the villain's pocketbook until he cries. It isn't about YOU getting the money, it's about TAKING IT AWAY FROM HIM! See, the theory is that, the next time the thug is lining up a target, he remembers the generic mac&cheese he's been living on for the last six years because of his LAST indiscretion, and thinks better of his plans. Thus are future crimes averted. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stingerhs Posted April 11, 2006 Share Posted April 11, 2006 well, i do feel a bit inclined to put in my two pennies here given some of the comments mentioned earlier (and no, i won't hand out names). first off, let me start by saying that public humiliation is something that is quite difficult for anyone to handle. given that the video was distributed over the internet makes things even worse as millions have an equal opportunity to see you in the humiliation. i'll be the first to admit that i often times laugh at people's misfortune, but sometimes things can get carried away. in this case, i wouldn't fault the kids who put it on the internet if it hadn't turned out the way it did. given the circumstances, however, i do believe that some pranks, however 'harmless', can very much spiral out of control. this is such a case, and i believe that perhaps some measure of justice was served. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Char Ell Posted April 11, 2006 Share Posted April 11, 2006 I remember hearing about this but didn't pay much attention to the story at the time. Now that I have watched the video I feel to ask, "Was this kid trying to imitate Darth Maul with his double bladed lightsaber?" Seriously. I'm not sure why he was called "Star Wars Kid" when I don't hear him making any lightsaber sounds and his hands keep sliding over his "lightsaber's" blade if that is what he was pretending to use. Seems to me more like a Kung Fu or Neo using a quarterstaff impersonation than a Star Wars imitation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TSR Posted April 11, 2006 Share Posted April 11, 2006 this may be a bit heartless, but, he left the tape in the recordr. so what was he expecting to happen? its was a joke. and, all the spin offs have been hilarious, might i reccomend this one? http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2894093448203053618&q=star+wars+kid&pl=true kenobi and skywalker's reactions are absolutely legendary. just can just see it on their faces.."wtf?" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Char Ell Posted April 11, 2006 Share Posted April 11, 2006 ^^^ Yeah, that was pretty good video editing. It's so much better than the original. Still, I don't think it proper to use video footage of another person in that manner without their permission. If the person consents to their personal footage being made publicly available like that then that would be fine. However this doesn't seem to be the case in this situation. IMO all you have to do is ask yourself if you were in the position would you like having millions of people see you doing something "geeky" like that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Astrotoy7 Posted April 11, 2006 Author Share Posted April 11, 2006 Though I cant say what I know what its like be severely bullied(apart from my gf when choosing what colors of things go where in the house), I can definitely see that due to the worldwide nature of the exposure that this kid has got it can potentially mess you up psychologically... @Jae - you liked rocks more than boys ?? The boys at your high school must have been pretty ordinary !! mtfbwya Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prime Posted April 11, 2006 Share Posted April 11, 2006 I think it's kind of ironic that he's getting a lot of money when he's the one who made a fool of himself You just discribed Hollywood. Star Wars Kid for Prime Minister! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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