Posted on 04/09/2010 9:23:42 AM PDT by 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....
(Excerpt) Read more at hosted.ap.org ...
Your assertion is not correct. Her mother and siblings are Irish immigrants, according to my Boston-area friends. The mother, Anne O’Brien-Prince,had compalined to authorities.
When I was in school teachers did NOTHING to stop bullying. Ever. In fact, they were often friendliest with those who did the bullying. My guess is nothing much has changed.
Where is the ‘fact’ that she had sex with Sean Mulveyhill?
You seem to have some inside info!
I don’t understand how a parent could continue to send their child back into that environment. More important things to do?
Exactly. All we hear about is the school didn’t do this and the school didn’t do that. But I haven’t heard that her parents did anything either. Pull her out of school if nothing else. You better believe I’d have been up at that school and in some faces. BTDT and am proud to have a rep of “one of those moms.”
He was charged with statutory rape, so the police must have some proof that he was intimate with her.
I have spent some time volunteering in classrooms and school libraries over the years and here are my observations.
“it is 100% the fault of the parents”
Your first mistake is assuming there are parentS. Bullies are VERY ANGRY kids, the result of single mother homes whether by choice (never married) or divorce. These kids take out their RAGE on the kids around them. This rage exists even if the parent remarries. Blended families usually intensify the rage. I’ve said in the past, this country needs a tax on single mothers and fathers that don’t father to pay for the destruction their poor choices cost America. Maybe a child out of wedlock or divorce can trigger both father and mother being in the next higher tax bracket until the kid is 21.
“endless unsupervised hours”
That is a good observation, but it is not just a parent who spends money on their kid. It is also families whose resources are going to fuel a drug, alcohol, or gambling habit.
“Feral children with no morals”
WRONG! These kids do know the difference between right and wrong. They also know which adults they can get away with this crap in front of and which adults to put on their Eddie Haskell grin with whilst being on their best behaviour. When kids can get away with it, they do it. Kids know which teachers will come down on them like a ton of bricks (too few) and which teachers are out to lunch (unfortunately most).
We need ZERO TOLERANCE for bullying. Zero tolerance for drugs means a kid gets sent home for having aspirin or midol in their backpack. If your child is being bullied, have them drop a few in the bullies backpack and turn them in for giving out drugs. Once they’re expelled, they will probably leave your kid alone. The only other option since most public schools are run by feral/incompetent administrators and teachers is to take them to the range. If this 15 year old girl had gone all Columbine on her tormentors, she could have then hired Allred for the sympathy tour and been out of juvy by age 21. After her book tour and stints on Oprah and Dr Phil she would have been set for life instead of dead.
This story has people in the MA area and waaaay beyond RAGING against these bullies.
I would not want to be one or be associated with any of them at this moment.
The cowards didn’t even have the balls to show up at their arraignments this week.
The so called ‘faculty’ should be next.
It’s funny, It’s the exact opposite for my 11 year old neice.
We had to move her out of the Catholic school because of her claims of bullying.
Now she is in our local Jr. High having fun.
Too much fun if you ask me.
I’m pretty pissed about the whole situation.
[He was charged with statutory rape, so the police must have some proof that he was intimate with her.]
OK, I hadn’t heard that.
The information was in post 1 of this thread. "Briefly dated" (she) and "charged with statutory rape" (he).
I know im probably going to get flamed for this, but are we now in a position where kids face charges for being “mean” to someone else? I certainly dont condone bullying, but could there also have been underlying issues that caused this young lady to commit suicide? Maybe she was having a difficult time adjusting culturally. Maybe she was depressed because she apparently had sex with two of the boys now charged, could she have taken her own life because of the end of the relationship? I would hate to see us head down a road, where people face criminal charges because they werent “nice” to another child.
I don’t know anything about the area where this school is located, but from these six pictures, those accused of the bullying seem to be five Irish, or other white ethnic group and one with a Latino name. Photos included:
http://www.masslive.com/news/index.ssf/2010/04/court_documents_phoebe_prince.html
And Sean Mulveyhill, the boy she briefly dated, also definitely sounds Irish. Sounds like mostly Irish participants with one exception.
It's like many other crimes in that there is a question of degree.
There's a point where your loud stereo becomes "disturbing the peace", such as playing it at 140 dB with the windows open at 2:00 am, for example. "Playing my stereo" isn't going to necessarily bring charges, but it could, depending upon other factors.
"Driving my car" isn't necessarily a problem. Driving it down a crowded sidewalk at 80 MPH definitely is.
So "being mean" can cover a lot of ground; your question is pretty vague.
True. But I also wonder, from what the article states she was never physically assaulted by any of the kids in question..They verbally harassed her, yes...but charging them criminally in her death seems a little overboard to me.
Most parents trivialize it or their kids don’t tell them. Or if they do, the bullies will retaliate worse.
God bless the father for doing it.
And if hse had issues, the bullying made it worse!!!!! NO EXCUSE!!!!!!!! And now they are talking about how even the girls raped her!!!
Let them face it. It will set an example to other schools and hopefully they will STOP coddling the bullies and start facing the scum down and sending the BULLIES to juvenile hall.
I don't think it's overboard. Manslaughter charges apply to people who didn't intend to kill anyone but acted in a way which led to death, and they're used in all kinds of situations.
It's up to a jury to decide if they're guilty or not. Bringing charges is just the prosecutor doing his job based on the evidence he has seen.
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