Monday, nine teenagers were charged in connection of bullying 15-year-old Phoebe Prince that led to her suicide in January. Prince was bullied by teenagers at her high school over a three month period. Her body was found hanged in her apartment building after a particularly difficult day of physical and emotional bullying at the South Hadley High School in Northampton, Massachusetts.
Several faculty members witnessed the harassment, and the mother of Prince spoke to them twice about it before her death, and parents in the community are outraged that faculty members never did anything about it.
Prince moved to Massachusetts from Ireland, and according to the video below the other girls at her school thought she was too pretty and felt threatened that she might try to date their boyfriends.
The day that she committed suicide, she was harassed in the school library (which was witnessed by a faculty member) and on her way home when a student threw a red bull at her.
Monday, District Attorney Elizabeth D. Scheibel said this about the students who harassed Prince:
"Their conduct far exceeded the limits of normal teenage relationship-related quarrels. The investigation revealed relentless activity directed toward Phoebe designed to humiliate her and to make it impossible for her to remain at school."
According to CNN, the following students were charged by the grand jury:
Sean Mulveyhill, 17, of South Hadley was charged with statutory rape, violation of civil rights with bodily injury resulting, criminal harassment and disturbance of a school assembly
Austin Renaud, 18, of Springfield was charged with statutory rape
Kayla Narey, 17, of South Hadley, was charged with violation of civil rights with bodily injury resulting, criminal harassment and disturbance of a school assembly
Charges were also filed against three girls for violation of civil rights with bodily injury resulting
Two girls were charged with stalking
Three other girls were charged in a juvenile court for violation of civil rights with bodily injury resulting, criminal harassment and disturbance of a school assembly, violation of civil rights, criminal harassment and assault by means of a dangerous weapon
See the video below for more information about the story.
A Utah group Bullying is Bull goes around to junior and high schools around the state to speak to students about why bullying is bad. Another Utah company called Report Bullying has speakers who come out to local schools to speak about the problem.
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Comments
As the mother of 3 teens, this story just breaks my heart. Shame on the school for doing nothing about it when it had plenty of chances to do so.
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