Nine teens face charges in the suicide of alleged bullying victim Phoebe Prince
Posted on 03/30/2010 7:55:40 AM PDT by JoeProBono
BOSTON (AP) -- An anti-bullying consultant says school officials in western Massachusetts didn't follow all the advice she gave them months before a harassed freshman girl committed suicide.
Barbara Coloroso told CBS' "The Early Show" on Tuesday that schools need procedures to protect victims and punish perpetrators, and programs to prevent further problems. She says South Hadley schools "had policies, but the procedures need to be toughened up."
Coloroso said she consulted with parents and administrators months before 15-year-old Phoebe Prince hanged herself in January.
(Excerpt) Read more at hosted.ap.org ...
Nine teens face charges in the suicide of alleged bullying victim Phoebe Prince
I guess zero tolerance policy does not apply in bullying.
but if you bring a steak knife or OTC to school, you’re out.
What do you expect.
“Educators” already know everything.
That’s why their students know nothing.
if the kids who trashed her on the web, committed an act of slander on the daughter then her parents should have taken action on the parents of the kids for public slander on their child. better yet, the parent should have regulated their minor childs web usage and not relied on some govt. school or other govt. agency to protect her...
or an aspirin
Nobody will say this isn’t a tragedy, but I’m on the lookout for this incident to be used to give more power to the “safe school czar”.
Man oh man, send me back to high school for one day with what I know now...
These kids need to be put away for a long time.
HA! My daughter was suspended for forgetting she had put a little folding pocket knife thing on her key chain over the summer. The blade was 3/4 inch long. I still don’t know what anyone would do with a 3/4 inch blade, but I think she liked it because it was in the shape of a peanut (the casing, not the blade). But hey, ZERO TOLERANCE and all.
There was a trial of the woman who used MYSPACE to pretend she was a young boy and befriended her daughter’s friend.
Eventually the mom pretending to be a boy told the girl the world would be a better place if she wasn’t in it.
That young girl committed suicide.
The jury convicted the ‘mom’ but the judge overturned the verdict and set her free.
The teen years are when you see real cruelty. Until you get married.
anti-bullying consultant
anti-bullying consultant? That’s a job? What have we become?
Just one more reason why I will never have kids.
The problem is that in the act of “we don’t know who started it so all involved will be punished”, the school ties the hands of the bullied and their parents.
Where when we were kids, we would fight back or find a way to ignore it. We also only had word of mouth or home phone at the most to contend with which limited some of the gossip and drama. Now there are text messages, facebook/myspace, etc... for gossip to spread even worse than before. Teenage girls are ruthless. I’d rather be up against a mindless jock physically beating me up than a group of teenage girls anyday. As a female, I am quite aware of their capabilities and feel sure that most could be employed in psychological warfare at some date in the future.
It’s good for those who can live by ‘sticks and stones’ and such, but it’s hard for teenagers to feel self esteem as it is. When the schools don’t allow you to protect yourself from the bullies AND act like it’s not their problem when they do... this is going to happen.
As the mother of two teenage daughters right now, and one hitting preteen this year... my advice is to get them involved in extra curricular activities of something they enjoy and also get involved in a GOOD church. The youth group at our church has lots of activities and Christian concerts to go to. There have been times when one or the other daughter has been ostracized for whatever reason by her ‘friends’ (and I say that loosely, my husband just calls them ‘socalleds’ because he sees teen loyalty is few and far between) at school and it REALLY helped having an outside group of friends to help them not feel like “NO ONE LIKES ME!!!”
Anyway, there is power and safety in numbers. My middle daughter likes music and has a group of chorus buddies as her safety net.
Just my observation and keep in mind I live in a VERY rural area that is VERY conservative and Christian. So if it’s this bad in my area, I can’t imagine an area where the libs have the spoiled kids that have been told all their lives that they can do no wrong.
That being said, I look at this beautiful young girl’s face and my heart breaks for her and her family. God be with them all. My brother committed suicide (he wasn’t a teen, but early 20’s) and believe you me, you spend enough time wondering what you could have done, should have done better.
http://www.valmcfarlane.com/
If government is going to require school attendance and some of the harassment it taking place on school grounds then they own part of the outcome.
Maybe an old fashioned ass whipping for the kids picking on that poor girl would have solved the problem before it ever got that far.
Is there a race aspect to this story? Just curious. I mean, what was the REASON she was picked on?
When I see the photo of her it hurts. Doesn’t matter what race, color, etc., kids should never be subjected to such anguish. It makes me wish I could go back in time and save them. Save them all.
Does it pay well? I'd love to have a do-nothing job like that.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.