South Hadley Suicide Spurs Action On School Bullying

By The WBUR Newsroom
Feb 3, 2010, 11:35 AM
15 Comments

BOSTON — State lawmakers are working to craft a bill against school bullying, following the suicide last month of a freshman at South Hadley High School who is thought to have killed herself after enduring harassment by her classmates at school and online.

Rep. Marty Walz, chairwoman of the Legislature’s education committee, said the issue has taken on new urgency after the death of 15-year-old Phoebe Prince. “The events in South Hadley underscore the importance of our taking action,” she said, “but we also need to respect the fact that students have the right to free speech.”

Walz said the 12 bills before the committee deal mainly with establishing mandates for how schools respond to bullying incidents.

Parents of South Hadley High students are also calling for action on the part of the school. They say they want to know how school officials plan to discipline the girls involved in Prince’s bullying and what they will do to prevent further tragedies.

Mitchell Brouillard, who has a daughter at South Hadley, said there need to be clearer and stricter consequences for bullying. “I’d like to see a solid line in the sand, if you will, or in stone,” he said. “Pretty much like a three-step process — first being a verbal warning, then suspension, then expulsion.”

A petition is being circulated calling for South Hadley School Superintendent Gus Sayer to be fired over his handling of the issue.

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ms

Verbal warnings, suspensions & expulsions won’t deter these bullies from bullying- You need to hit them where it hurts- by way of driver’s license revocation or suspension, fines & community service on the weekends. Suspension to a child = vacation; and leaves the punishment up to the parents- which we all know, have poor parenting skills to begin with. The sanction needs to be controlled by the local government- and these kids need to pay a personal price, not an academic one!
Bullying is a serious issue, which often results in the “bullied” being emotionally scarred for life- or in this case, worse!
I’m a DYS group worker, and I see these issues quite often.
MareJ

The kids that bullied should see jail time, community service, counseling, fines, throw everything at them. Then go after their parents – they must be really horrible parents – they should pay fines, go to counseling and pay the girls family for her funeral – at the least. Make an example of these terrible girls so it stops.
Bullies R Weak

Ashley Longe, Shannon Charon, Flannery Mullins, and Kayla Narey. Here are some of the names of these so called Mean Girls…Phoebe’s name is everywhere, why can’t their names be out for everyone to see?
alexdarc

We should stop calling it “bullying”. The name allows a “kids will be kids” attitude from those in charge. Let’s be honest, as an adult, if you worked with some guy who kept harassing you or stealing your lunch money, they’d be fired at minimum and at max, arrested.
Call it what is. Harassment, assault, intimidation – whatever – but let’s stop acting like it can’t do permanent damage.
Mark

What exactly is a bill against bullying going to accomplish? Does anyone really believe that a 13-year-old, say, is going to care that there is a law against giving a classmate a hard time at school? I’m not in support of bullying, and I certainly don’t think bullies should not be dealt with, but let’s not let emotions over the death of a troubled teen drive us to unnecessary government action. Suicide is a complicated event. The only one that really knows the reason for it is the one who is no longer here. As sad as it is, we don’t know for sure that bullying “caused” her to kill herself. It makes for a great where’s-the-outrage media story, though, doesn’t it?
Robert C Gray

It is interesting that in all other places of work “harassment” is illegal and grounds for dismissal. Only in our schools do we not-only tolerate hazing and bullying, but in most schools a caste-system in institutionalized and supported by the organization management. And is anyone noticing that you can “walk” from you work-job, but in schools it called “truancy” and you are forced to stay there. Shame on us that we allow this to continue. And WBUR…where are you in making these disconnects clear?
Mike

The problem exists here in Texas, too. We just removed our eleven year-old son from his school because the administration would do nothing to stop his being bullied. He was physically attacked and taunted by fifth-grade students who used language so foul and crude that I would not repeat it. A nine-year old hung himself in a school bathroom last week in The Colony, TX. He was upset for some reason and reports are now emerging that he was being bullied. http://dynamicdads.blogspot.com/2010/01/9-year-old-boy-commits-suicide-due-to.html
http://MSN.com Rob Lane

This is a tragic event that could have and SHOULD have been prevented. However it is only going to happen when the kids that are getting bullied stop hurting themselves and start hurting other such as the incident in Columbine High School.
We asa society are quick to point the finger at the child or person that retaliates but not at the insigator. I am not condoning any type of violence so please do not misread me…We need to figure out something to spot this…someone in SOuth Hadley needs to be held acountable for this students death!
Joanmarie Ellis

The girls who bullied Phoebe are responsible for what they did and they should be punished. The very fact that there were so many of them bullying this one girls is testamony to how disturbed they are. If the parents of the “mean girls” knew that their children were carrying on this way, then they are just as guilty. The kids who did the bullying are the ones with the emotional problems. Let’s not blame the victim here. Years ago you might be bothered by “the school bully”. These days, these bullies seem to runk in packs which shows how cowardly they are in the first place. Pheobe had to deal with several of these lowlifes every day.
My heart goes out to her family. What a tragedy.
John

Ashley Longe, Shannon Charon, Flannery Mullins, and Kayla Narey, thanks for proving yourselves to be cowards in your harrassing this girl and criminally stalking her. I hope that God has mercy for you.. I sure don’t.
http://n/a Kelly

To the cold-hearted bitches that are responsible for Phoebe’s death: How the hell do you sleep at night? You are a disgrace and an embarrassment to humanity! I hope that the legal fees bankrupt your families and that the impending civil suit slapped on you is so big your parents will have to take it out of your asses to pay for it! Stay the hell away from Canada and Ireland!
Rot in hell!
Jim F

The problem with the response is in blaming all the wrong people. I live six miles from this school and the townspeople are on a witch hunt. The perpertrators are being handled with kid gloves while the parents are ganging up on the school officials to point blame away from themselves. It stinks. Most kids act the way their parents allow them to. They will get away with what they are able to based on who gives them the most grief for their actions. That role falls to the parents first and ANYONE else second. Some fine people will probably lose jobs over the errors of others.
Melissa

My heart goes out to the family of that beautiful girl. My son was being tortured in his high school in The Colony, Texas, no one seemed to know how to deal with it. I finally transfered him to a different school nearby but what does that teach the kids that harrassed him day in and day out! I can change the school he goes to but I can’t change how they made him feel. It makes me so sad that children have to deal with this and adults just stand by and do nothing.
http://Yahoo.com Robyn Lollio

I am so shocked at the news of Phoebe I don’t know what to say I only wish someone had been there for her to provent what happened there are always warning signs was anyone seeing them undoughtably not she was let down by everyong around her including peers I am so angry this had to happen to a young beautiful young lady just starting out in life. You should all be ashamed.
http://wbur.orgnewssouthhadley denise

Phobe Prince is in a place she calls home now and forgives all of you.But I am still here on earth and I can’t let go of this. But we cannot rest until all of you involved are punished. Although we never knew you Phoebe, or laid eyes on you in person, we have grown to love you and your family. Be at peace beautiful girl.