Something happened five
months ago and I still can’t shake it. And I still haven’t resolved it. Not to
my satisfaction anyway.
A newer local friend of my
daughter’s—let’s call her Jane for the sake of anonymity—told her she should connect
with a summer camp pal of hers through Snapchat because “he’s really cool.”
Mr. Cool—let’s call him Dick—lives in an affluent town in central New Jersey
and had been going to the same summer camp as Jane for several years.
My daughter, who’s outgoing
and goofy and loves meeting people from all over, asked me what I thought. I
said, “Wouldn’t be something I’d recommend since you don’t know him. On the
other hand, he’s a friend of Jane’s, and she’s nice so it probably wouldn’t be
a problem.”
Big Motherhood Mistake #1: Ignoring
your own rule about your kid connecting online with people she doesn’t know.
I’d made that rule when Clare was much younger and needed greater guidance with
online activity. At 16, I figured she could make that call. Plus, he was a
friend of a friend. Stupid me.
Clare accepted Dick's request to connect on Snapchat. Then they, well, chatted. Simple stuff, pretty benign. She read most of their
exchange to me as it was unfolding—admittedly, with me rolling my eyes inside
because I could think of about a thousand things I’d rather do than carry on an inane conversation with someone I
didn’t know, like read a book, clean the refrigerator, or stick a knitting
needle through my eye.
Eventually, the conversation
wound down and Dick sent a message something along the lines of “I’m bored.”
Clare read that one to me and I repeated my oft-expressed belief that only
boring people get bored. She messaged back to Dick, with the slightest touch
of irreverence, that maybe he ought to download a new video game if he’s bored and
“might I suggest one of my favorites, Plants vs. Zombies?”
His reply? Send me some nude
pictures of yourself.
Seriously, dude? This is
your idea of wooing a girl? What kind of warped mind is in that pea-brained head
of yours, anyway?
Jeff and I had already had
this discussion with Clare before—the one about never sending nudes and never being
coerced into doing something you don’t want to do, and how asshats who pressure
you to do something unscrupulous or unsafe are just that: asshats. And no one
likes hanging out with asshats.
I knew Clare wouldn’t allow
herself to be pressured into complying with Dick's demand, but she asked my
advice on how to reply. I suggested she drop the conversation and ignore him.
She did.
Apparently, Dick—ah screw
it; let’s just call him Asshat, shall we?—doesn’t like being ignored.
The next morning, Asshat
sent an ugly follow-up message. And the thing about Snapchat is, unless the
recipient quickly captures a screenshot, the message disappears in a matter of seconds
after being opened. But the thing about Clare is, she has a quick mind and
quicker fingers. She grabbed a screenshot. Here’s what this little d-bag from my home state had to say (with the real name of "Jane" whited-out):
Clare ignored the message,
but Asshat couldn’t leave well enough alone. Twenty-one minutes later he sent
another Snapchat to her:
Wow. Just fucking wow.
I was volunteering at school
that day, so Clare found me in the office of her theater instructor and showed
me the screenshots of Asshat’s messages, seeking guidance on how to deal with
them. I told her to immediately block him from her Snapchat account. She
already had (smart girl).
Clare had also already approached
her friend Jane and showed her the messages, telling her that she planned to
address the issue because Asshat’s remarks were nasty, uncalled for, and
bordering on verbal assault. Jane apologized, but then begged Clare to “just
drop it,” stating that Asshat was an important friend to Jane and she couldn’t
stand the thought of losing him. WTF?!
Clare’s theater teacher, a
kind-hearted and easy-going mid-westerner, was also in the office with us, and
to say he was pissed about Asshat’s behavior was an understatement. He
suggested we meet with the high school’s assigned police officer to get input
on how best to handle the situation. In my mind, Asshat didn’t need to be
arrested, but did need a parental intervention lest he grow up to be an adult asshat, or worse. Sometimes, as kids—or even as adults—just being confronted about our
stupid shit is enough to prevent us from repeating it.
We set up an appointment
with the on-campus cop to review all the details of what had occurred in the
last 24 hours. It was extremely helpful and we learned several things:
(1) Asshat’s messages, while
vile, are not illegal.
(2) Asshat is a “predator”—this
is the term used by the police officer, who had seen more of this sort of ugly
bullying bullshit than he cared to.
(3) If Asshat moved so quickly to demanding nudes from my
daughter, then it’s fairly certain he’s doing the same with other girls. And if
he was quick to become a bullying d-bag when Clare wouldn’t comply, it’s fairly
certain he’s responding the same way to other non-complying girls.
(4) If left unchecked,
Asshat will likely assume he can continue getting away with this douchebaggary.
And at some point, the thrill of online verbal abuse would wear off and he
might want to take his dickishness up a notch. So what comes next? It’s a
slippery slope, this propensity to denigrate others.
(5) If we confront him via
his parents (I’d already done a bit of googling and know his parents’ names,
address, occupations, and phone numbers.), there is a slight chance of
retribution by Asshat—or hell, even by his parents. After all, we don’t know
much about this little prick—or his parents—beyond the basic details.
(6) We should contact Jane’s
parents and let them know that their daughter is communicating with a predator.
For her safety.
(7) Clare should not
communicate directly with Asshat in the future. (No chance of that, My kid
prefers kind people.)
It was a lot to take in and
both Clare and I left unsure of our next steps.
And now, it’s five months
later and this little creepozoid still pops into my mind here and there.
Because I never contacted his parents. Because I allowed fear to keep me rooted
in non-action. Because I want to believe the best in others, yet have been
around long enough to know that not everyone is a basically decent person. Some people are simply messed up,
mean, cruel, violent and dangerous. Because I don’t want to take the chance
that this kid could be the type to seek revenge on my daughter.
What would you do? I
genuinely want to know. Because I don’t know.
