Between the Boy and the Bridge — A Haunting Question

By all accounts Tyler Clementi was an 18-year-old young man who was excited to be a freshman in college, gifted as a violinist, and looking forward to the future. All that changed last week when he walked out onto the massive George Washington Bridge that connects New York with New Jersey and jumped 200 feet to his death. The last few days of Tyler Clementi’s life were a cauldron of confusions. Over the course of three days he learned that his roommate at Rutgers University, also age 18, had surreptitiously turned a Web cam toward his bed, filming him in a romantic encounter with another male student. The roommate employed social media to inform friends of the event, turning what Tyler Clementi assumed was a private moment into a devastating public disclosure.
It is now clear that Tyler was crushed, confused, and angry. He posted thoughts about how he might respond on the Web, and then finally wrote this on his Facebook page: “Jumping off gw bridge sorry.” Continue Reading>>>