His parents bought a half-page of space in the back of the West Windsor-Plainsboro High School North yearbook, Excalibur. Sandwiched between their son’s graduation photo and three childhood pictures, they wrote:
Dear Dharun,
It has been a pleasure watching you grow into a caring and responsible person. We are very proud of you. You are a wonderful son and brother. You are a great inspiration to Jay. Keep up your good work. Hold on to your dreams and always strive to achieve your goals. We know that you will succeed.
Almost as an afterthought, they added another sentence:
Dharun,
We will always be there to love and support you every step of the way.
Love, Mom, Dad and Jay Neither Dharun Ravi nor his family could possibly have predicted that a few months later he would face what may be the most difficult challenge of his young life — the consequences of a college prank gone horribly wrong.
Ravi, along with high school friend and Rutgers dorm mate, Molly Wei, have been charged with invasion of privacy after allegedly secretly streaming live, through Ravi’s laptop, an encounter between his roommate, Tyler Clementi, and another man.
It is what happened later, however, that has wreaked havoc on the lives of Ravi and Wei. About 48 hours after the two teens watched the first liason on a computer in Wei’s dorm room, Ravi invited his Twitter followers to view his roommate in a second encounter he believed would occur that evening.
The video feed of the second encounter was unsuccessful, and the next day Clementi jumped to his death from the George Washington Bridge.
Now, just weeks into their freshman year at Rutgers, Ravi and Wei not only are confronting the law, but global opprobrium.
The story of the webcam and Clementi’s suicide has been reported in at least five Australian newspapers, as well as the Irish Examiner, Coventry Evening Telegraph in England and the Evening Times in Glasgow, Scotland.
On the internet, news accounts can be found in Vietnamese and French, Greek and Turkish, Danish, Portuguese and Javanese.
Facebook pages also have been created — for the victim ("In Honor of Tyler Clementi") and both in support of the accused ("Molly Wei is innocent") and against them ("Manslaughter Charges for Dharun Ravi and Molly Wei").
Most of the internet musings run from "Guilty!" to "Here’s hoping they both go to jail for a long time," to "Two pieces of scum."
Few of the postings reflect the picture friends paint of Ravi and Wei: smart, well-liked, on the threshold of promising futures.
"A lot of the online news sources, what I’ve read, have kind of hinted that he’s a prankster. That he’s kind of homophobic," said Michael Zhuang, 17, a friend of Ravi’s. "He’s really not. He’s very, very open-minded."
Those who know Ravi describe him as spirited and outgoing. He is a formidable breakdancer and, in addition to running track at West Windsor-Plainsboro North, was co-captain of the Ultimate Frisbee team.
Another friend, Mark Lin, 17, said Ravi had near-perfect scores on his SATs.
Those who knew Wei in middle and high school said she played volleyball, sang in a choir and enjoyed many friendships.
Pooja Kolluri, also an 18-year-old Rutgers freshman, was close with Wei a number of years ago and recently got back in touch with her.
"She was really a very happy person," Kolluri said.
http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2010/10/friends_of_dharun_ravi_molly_w.html
