Part of Phoebe's story was reported in the April 9th edition of the Worcester Telegram and Gazette. It is a heartbreaking tale that has left an incredible level of sadness within my soul. Her struggles are as horrifying as they are depressing and the events leading to her death defy one's ability to simply move on and forget.
Sadly, Phoebe's story never had to be told as it could have been easily prevented had just one individual been willing to stand up and take action. Instead, many simply turned a blind eye and a deaf ear to the issues surrounding this young girl, hoping instead the problem would just go away. But then again, like in so many other communities, perhaps there were 'far more important issues that needed to be resolved' and whatever those issues might be, they were simply much more important than humanity, respect, and human decency. So at least, some may choose to believe. Here then is a tragic story from the T&G that would have never been written had people been in less of a hurry to move on.
Worcester Telegram and Gazette
April 9, 2010
By John R. Ellement and Peter Schworm THE BOSTON GLOBE
Phoebe Prince, desperate in the face of relentless bullying, turned to school administrators for help a week before she took her own life, prosecutors said yesterday, once pleading with them that she was “scared and wanted to go home'' to avoid being beaten up by a vengeful classmate.
Prince was sent back to class, where she told a witness that school officials had no plans to intervene and that “she was still going to get beat up,'' prosecutors said.
The stunning disclosure that Prince herself notified administrators at South Hadley High School about the bullying, an encounter previously unknown even to her family, was made public for the first time yesterday in court documents filed as three of her former schoolmates pleaded not guilty to charges that they tormented the 15-year-old freshman for months.
Prosecutors said Prince was taunted, heckled, threatened, and driven to tears by two groups of teenagers angry about her dating decisions. She was once confronted while waiting for her Latin class to begin, an exchange that left her weeping in her seat in front of a high school instructor. She feared walking down the hallways, prosecutors said, and was even followed into bathrooms by girls who had vowed to beat her up.
On the day before her death, prosecutors said, she told a confidante that school “has been close to intolerable lately'' and that insults had escalated into threats of physical harm.
School officials, under heavy criticism for failing to protect Prince against an alleged three-month campaign of slurs and intimidation, have insisted that Prince never told them about the bullying and that they only learned about her troubles a week before her death. A subsequent school investigation revealed no previous incidents, officials said.
Prosecutors, in contrast, found that Prince endured months of harassment and physical threats before she hanged herself Jan. 14 after what they have called a “torturous day'' of bullying. Yesterday, they asserted that Prince spoke directly with a school administrator about being threatened with violence Jan. 7.
South Hadley Superintendent Gus Sayer could not be reached for comment. He has previously defended the school's handling of the situation, saying officials were unaware of the extent of the harassment.
Northwestern District Attorney Elizabeth Scheibel has countered that Prince's mother had spoken with school administrators about her concerns before her daughter's death and that the bullying of Prince was “common knowledge'' among students.
Prince's death and the recent criminal charges brought against six teenagers for allegedly tormenting her have drawn international attention and spurred widespread outrage against the defendants and school officials.
According to prosecutors, Prince, a new student who moved to South Hadley from Ireland, was targeted after she had a brief relationship with a popular senior athlete, Sean Mulveyhill, who is one of those charged with harassing her. Mulveyhill then resumed dating his girlfriend, Kayla Narey, a junior who faces similar charges.
The new court documents also lay out, in painful detail, the final day of her life. Prince was in the library with friends at the same time as Narey, Mulveyhill, and one of their friends, Ashley Longe, who has also been charged in the case.
Longe began yelling, “I hate stupid sluts,'' and other, cruder sexual slurs at Prince. She later called her an “Irish whore'' and wrote similar descriptions on the library sign-in sheets. At the end of the school day, Longe again yelled degrading sexual comments at Prince in the school auditorium.
Mulveyhill, who was charged with statutory rape, encouraged Longe's behavior and also called Prince a whore. Narey, sitting nearby, was laughing, prosecutors said.
Minutes later, Longe threw an empty drink can from a car at Prince, who was walking home. Longe laughed and called her a whore. Prince, according to the witness, was crying.
Darby O'Brien, a friend of the Prince family, said the family was unaware that Phoebe had made a personal appeal to administrators, but said the disclosure reinforces the family's contention that officials had sufficient warning to act more vigorously on Prince's behalf. “She must have been desperate to make that move,'' he said. “It (the bullying) couldn't have gotten much worse, but it did.''
An unidentified witness told prosecutors about Prince's mental status after months of verbal assaults. “She definitely didn't want to fight with the girls in school,'' the witness was quoted as saying. “She just wanted to keep to herself and keep things the way they were. She wanted people to stop picking on her, to stop being bullied.''
Michael Cahillane, an assistant district attorney, said prosecutors would not discuss details included in the new filing.
Attorneys for Flannery Mullins, Sharon Chanon Velazquez, and Longe, all 16 and from South Hadley, appeared in Hampshire-Franklin Juvenile Court in Hadley yesterday, where pleas of not delinquent were entered on behalf of their clients. They are being charged both as adults and as youthful offenders with civil rights violations and stalking.
The three others charged with playing roles in Prince's alleged torment and suicide were arraigned Tuesday in Hampshire Superior Court, with their attorneys entering pleas of not guilty pleas on their behalf. Through their lawyers, Mulveyhill, 17, of South Hadley, and Austin Renaud, 18, of Springfield, pleaded not guilty to statutory rape, and Mulveyhill and Narey, 17, of South Hadley, pleaded not guilty to violation of civil rights, criminal harassment, and disturbance of a school assembly.
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5 comments:
In April 2009, an 11-year old boy from Springfield committed suicide by hanging himself after being severely bullied for an entire day; reports are that he was consistently ridiculed because of clothes he wore and the way he dressed.
The Bully Police USA (BPUSA) website reports that 41 states have enacted anti-bullying legislation; however, Massachusetts rates an F in their Bully Report Card, as the state has not attempted to pass legislation since 2003. It's about time they're looking at this again; but why do such tragedies have to happen before they take action? Why aren't they more proactive?
The Bureau of Justice Statistics reports that, in the 2007 School Crime Supplement to the National Crime Victimization Survey, about 32% students aged 12 to 18 report having been bullied during the school year and 79% of them reported being bullied at school (on the bus, in the school building, on school property, or going to and from school.) Of particular note is that 33% of female students report being bullied and cyber-bullied at school compared to 30% of males, and 5% of female students reported being cyber-bullied anywhere compared to 2 percent of male students.
Clearly, bullying is on the increase; of paramount importance is these figures only reflect incidents of bullying that are known or were reported. There are UNTOLD numbers of victims who do not tell anyone they are being abused. It is common knowledge that many girls do not report abuse, as they are embarrassed, ashamed, or intimidated.
Very unsettling story. It baffles the mind how this could go on for so long. But then bullying is not limited solely to children. Sometimes it involves adults. Case in point - two women on the search committee were bullied by a selectman and there are some who would prefer to see it all go away. Some of the same horrendous words were used. Guess it's not so surprising after all. Not when some of our so-called role models are guilty of the same heinous behavior.
Dan Kennedy, champion of free speech in Boston, now curtails my free speech on his blog because he disagrees with my point of view on Phoebe Prince case. that is censorship, Dan Kennedy. You are a fraud!
Dan Kennedy to me
show details 11:19 PM (4 minutes ago)
Dear Danny -- DAN KENNEDY wrote to me:
I agree with whoever told you that you are blaming the victim. I posted your earlier comment by mistake and have now deleted it. Please don't waste your time.
DK
A person who stoops to name calling has already lost whatever edge he thinks he has. The person who responds in kind has lost it too.
The child in the above article did the right thing by reporting to the authorities. The authorities failed by not doing enough. Left to fester, bullying can take on a life of its own.
There has been an incremental increase in bullying, harassing, and name calling in this town for many years. Those who would shop at Walmart were intimidated. Kids have been laughed at because of their looks and their clothes. Snobby statements, even regarding those who shop at The Gap, haven't been very nice. I have personally heard adults laughing at other adults who wore flannel shirts to a wake. Why is that funny? Perhaps that's all they had.
We hear statements that folks have to go to Boston, and other places to spend money, because there is nothing "upscale" enough for them here, etc. People's homes, jobs, and ethnicty are scoffed at. One person wrote a comment in the Telegram's comments section a while back that said that "we know what kind of person aspires to be a building inspector." What is this stuff? Please teach your children that the individuals who do the bullying are themselves the ones with the problems.
There is nothing to be ashamed of in any honest work. There is nothing to be ashamed of if one shops at thrift shops, eats rice and beans, and gets a treat at a fast food restaurant. And - guess what??? Doing those things can be just as rewarding as driving a Bentley to Boston and eating at the "finest" establishments. True happiness and wealth don't come in a skin tone or a paycheck. And, by the way, how would a restaurant, a hotel, an office or any other place of business even function without janitors, waitstaff, and other service folks? We should appreciate not only what we have around us but WHO we have around us.
How can we expect better behavior from teenagers than we get from adults. Our own problems here in Stubridge are a perfect example of how things like this happen. We have a bully selectman yelling obscenities at a volunteer and another selectwoman who wants to "move on" and forget about it. If we can't get better examples from our elected role models how will this kind of ugly activity ever stop? The old nursery rhyme just doesn't work anymore, cause sticks and stones can break some bones but names can really, really end in tragedy.
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