# Kid who was bullied commits suicide.  Should bully be charged with involuntary manslaughter? (real)

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kid-who-was-bullied-commits-suicide-should-bully-be-charged-with-involuntary-manslaughter-real/778878>\
**Category:** Great Debates\
**Created:** [February 3, 2017, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kid-who-was-bullied-commits-suicide-should-bully-be-charged-with-involuntary-manslaughter-real/778878 "2017-02-03T03:12:10Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 3

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**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\
**Post date:** [February 16, 2017, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kid-who-was-bullied-commits-suicide-should-bully-be-charged-with-involuntary-manslaughter-real/778878/41 "2017-02-16T00:26:54Z")

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> [@UltraVires](#):
>
> What crime would/should involve saying mean things to someone? If you say, “Ultravires, I read some of your prior posts, and I think you are a worthless piece of shit who should go home and die,” should that really be a crime?
> 
> Would it make a difference if I was emotionally unstable and harmed myself because of what you said? Let’s say that you knew I was emotionally unstable. Should there be a rule in a society that values free speech that such speech has to be restrained when the listener is more sensitive than others?
> 
> I agree that bullies are bad people and would like to see them go away, but I don’t see how we can craft a law that, essentially, says you cannot insult someone without having a chilling effect on speech.

I think this is about actions more than speech. Essentially, she hazed him. If she’d been his pledgemaster or his drill sergeant, she’d be in trouble, because she did things that are specifically outlawed because they have been used in hazing previously, found to be too cruel, and been done away with.

In a civil court where the family tried to recover damages, that would probably be a very effective argument, but not in a criminal court, because I doubt there were any actual criminal laws she violated. Hazing is against a lot of policies, and can get you kicked out of college, or given a UCMJ in the military, but I doubt that Dairy Queen has a policy against hazing. It probably has one against harassment, and that’s why she’s been fired. The family may not have a case against DQ itself, though, if the victim never reported the harassment. DQ upper management can’t intervene, if it knows nothing.

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