A bully wants to become friends on Facebook

Since when does a bully actually want to become friends on Facebook?

One of the people who tormented me as a teenager in Manchester, N.H., actually sent me a friend request yesterday afternoon. I laughed out loud and rolled my eyes when I read the message in my inbox. The larger implications, however, remain all too real.

This person made their request a few hours after a New Jersey grand jury indicted former Rutgers University student Dharun Ravi with bias intimidation, invasion of privacy and more than a dozen other charges after he allegedly videotaped his roommate having sex with another man in their dorm room. Tyler Clementi jumped to his death from the George Washington Bridge last September.

I honestly don’t know how this person reacted to Clementi's death and the rash of other LGBT teen suicides last fall that tragically underscored the problem of bullying. I honestly don’t know whether this person understands the impact their words had. I honestly don’t know whether this person even realizes that I could have easily become one of those statistics.

I don’t need this person’s apology because I have moved on with my life in New York City and elsewhere. I obviously did not accept his friend request, but I cannot help but wonder whether this person has children of their own. If so, I wish they never have to experience the same bullying to which their parent subjected me.