Documents: Bullied teen sought help from school

hosted ^ | Apr 9 | STEPHANIE REITZ

[JoeProBono]

NORTHAMPTON, Mass. (AP) -- Documents show the Massachusetts girl who committed suicide after what prosecutors call relentless bullying sought help from a school administrator a week before her death....

[JoeProBono]

Phoebe Prince had no safe place to go at South Hadley High School.

Court paperwork reveals that the 15-year-old freshman suffered harassment in the hallways, the library, the classrooms, the lunchroom and even the bathroom.

According to witnesses, the bullies hissed curse words, yelled obscenities and threatened to beat her up, sometimes within earshot of school faculty.

The taunting stemmed from teenage jealousy. According to the documents, Phoebe briefly dated a popular older football player at the school, Sean Mulveyhill, who is now facing charges in the case, including statutory rape.

[Tax-chick]

Is “had sex with” the translation of “briefly dated” Sean Mulveyhill?

[E. Pluribus Unum]

She had the wrong skin color for the teachers union members to care.

[poobear]

My daughter is a freshman. My G-d this poor little girl. A total waist of a very young promising life. Those kids that tormented her should live a life of pure hell.

[SJSAMPLE]

Why would they bully a chick that was putting out?

Stupid.

[nmh]

Excerpt:

The documents do not reveal the official to whom Prince spoke or provide details of the conversation.

A witness who was interviewed by investigators said Prince had gone to administrators because she was “scared and wanted to go home.” After the meeting, the witness said Prince returned to class, and said that no action was going to be taken and that “she was still going to get beat up.”

In a recent interview, Superintendent Gus Sayer said school administrators were not aware of the bullying until Jan. 7, a week before Prince committed suicide. On that day, two teachers reported separate bullying incidents to the principal, Sayer said.

She was the WRONG color.

[cripplecreek]

We had bullies when I was in school but the little bastards have gone well beyond bullying these days. The indifference to it is amazing.

Greta had a story about another case where a girl was stomped and kicked into a coma in front of hundreds of other kids.

[GovernmentShrinker]

Those kids that tormented her should live a life of pure hell.

So should all the adults who ignored the bullying.

I haven't followed this case closely, but if her mother was aware that Phoebe was experiencing severe stress at school, she should have pulled her out of there. I recall reading about a case in NJ a couple of years ago, where a boy was being bullied at school, including physical injuries. The mother had gone to school officials multiple times, but nothing seemed to change. Finally she'd gone to the media and I believe also filed suit. But she was STILL sending the poor kid to the school.

Our society seems to have a very warped view of the role of school in the lives of children and teenagers, as if it's absolutely indispensible, no matter how much harm it's clearly doing to the child. When things are this bad with a teenager (i.e. old enought o stay home alone), if you're not in a position to switch the child to a private school or to homeschool, just have them stay home -- encourage them to do some studying or reading, but even if they just watch TV or play video games all day, that's a lot better than being beaten up or psychologically bullied to the point of feeling suicidal.

[rawhide]

What a beautiful young lady! I still grieve over what and why this happened, ever since I first heard of this! She was bullied and the school officials did nothing productive to help her!

[JoeProBono]

[GovernmentShrinker]

It was the kids who were jealous that were bullying her, not the guy she “put out” for. The ones who wanted to put out for this guy, but weren’t getting the opportunity, or other girls who were putting out for him and didn’t like having Phoebe in the pack of competitors.

[JoeProBono]

[apocalypto]

I also wondered why the mother did not pull her out of the school. Maybe she tried and was denied and did not have the resources to send her to a private school. Or she did not know how bad the bullying was.

[Little Pig]

Hadley is jammed between two of the most rabidly liberal towns in the U.S., Amherst and Northampton. I would be willing to bet that not only was this girl the “wrong” color for the school to care about her, but her tormentors were the “wrong” color for the school to be willing to take action against them, most likely Puerto Ricans.

[brwnsuga]

What does that statement have to do with the price of tea in China. The fact is that young lady was hounded to death and anyone involved should be punished.

[Zeddicus]

The schools these days are full of roving packs of feral children and it is 100% the fault of the parents. They forget they are parents, instead preferring to take on the role of a wealthy roommate and friend.

They buy their kids the latest iPhones and iPods and trendy clothing and expect nothing of them, because it’s too much work to actually be a parent. They let them spend endless unsupervised hours on facebook or myspace or whatever corrupting internet trash will keep the kids out of their hair.

Feral children with no morals and no humanity (and their victims, like this poor girl in the OP) are not the fault of the school system - the blame lies 100% with the parents.

[Little Pig]

The mother, almost certainly a lib, given the area, probably made the same mistake all libs make in the face of ethnic barbarity: she either denied the severity of the aggression, assumed it was a cultural thing on the part of the aggressors and who was she to judge, assumed the government would handle it, or thought talking could solve the problem.

[poobear]

No doubt! Every adult and every parent or family member who were aware of this should be held accountable to some degree.

Should have, would have, could have won’t cut it!

My daughter would have been pulled out immediately. This whole thing stinks. A 15 year old child should not have to endure this kind of pressure and insecurity when they are just learning how to cope with adult decisions. That schmuck football player didn’t help either.

Sad world we live in.

[detective]

Last week I spoke to a friend of mine who's daughter had undergone similar bullying as a freshman in the local public high school. She was continually harassed and cursed at. She had money stolen from her and had her cell phone stolen twice.
He transferred her to a Catholic High School. She is now a Senior with a 3.9 GPA and has been accepted at several colleges. She is very happy with the Catholic school, with her teachers and with her new friends.
The move represented a financial sacrifice on the father's part but he said it was the best decision he ever made.

[brwnsuga]

Sean Mulveyhill,Kayla Narey,Austin Renaud,Ashley Longe,Flannery Mullins,Sharon Chanon Velazquez...they all sound like white kids to me except the last young lady....maybe you need to do a little research. And what the ethnicity of the kids involved, really doesn’t matter does it. A little girl is dead because of these people. I’m sure her parents don’t care whether they were black, white or Puerto Ricans....only that their baby is gone.