Tyler Clementi Remembered Through Candlelight Vigil
By Swatilekha Paul, Gaea News NetworkMonday, October 4, 2010
NEW BRUNSWICK (GaeaTimes.com)- Tyler Clementi, the first-year student at New Jersey’s Rutgers University was remembered through a silent candlelight vigil on Sunday night which witnessed the presence of large number of his fellow students. The vigil which was held for about an hour in the campus of the university in New Jersey in which the students held hands and hugged each other to pledge their support for the 18-year-old. Tyler Clementi jumped to his death at the Hudson River after he was filmed getting physical with a man by two fellow students and then the videos were later streamed online.
While talking about the decision to hold the candlelight vigil in remembrance of Tyler Clementi, Rutgers President Richard McCormick said in a statement that the vigil provided the proper platform for the students as well as the staff of the university to come together and ‘reaffirm commitment to the values of civility, dignity, compassion and respect.’ Since the 18-year-old took his own life after videos of his tryst with a man went made public on the web allegedly by his two fellow classmates Dharun Ravi and Molly Wei, condolences have been pouring in from various quarters.
On Saturday, prior to a football match against Tulane, Rutgers University paid homage to the deceased student by observing a two-minutes silence to remember Tyler Clementi. The two students who filmed the 18-year-old student have been charged with invasion of privacy and if they are found to be guilty of the charges then the accused might face up to five years behind the bar.
