SUNDAY, APRIL 9, 2017 INTERNATIONAL

11-year-old hangs himself after a social media prank

DETROIT: Tysen Benz was at home when relationship the person had with Tysen. The he saw social media posts indicating that juvenile is being charged with malicious his 13-year-old girlfriend had committed use of telecommunication services and suicide. The posts were a prank, but the 11- using a computer to commit a crime. The year-old boy apparently believed them. girl whose death was faked and friends Moments later, his mother found him who were in on the prank attended the hanging by the neck in his room in same school as Tysen, Goss said. Even Marquette, Michigan. Now a prosecutor is though the prank occurred outside of pursuing criminal charges against a juve- school, she said, the school should have nile accused of being involved in the done more to protect her son. “The princi- scheme, which Katrina Goss described as “a pal, the assistant principal - that’s their job, twisted, sick joke.” Goss described her son especially for little kids,” she said. “Kids take as appearing “fine” just 40 minutes before things to heart.” she found him. In a statement released Thursday, “I just want it be exposed and be Marquette Area Public Schools addressed,” Goss said of school bullying in Superintendent William Saunders agreed general and cyberbullying in particular. “I with Goss’s concerns about the dangers of don’t want it be ignored.” Using a cellphone social media. He said the district has been he bought without his mother’s knowl- educating students and parents through edge, Tysen on March 14 was reading texts its health curriculum, health fairs, commu- and other messages about the faked sui- nity forums and other efforts. “After the cide and decided he would end his life too, gut-wrenching loss of a student, we ask his mother said. After seeing the posts ourselves, ‘How can we do more?’” about his girlfriend, Tysen replied over Saunders wrote. social media that he was going to kill him- Most states, including Michigan, have self, and no one involved in the prank told enacted legislation designed to protect an adult, Goss said. The boy died Tuesday at children from bullies. Michigan’s anti-bully- a Detroit-area hospital. ing act, signed in 2011 by Gov Rick Snyder, Authorities would not release the age of requires school districts to have anti-bully- the juvenile charged or comment on what ing policies on the books. It was known as WASHINGTON: File photo shows Trump advisor Steve Bannon (left) and Counselor to US President Donald Trump, Kellyanne Conway talking before “Matt’s Safe School Law” after Matt Epling, a meeting in Washington, DC. — AFP a 14-year-old who killed himself after a 2002 hazing incident. The law was updated two years ago to White House’s infighting direct school districts to add language to those policies that address cyberbullying. Former Republican state Rep. Phil Potvin, who sponsored the original bill, said rages, no shakeup looms schools have a responsibility to do more than include anti-cyberbullying rules in their written policies. “They have to have a High-profile aides visibly jockeying for position person - spelled out - to make sure that policy is followed,” said Potvin, of Cadillac in WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump’s White false story driven by people who want to distract Security Council, reversing an earlier, controversial northern Michigan. “Some schools have House, one perpetually plagued by infighting from the success taking place in this administration.” decision to give Bannon access to the group’s high- failed to do that. They may have put some- among aides jockeying for the president’s ear, has As evidence of the success, Walters noted the level meetings. Kushner, who played a major role in thing in, but there is no follow-up. There is been sharply divided by a new rivalry, one pitting his confirmation of Judge Neil Gorsuch to the Senate, the campaign, has taken on an increasingly visible no checking up on these things.” powerful son-in-law with unfettered access to the recent meetings with foreign leaders and the mis- role, heading an effort to overhaul the federal gov- In 2006, Megan Meier committed sui- president against the sharp-elbowed ideologue who sile strikes in Syria. “The only thing we are shaking ernment and traveling to Iraq with the Joint Chiefs of cide after a woman who lived in her fami- fueled Trump’s populist campaign rhetoric. Senior up is the way Washington operates as we push the Staff chairman. He is allied with a group of aides who ly’s neighborhood in St Charles County, adviser Jared Kushner and White House chief strate- president’s aggressive agenda forward,” she said. view themselves as more moderate forces, including Missouri, encouraged the 13-year-old to kill gist Steve Bannon, arguably the two most influential Despite that dose of the president’s trademark economic adviser Gary Cohn, the former president of herself. The woman had created a fake voices in the West Wing, have clashed repeatedly in bravado, the administration has been plagued by the Goldman Sachs investment bank. MySpace admirer named “Josh,” who recent weeks over strategy to pass health care legis- the public airing of infighting, with high-profile Cohn’s ascendance - his wealth, including a $285 befriended Megan. The woman was con- lation, the fallout of the bogged-down immigration aides visibly jockeying for position. million severance package from Goldman, has victed in a California federal court of three bans and, most recently, whether to intervene in the And the president himself is increasingly frus- earned Trump’s respect - has been a flashpoint for misdemeanors, but a judge overturned the Syrian civil war. trated by the leaks that keep flowing out of the West Wing tensions. Cohn, Kushner and Deputy conviction. Pranks “definitely happen,” said Although the White House is rife with rumors of a West Wing. In recent weeks, tensions have mount- National Security Adviser Dina Powell have been Tina Meier, who runs a national bullying staff shakeup, Trump’s young administration is push- ed between Bannon and Kushner. Bannon, the for- labeled the White House’s “Democrats” by Bannon’s This undated family photo shows her son and cyberbullying prevention foundation ing back against reports of a pending West Wing mer head of the conservative news outlet Breitbart, allies and the two sides have taken turns slinging Tysen Benz. Benz, an 11-year-old Michigan named after her daughter. “The problem is overhaul fueled by squabbling among top aides. is a right wing bomb-thrower who powered anonymous arrows at each other in the press. boy hanged himself in his room after see- when they are pranking somebody ... to Spokeswoman Lindsay Walters said in a statement Trump’s populist campaign message. But some see Bannon’s side blames Kushner and his allies for trying ing social media posts indicating that his them it’s just been a joke,” Meier said. “To Friday that the narrative of a dysfunctional adminis- his role as declining. to moderate Trump and move him away from some girlfriend had committed suicide. — AP the other person, it’s been real.” — AP tration on the verge of a makeover “is a completely This week, Trump removed him from the National of his populist campaign promises. — AP