Quote:
Originally Posted by DJ's left nut
That's true.
And I'm not inclined to defend the suicide, it was an unreasonable reaction.
At the same time, this was the guys roommate and the kid was known to be a quiet kid. Have you ever known anyone to be that painfully shy that didn't take things like this very hard?
His roommate knew this and just didn't give a !@#$. That makes his conduct even more reprehensible.
Consider it the old 'eggshell skull' concept. When you wrong someone, you're open to the consequences of their particular proclivities, especially if you already know about them. If you know someone is unreasonably attached to their pet (I dunno, death in the family, kid turns to the dog) and you lay out a bowl of anti-freeze for it, that's a lot different than putting bleach in someone's goldfish bowl.
You take your victim as you find him and this guy at least knew his roommate was painfully shy. He also seems to have known that the gay thing could really tweak him.
He seized on this and took it as far as it can go. The victims reaction was unreasonable, but the perp's conduct was abhorrent. He deserves whatever he gets.
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a) I was never a fan of the "eggshell skull" concept precisely because there are people who try to extend it beyond reason.
b) The "eggshell skull" concept can only take you so far. I'm sure you'd agree that the pez popper in |Zach|'s example shouldn't get in trouble just because he roomed with a guy with an extraordinarily fragile "eggshell skull". I don't think it was at all reasonable for these bullying kids to expect their target to off himself.