Phoebe Prince's school doesn't want to know the truth, but it's not alone

In my experience, school administrators and board members try to remain as ignorant as possible of wrongdoing in schools.

Family pal: School officials ‘gutless’
By Marie Szaniszlo
April 10, 2010

SOUTH HADLEY - A friend of Phoebe Prince’s family yesterday called the South Hadley School Committee “gutless” for failing to find out why the school’s investigation into the bullying the 15-year-old endured differed so widely from the district attorney’s.

Darby O’Brien, a father of two who has spoken for the Prince family in recent weeks, said the school board should have called an emergency meeting after Northwestern District Attorney Elizabeth Scheibel announced the indictments of six students in connection with the teen’s suicide.

“Where’s the gutless school committee?” O’Brien said, urging people to attend Wednesday’s 6:30 p.m. meeting at the high school.

School Committee Chairman Edward Boiselle, who has questioned Scheibel’s findings, could not be reached for comment yesterday as new details emerged about the months of torment Prince allegedly endured before she hanged herself Jan. 14 in the stairwell of her home.

In court filings, prosecutors allege that one 16-year-old defendant told students that she was going to beat Prince up for going out with another of the defendants, a 17-year-old boy, and that Prince “needed to watch out at break.”

Prince allegedly was also verbally assaulted in class, in the library, in the cafeteria, in the bathroom and on her way home from school by the defendants, who called her a “whore” and an “Irish slut,” leaving her in tears, according to court documents.

By Jan. 13, prosecutors allege, Prince told a confidante that school had become “close to intolerable.”



Phoebe Prince, Facebook and predators
by Steven Tarlow
MoneyBlog

...As Dr. Ablow suggests, people who fit the standard profile of a bully can quickly detect a weakness in their prey, as they did with the Phoebe Prince Facebook. Such bullies are fueled by a need to tear down others, so they quickly develop the ability to find their openings with bitter efficiency.

Being a teenager is difficult for anyone, but for a girl like Phoebe Prince, who was both pretty and unsure of her place in the world, it is particularly difficult. While millions would give anything to be good looking, the reality as Dr. Ablow has observed is that if a teens lack confidence, being attractive can make them targets, rather than popular. Bands of bullies look to tear down people whom they feel do not have the defenses to mount resistance.

Hating was the Mean Girls’ drug, suggests Dr. Ablow

“Dehumanizing her had to have been intoxicating,” he told Fox. Otherwise, what would have been the point? Gleaning information from the Phoebe Prince Facebook was a means to an end – in this case, a high, says Ablow. Considering how widespread social media like Facebook are today, it’s easy to see how dangerous sensitive personal information can be in the wrong hands. Not only can identity theft issues arise and destroy credit, but as in the case of the Phoebe Prince Facebook, it can destroy the psyche.

Is controlling bullying possible?

Dr. Ablow asserts that “In a controlled population like a school system, it is possible, from early grades, to instill in young people a psychiatrist’s view of those who perpetrate violence toward others—as broken, rather than brazen; gripped by emotional disorder, rather than in control.”

Once bullies are no longer glamorized as James Dean-esque rebels, then perhaps the needed cultural shift can occur. Detention and suspensions are ineffective tools, Dr. Ablow feels – better methods for dealing with discipline in schools are needed. Concern is needed, not scorn. Total removal and home schooling until a licensed psychologist or psychiatrist can assure a school that the bully is no longer a threat to themselves or others. Parents or caregivers have to step up...




PARENTS OF BULLIES AND ADULTS IN SCHOOL FAILED IN PHOEBE PRINCE CASE

Deval Patrick: Parents failed in alleged bullying case
By Associated Press
April 9, 2010

BOSTON — Gov. Deval Patrick says Massachusetts has to recapture a sense of cross-family parental responsibility to prevent bullying and other harm to children highlighted by the Phoebe Prince case.

During his monthly appearance on WTKK-FM, Patrick said Friday it was "incredibly upsetting" to him "that the adults did not seem to have acted like adults."

He didn’t distinguish between school administrators who allegedly were told about the South Hadley high schooler’s problem, or the parents of the six schoolmates charged with bullying her. The 15-year-old committed suicide in January after one day that was described as especially rough.

Charges Filed in Case of Bullied 15-year-old Phoebe Prince

Some parents are demanding resignations from school staff in this case, but to be effective, such measures should take place BEFORE a suicide or other serious harm occurs. Board members and administrators at Chula Vista Elementary who were involved in covering up bullying should resign now: Lowell Billings, Pamela Smith, Larry Cunningham, and former board members Bertha Lopez, Pat Judd and Cheryl Cox should issue apologies.

Three more arraignments slated in Phoebe Prince case
Boston Globe
April 8, 2010
By Globe Staff

Three more arraignments are slated for today in the case of Phoebe Prince, the South Hadley High School student who committed suicide after what law enforcement officials say was an extreme case of bullying.

Flannery Mullins, Sharon Chanon Velazquez, and Ashley Longe, all 16 and from South Hadley, are slated to be arraigned in Hampshire-Franklin Juvenile Court in Hadley. They are being charged both as adults and as youthful offenders with civil rights violations and stalking.

Three others were arraigned Tuesday in Hampshire Superior Court, with their attorneys entering not guilty pleas on their behalf.

Prince, who came from Ireland and was starting her first year at the high school, hanged herself Jan. 14 after enduring what prosecutors called relentless bullying.



Revenge of the Mean Girls: bullied Phoebe's 'tortuous' last day
The Sydney Morning Herald
March 31, 2010

Shock and anger has spread through a rural Massachusetts town where prosecutors have charged nine teenagers with bullying an Irish immigrant girl who later committed suicide.

Parents in South Hadley were struggling to deal with the tragedy in which US authorities have accused students of hounding 15-year-old Phoebe Prince until she killed herself. And they allege school staff failed to intervene.

The local district attorney, Elizabeth Scheibel, charged nine students with a variety of crimes, including stalking, harassment and statutory rape, saying they had made Prince's last day alive "tortuous".

"She was subjected to verbal harassment and threatened physical abuse," Scheibel said.

"The events were not isolated, but the culmination of a nearly three-month campaign of verbally assaultive behaviour and threats of physical harm."

Prince enrolled last year at the high school in idyllic South Hadley after emigrating from County Clare in Ireland. On January 14, she walked home and hanged herself, to be discovered by her younger sister.

What might have remained a private tragedy erupted into public outrage on Monday when authorities announced the charges.

That outrage grew on Tuesday as parents confronted the disturbing details of the case, in which a student clique reportedly known as the Mean Girls allegedly made the newcomer's life hell in revenge for dating an older boy.

Worse, it was alleged that teachers were out of touch with student relationships and did not think of stepping in.

Scheibel said the bullying had been "common knowledge".

"Certain faculty, staff and administrators of the high school also were alerted to the harassment of Phoebe Prince before her death. Prior to Phoebe's death, her mother spoke with at least two school staff members about the harassment Phoebe had reported to her," the prosecutor said...