Seems like this will all be someone else's problem. Good.
What bothers me about this whole thing is the parents.
Kids are morons and some are vicious morons. I don't think they should get a pass, but I also get where @closetojumping is coming from. People change, learn, and grow over time - no one more than teenagers - and there is now a very public record of this kid acting like a terrible person that will follow him for a long time. Maybe forever. That seems disproportionate to the harm he actually caused. Not saying to take it easy on the little shit, more that I'm just glad I was an idiot teenager before social media became a thing.
But the parents. And the coaches, teachers, and administrators. What the fuck. I said people can grow and change, but that can only happen if there are consequences for their actions. This fucking guy could have killed someone. Has anyone driven that fact home to him? Has anyone sat him down and explained how badly he almost fucked up the lives of everyone involved? Killing someone else isn't the kind of thing you get to move on from. Even if you avoid jail, you will forever be the person who bullied someone to death. I tell my kids - you are what you do. Not your intentions, or what you say, or think, or how you see yourself. And if you bully someone to death, that is who you are. Doesn't matter if you didn't mean it. But someone has to explain that fact to this kid in no uncertain terms for him to have that epiphany and change.
It doesn't seem like this kid has learned any lesson. There's no indication that he apologized, learned from this, and made amends. No one really punished him. So part of me is glad he's getting dragged on twitter - it's a shame that a bunch of strangers on the internet have to create the consequences necessary for this kid to learn that what he did was bad, but at least it's fucking happening. At least maybe now he'll understand and won't do it again.
Anyway, like I said. I'm glad this is now someone else's problem.