Bullies Should Not Be Charged In Connection To The Death of a Peer

My opponent has attempted to use petty semantics to derail this debate, but I will not let that happen.RebuttalsMy opponent claims that if other crimes were involved in alleged "bullying" then those crimes would be investigated and charged therefore negating the resolution. However, bullying itself is not a crime. I am not saying that sexual predators, abusers, people who commit harassment etc. should not be charged, they should be. That's not the issue at hand. The issue at hand is whether petty bullying should have legal implications when tied to suicide and the answer is clearly no. If you sexually abuse someone and they commit suicide then sure, pursue legal action. If I was standing on the grounds of well known legal harassment there would be no debate. It would be black and white. Now that this debate is firmly back on track, lets revisit the issue.If a peer commits suicide and you were found to be in the act of petty bullying at the time (not sexual harassment, not prolonged physical abuse etc) against this person, should you be charged?No. Again, suicide is a solitary action (we'll return to assisted suicide as well).I again reiterate, it would put in jeopardy things such as free speech if you could be charged in a suicide case. Take this example: Bob is someone who suffers from severe depression. Due to this Bob is not very pleasant to interact with. Carl is a classmate of Bob who interacts with him on a daily basis. After months of interacting, Bob's negative attitude stemming from his depression causes Carl to snap. Carl proceeds to yell at Bob and then goes onto Facebook and makes sure to remind him to correct his attitude in the future. Carl continues to berate Bob, not criminally, but continuously for awhile.Eventually Bob takes his own life due to many factors. However, during the investigation, Carl comes up as having been in negative contact with Bob for some time. Should he be charged?The answer simply is no. Carl has a right to free speech to interact with Bob in such a way, even if its negative. These are the types of cases that this debate is about. If a girl is continuously called ugly by her peers and she goes onto kill herself can the peers be blamed? No.Rebuttal - Assisted Suicideassisted suicide - suicide with help from another person (such as a doctor) to end suffering from severe physical illness [1]The definition of assisted suicide is HELP from another, help implies intent. You can't unwillingly help someone kill themselves. So unless bullies threaten someones life (which is a type of harassment already covered under the law) they can't be charged with this. Also, the definition stipulates two other things which disqualify schoolyard bullies from this type of charge: it's usually a doctor and it's used to end severe illness. Bullies are neither of those two things and therefore cannot be charged with assisted suicide. Conclusion- If "bullying" violates established law they should be tried as the type of criminals the law requires i.e as a predator or abuser. However, we are not talking about this type of abuse as those actions are already illegal. We are talking about bullying in the most general sense: mean comments, maybe getting punched every so often, being cyberstalked. These things are not illegal under the law which is why these actions cannot be used to criminally charge someone with "bullying". - Assisted suicide is used by my opponent incorrectly. Nothing in the definition fits the profile of an average bully and therefore they cannot be charged with such an activity.Now that this debate has been put back on track, I hope my case appears more clear. [1] http://www.merriam-webster.com...