Ridgewood Mom Wants A Dialogue With First Lady About Cyberbullying

RIDGEWOOD, N.J. — One Ridgewood mother wants to end cyberbullying and she is willing to go to The White House to do it.

Jane Clementi, the mother of Tyler Clementi, has responded to First Lady Melania Trump's call to end online bullying by having a dialogue with her. She also wants other mothers to engage Trump on the issue. She wants to foster a dialogue that supports youth of all races, religions and sexual and gender identities. She wants youths to have safe spaces to talk about the issues that most closely affect them.

"Let's have a conversation — mom to mom — to discuss solutions that put an end to all online and offline bullying for everyone," Jane Clementi said in a statement. "We must work together to prevent all forms of online and offline bullying, harassment and humiliation from affecting any child's development."

Trump said she will focus efforts on putting an end to bullying on social media.

"Children and teenagers can be fragile. They hurt when they are made fun of or made to feel less in looks or intelligence," Trump said in November. "This makes their life hard and forces them to hide and retreat. Our culture has gotten too mean and too rough especially to children and to teenagers.”

The foundation is placing a full-page advertisement in the Washington Examiner with Jane Clementi's complete statement addressed to Trump.

Jane Clementi co-founded the foundation with her husband Joe after their son killed himself after his Rutgers University roommate recorded him having an intimate encounter with another man and broadcasted it online.

Tyler Clementi killed himself by jumping off the George Washington Bridge after finding out about the filming.

The roommate, Dharun Ravi, was convicted in 2015, but had his sentence overturned in September and was given a new trial. He plead guilty to attempted invasion of privacy.

Send local news tips, photos, and press releases to daniel.hubbard@patch.com. Get Patch breaking news alerts sent right to your phone with our new app. Download here.

Photo used with permission via Creative Commons license