Girl Hangs Herself in Boston

[fan4ever]

I know many of you already know about this, and did some checking but didn't see a thread on this. Sorry if repost. The gall of the girls involved is amazing.

The untouchable Mean Girls

Phoebe Prince

By Kevin Cullen
Globe Columnist / January 24, 2010

Like a lot of kids her age, Phoebe Prince was a swan, always beautiful and sometimes awkward.

Last fall, she moved from Ireland into western Massachusetts, a new town, a new high school, a new country, a new culture. She was 15, when all that matters is being liked and wearing the right clothes and just fitting in.

She was a freshman and she had a brief fling with a senior, a football player, and for this she became the target of the Mean Girls, who decided then and there that Phoebe didn’t know her place and that Phoebe would pay.

Kids can be mean, but the Mean Girls took it to another level, according to students and parents. They followed Phoebe around, calling her a slut. When they wanted to be more specific, they called her an Irish slut.

The name-calling, the stalking, the intimidation was relentless.

Ten days ago, Phoebe was walking home from school when one of the Mean Girls drove by in a car. An insult and an energy drink can came flying out the car window in Phoebe’s direction.

Phoebe kept walking, past the abuse, past the can, past the white picket fence, into her house. Then she walked into a closet and hanged herself. Her 12-year-old sister found her.

You would think this would give the bullies who hounded Phoebe some pause. Instead, they went on Facebook and mocked her in death.

They told State Police detectives they did nothing wrong, had nothing to do with Phoebe killing herself.

And then they went right back to school and started badmouthing Phoebe.

They had a dance, a cotillion, at the Log Cabin in Holyoke two days after Phoebe’s sister found her in the closet, and some who were there say one of the Mean Girls bragged about how she played dumb with the detectives who questioned her.

Last week, one of the Springfield TV stations sent a crew to South Hadley High to talk to the kids.

One girl was interviewed on camera, and she said what was common knowledge: that bullies were stalking the corridors of South Hadley High.

As soon as the TV crew was out of sight, one of the Mean Girls came up and slammed the girl who had been interviewed against a locker and punched her in the head.

The Mean Girls are pretty, and popular, and play sports.

So far, they appear to be untouchable, too.

South Hadley is a nice, comfortable middle-class suburb that hugs the Connecticut River nearby and a certain attitude.

“Things like this aren’t supposed to happen in South Hadley,’’ said Darby O’Brien, a high school parent, wondering why the bullies who tormented Phoebe are still in school. “And so instead of confronting the evil among us, the reality that there are bullies roaming the corridors at South Hadley High, people are blaming the victim, looking for excuses why a 15-year-old girl would do this. People are in denial.’’

School officials say there are three investigations going on. They say these things take time.

That doesn’t explain why the Mean Girls who tortured Phoebe remain in school, defiant, unscathed.

“What kind of message does this send to the good kids?’’ O’Brien asked. “How many kids haven’t come forward to tell what they know because they see the bullies walking around untouched?’’

They were supposed to hold a big meeting on Tuesday to talk about all this, but now that’s off for a couple of weeks.

O’Brien is thinking about going to that meeting and suggesting that they have the kids who bullied Phoebe look at the autopsy photos.

“Let them see what a kid who hung herself looks like,’’ he said.

Last week, Phoebe was supposed to visit Ireland, where she grew up, and she was excited because she was going to see her father for the first time in months.

She did end up going back to Ireland after all, and when her father saw her she was in a casket.

Phoebe’s family decided to bury her in County Clare. They wanted an ocean between her and the people who hounded her to the grave.

Kevin Cullen is a Globe columnist. He can be reached at [email protected].

© Copyright 2010 Globe Newspaper Company.

[BigRedChief]

I'm really proud of myself that I didn't bully past the 5th grade and never allowed it to happen around me.

[gblowfish]

I see a made for TV teen movie on the horizon...

[KCUnited]

Bullies can be such a nuisance.

[Mr_Tomahawk]

April Fools?

[BigRedChief]

Originally Posted by Mr_Tomahawk

April Fools?

nah, its a real story. The school knew it was happening and did nothing. Parents are calling for heads to roll at the school.

[fan4ever]

Originally Posted by Mr_Tomahawk

April Fools?

Unfortunately not.

[Mr. Flopnuts]

I don't understand why we always focus on school age children that bully each other. All they're doing is modeling the behavior that's set forth for them by the rest of the world.

Are people really so ignorant that they don't realize that these kids learn the behaviors from the rest of society?

You think we don't do the exact same thing? We push a man to the brink where he feels there is no option but to kill himself, his family, and anyone else who's hurt him that he can take out along the way. When he's done we rail on him for being a coward, a terrorist, and a weak minded fool.

Never once do we look at ourselves and wonder what part in the entire fiasco we may have played individually.

Then we sit back, read stories like this, and wonder how it all went so wrong.

[Mr_Tomahawk]

Damn....sad...

[DJ's left nut]

The article is fairly out of date - they finally brought charges against a bunch of the girls and even against a couple of HS boys she allegedly slept with for statutory rape.

I'd say the authorities brought out a pretty wide dragnet here.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/nati...eenage_cy.html

[FAX]

I can think of a couple of things that would permanently cure Mean Girl Syndrome.

FAX

[OmahaChief]

Originally Posted by Mr_Tomahawk

April Fools?

Far from it. This has been in the national headlines for days. Kids can be very mean. I know I did and said some not so nice things when I was younger. I started to feel really bad about it not long after I graduated college. At my 10 year reunion, the first I attended, I made it a point to seek out those that I was mean to an apologize. They all accepted it but they all said it did hurt them at the time. It actually made me feel very good to apologize and I think they felt good knowing I was no longer an ahole and that I cared enough to say something to them.

One thing I plan to teach my son and any other child I am lucky enough to have, is to not tease people or treat people like I did at times. Everyone is different and everyone is flawed, including the popular and athletic kids.

[fan4ever]

Originally Posted by Mr. Flopnuts

I don't understand why we always focus on school age children that bully each other. All they're doing is modeling the behavior that's set forth for them by the rest of the world.

Are people really so ignorant that they don't realize that these kids learn the behaviors from the rest of society?

You think we don't do the exact same thing? We push a man to the brink where he feels there is no option but to kill himself, his family, and anyone else who's hurt him that he can take out along the way. When he's done we rail on him for being a coward, a terrorist, and a weak minded fool.

Never once do we look at ourselves and wonder what part in the entire fiasco we may have played individually.

Then we sit back, read stories like this, and wonder how it all went so wrong.

I thinks this speaks much more to how they're raised than how they've copied society; overwise this would be much more common place. IMO blaming society as a whole for deviant behavior may be founded in some truth, but not at this magnitude.

[Bugeater]

Originally Posted by Mr. Flopnuts

I don't understand why we always focus on school age children that bully each other. All they're doing is modeling the behavior that's set forth for them by the rest of the world.

Are people really so ignorant that they don't realize that these kids learn the behaviors from the rest of society?

You think we don't do the exact same thing? We push a man to the brink where he feels there is no option but to kill himself, his family, and anyone else who's hurt him that he can take out along the way. When he's done we rail on him for being a coward, a terrorist, and a weak minded fool.

Never once do we look at ourselves and wonder what part in the entire fiasco we may have played individually.

Then we sit back, read stories like this, and wonder how it all went so wrong.

A-****ing-men.

[FAX]

Originally Posted by fan4ever

I thinks this speaks much more to how they're raised than how they've copied society; overwise this would be much more common place. IMO blaming society as a whole for deviant behavior may be founded in some truth, but not at this magnitude.

I completely agree with this post, Mr. fan4ever. My guess is that 9 times out of 10 or more, a bully is acting out behavior based on issues at home.

There doesn't even need to be abnormal, aggressive, dominant behavior at home, either. Just maladaptive dysfunction that leads to the child's need to act out among his/her peers.

I firmly believe that it's something that could be practically eliminated through better parenting.

FAX