9 Charged after girl kills herself over bullying
 

Sometimes there are no words:

http://www.comcast.net/articles/news...hool.Bullying/


By STEPHANIE REITZ, AP
Mon Mar 29, 3:38 PM EDT

Insults and threats followed 15-year-old Phoebe Prince almost from her first day at South Hadley High School, targeting the Irish immigrant in the halls, library and in vicious cell phone text messages.

Phoebe, ostracized for having a brief relationship with a popular boy, reached her breaking point and hanged herself after one particularly hellish day in January — a day that, according to officials, included being hounded with slurs and pelted with a beverage container as she walked home from school.

Now, nine teenagers face charges in what a prosecutor called "unrelenting" bullying, including two teen boys charged with statutory rape and a clique of girls charged with stalking, criminal harassment and violating Phoebe's civil rights.

School officials won't be charged, even though authorities say they knew about the bullying and that Phoebe's mother brought her concerns to at least two of them.

Northwestern District Attorney Elizabeth Scheibel, who announced the charges Monday, said the events before Phoebe's death on Jan. 14 were "the culmination of a nearly three-month campaign of verbally assaultive behavior and threats of physical harm" widely known among the student body.

"The investigation revealed relentless activity directed toward Phoebe, designed to humiliate her and to make it impossible for her to remain at school," Scheibel said. "The bullying, for her, became intolerable."

Scheibel said the case is still under investigation and that one other person could be charged. It wasn't immediately known Monday whether the teens who have been charged have attorneys.

Scheibel said the harassment began in September, occurring primarily in school and in person, although some of it surfaced on Facebook and in other electronic forms. At least four students and two faculty members intervened to try to stop it or report it to administrators, she said.

Schiebel refused to discuss the circumstances of the rape charges.

No school officials are being charged because they had "a lack of understanding of harassment associated with teen dating relationships," and the school's code of conduct was interpreted and enforced in an "inconsistent" way, Scheibel said.

"Nevertheless, the actions — or inactions — of some adults at the school are troublesome," she said.

A message seeking comment was left Monday for South Hadley Schools Superintendent Gus A. Sayer.

This bothers me. The school has a duty to protect children while under their care.

Not really. Or at least if you aren't from the angle that this is a top priority. Schools aren't babysitters.

Even still this story is bothersome.

And the statement of "their lack of understanding of harrassment" is a bit bothersome too.

If it's been brought to their attention either directly or indirectly they have a duty to follow whatever procedures they have in place for dealing with bullies...I don't remember horrible bullying happening when I was in school, but even a little harassment can really effect a teenager. We only had AIM. I can't imagine what it's like to be a target now with everyone on Facebook. It would be a bully's paradise because it's so easy to broadcast negative messages to anyone and everyone in seconds.

EXACTLY. The internet takes bullying to a whole different level and gives all kinds of people a voice; people (bullies and cowards in particular) that otherwise might not say/do anything.

But...if the parent wasn't seeing results from the school she should have probably gone further up the chain of command.

it's amazing the stories I am reading this year of things happening in schools for MONTHS and parents have no clue until it's too late or they have a clue and they aren't IMO more diligent about getting results.

And Alumiyum...regardless of computers or phones or whatever...bullying is bullying.

I can easily tell you what people did in my time before all this happened and you still had the same results such as what you are reading now.

Nothing beats adults who get involved in such a way to head off courses of destructive behavior before they have these kinds of results.

From the Boston Globe: The Untouchable Mean Girls by Kevin Cullen

Like a lot of kids her age, Phoebe Prince was a swan, always beautiful and sometimes awkward.

Last fall, she moved from Ireland into western Massachusetts, a new town, a new high school, a new country, a new culture. She was 15, when all that matters is being liked and wearing the right clothes and just fitting in.

She was a freshman and she had a brief fling with a senior, a football player, and for this she became the target of the Mean Girls, who decided then and there that Phoebe didn’t know her place and that Phoebe would pay.

Kids can be mean, but the Mean Girls took it to another level, according to students and parents. They followed Phoebe around, calling her a slut. When they wanted to be more specific, they called her an Irish slut.

The name-calling, the stalking, the intimidation was relentless.

Ten days ago, Phoebe was walking home from school when one of the Mean Girls drove by in a car. An insult and an energy drink can came flying out the car window in Phoebe’s direction.

Phoebe kept walking, past the abuse, past the can, past the white picket fence, into her house. Then she walked into a closet and hanged herself. Her 12-year-old sister found her.

You would think this would give the bullies who hounded Phoebe some pause. Instead, they went on Facebook and mocked her in death.

They told State Police detectives they did nothing wrong, had nothing to do with Phoebe killing herself.

And then they went right back to school and started badmouthing Phoebe.

They had a dance, a cotillion, at the Log Cabin in Holyoke two days after Phoebe’s sister found her in the closet, and some who were there say one of the Mean Girls bragged about how she played dumb with the detectives who questioned her.

Last week, one of the Springfield TV stations sent a crew to South Hadley High to talk to the kids.

One girl was interviewed on camera, and she said what was common knowledge: that bullies were stalking the corridors of South Hadley High.

As soon as the TV crew was out of sight, one of the Mean Girls came up and slammed the girl who had been interviewed against a locker and punched her in the head.

The Mean Girls are pretty, and popular, and play sports.

So far, they appear to be untouchable, too.

South Hadley is a nice, comfortable middle-class suburb that hugs the Connecticut River nearby and a certain attitude.

“Things like this aren’t supposed to happen in South Hadley,’’ said Darby O’Brien, a high school parent, wondering why the bullies who tormented Phoebe are still in school. “And so instead of confronting the evil among us, the reality that there are bullies roaming the corridors at South Hadley High, people are blaming the victim, looking for excuses why a 15-year-old girl would do this. People are in denial.’’

School officials say there are three investigations going on. They say these things take time.

That doesn’t explain why the Mean Girls who tortured Phoebe remain in school, defiant, unscathed.

“What kind of message does this send to the good kids?’’ O’Brien asked. “How many kids haven’t come forward to tell what they know because they see the bullies walking around untouched?’’

They were supposed to hold a big meeting on Tuesday to talk about all this, but now that’s off for a couple of weeks.

O’Brien is thinking about going to that meeting and suggesting that they have the kids who bullied Phoebe look at the autopsy photos.

“Let them see what a kid who hung herself looks like,’’ he said.

Last week, Phoebe was supposed to visit Ireland, where she grew up, and she was excited because she was going to see her father for the first time in months.

She did end up going back to Ireland after all, and when her father saw her she was in a casket.

Phoebe’s family decided to bury her in County Clare. They wanted an ocean between her and the people who hounded her to the grave.

These girls and boys are nothing but thugs, using computers and rape instead of brass knuckles and guns. That poor girl had come here, expecting wonderful things to happen. Nobody listened to those who tried to intervene. If even one of the parents of these bullies tries to defend his or her child's actions, I hope they're charged with aiding and abetting the felony charges. To say how much this harms the United States in the world court of opinion doesn't begin to cover the brutality of this. May God forgive them - someday.

Yes, really. While kids are at school, the school is in loco parentis -- in place of the parents, meaning the school takes on some of the functions and responsibilities of a parent while the student is at school. That in no way relieves the actual parents of primary responsibility, including the responsibility to do something if they believe the school is not being responsive to concerns about bullying. But I think the school definitely has the responsibility to provide a safe learning environment, which includes a learning environment as free as possible from bullying.

Wow. This is really horrible. I wonder if the parents ever thought about transferring her to another school/district. Not saying that it's their fault or that it would have stopped completely since some of it was electronic, but maybe she would have gotten a bit of a break from it and would still be alive.

I agree with your point. What I was saying to GW was that it's not the school primary function.

The only problem is IMO until there is a law or a ban put into place to cease bullying schools will still only make token efforts to stop kids who bully.

Or until enough kids commit suicide. *shrugs* Sad.

Most states, including Massachusetts as of a few weeks ago, do have bullying laws. The specifics, including the responsibilities of schools, will vary from state to state, but many encompass cyber-bullying.

There's a Facebook page: "Expel the three girls who caused Phoebe Prince to commit suicide" Over 26,000 people have joined thus far.

That 2nd article is heartbreaking. I've been in her shoes in high school... and I've also been on the other side. Kids are cruel and sometimes it's not the parents. My parents didn't raise me to treat people like that. We hounded a girl in front of her class, in front of a teacher and that teacher did nothing. Now that I look back, it was so horrible.

I think it'd be a great idea for the girls to see her autopsy photos.

I feel so much for her little sister. To see the final incident and find her sister like that. I do see it to be somewhat fortunate that she is too young to attend that high school, could you imagine facing those people on a daily basis, knowing what they did?

I bet those girls will be very popular at the women's correctional center, for very different reasons. This is one instance where the punishment might actually fit the crime, to be relentlessly taunted, name called, and harassed.