Clare Girl Bullied To Death In The US

[irishbunny]

Very, very sad
This girl lived near me and moved to the US just a few months ago, she was so pretty and extremely friendly.
At her new school in the US, she was bullied and tormented she took her own life

It is all over the news here.

http://www.clareherald.com/local-news/abroad/670-nine-charged-in-phoebe-prince-investigation.html

Six teenagers and three juvenile students have been charged in connection with the death of a County Clare schoolgirl in the USA earlier this year.

The district attorney in South Hadley, Massachusetts, tonight announced the results of a criminal investigation in to the death of Phoebe Prince. The 15-year old Fanore girl took her own life on January 14th last after allegedly enduring weeks of bullying on the social networking forum Facebook, via text message and in the corridors of South Hadley High School.

Northwestern District Attorney Elizabeth D. Scheibel said Phoebe Prince was relentlessly bullied for more than three months before her death and that staff at South Hadley High School knew about the problem. Staff will not be facing any criminal charges, but Scheibel called it "very troublesome."

Ms. Scheibel indicated that the six teenagers and three juvenile students are facing a range of criminal charges including statutory rape, criminal harassment, violation of civil rights resulting in bodily injury, stalking and disturbing a school assembly.

In a statement issued tonight, management at South Hadley High School said: "We have attempted to meet with the District Attorney to obtain the specific evidence as it relates to South Hadley High School. Due to their unavailability, we will be unable to meet until the end of the week and possibly not until next week. We will then review this evidence, and particularly the new information which the District Attorney’s Office has, but did not come to light within the investigation conducted by the school. Once we are able to obtain this information we will be able to make a more comprehensive statement and possibly take further action against the students still attending South Hadley High School. It is important to remember that this is the District Attorney’s investigation and any further questions should be directed to that office."

Phoebe Prince was born in Bedford, England and moved to Fanore when she was two years old. She moved to South Hadley in 2009 because the family had relatives there."

Earlier this month, the Massachusetts House unanimously approved a bill that seeks to curtail bullying in schools and in cyberspace, mirroring similar legislation passed by the US Senate.

 

[Luvmyzoocrew]

i saw this , it is so very sad. The one good thing, not that there is anything good about it, is that everyone that bullied her is being prosecuted. She isnt the first one that was bullied and commited suicide so sad.

 

[irishbunny]

Does a lot of bullying go on in schools over there against ''foreigners''? A girl in my class from the Philippines was telling me how her friend moved to the US and when she walks home from school everyday, kids follow her and throw rocks at her, very sad Not that I am stereotyping all schools over there as racist.

 

[mistyjr]

Yes! Bulling happens alot in the USA! And it sucks too! I used to bad when I was in High School

 

[irishbunny]

mistyjr wrote:

Yes! Bulling happens alot in the USA! And it sucks too! I used to bad when I was in High School

Ya we did a study on it in school before. My God, nothing like this has ever gone on in my school, actually, in any school here ever. No bullying actually really goes on, and I go to an all girls school. Usually it is like a group of girls against another, and a stop is put to it immediately.

On the news it was talking about how it was common knowledge to all the students and teachers about the awful bullying, most of it took place in school. Yet nothing was done

I hope something can be done to put a stop to this kind of bullying.

 

[pamnock]

We started homeschooling my daughter after she was being mercilessly bullied in school. All she wanted to do was escape the torment and considered suicide. Girls would text her: "Aren't you dead yet?" "Why haven't you killed yourself yet?"

In my state of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia schools have been making the news due to racially motivated attacks against students.

In our local school, there is no racial diversity, so the bullying is not racially motivated.

While my daughter was deprived of being able to attend public school and feel secure, the loser bullies ended up later dropping out and are leading pathetic lives. Wouldn't it have made more sense to remove the bullies from the school?

I wrote a paper for my Human Growth and Development entitled "Bullied to Death" There's a link to a Youtube video that's incredibly sad http://nockrabbits.com/Paper_2_School_Bullying.pdf

 

[jcottonl02]

Unfortunately bullying seems to be everywhere. It's utterly crazy and just.....so awful.

There was a story here in the UK a little while ago, that a girl was led to leap from a window from the torment and physical abuse from other students. She died.

Bullies like this just aren't normal....how can their minds work in a different way to ours?

 

[Happi Bun]

Yes, bullying is common here in the US. My brother was bullied very badly in high school to the point physical violence was taken against him. He has red hair and freckles, like me, but also has a rather severe learning disability. A student purposely tripped him, causing my brother to break his ankle. When I went to the same high school a senior came up to me and said he used to make fun of my brother. I told him something along the lines of, "What gives you the right to make fun of him? Look at yourself!" I felt like punching him, I really did. What happened to Phoebe Prince is so incredibly tragic. I cannot stand bullies. You can bet if I see it happening to someone I speak up for them. Sadly, everyone at Phoebe's school seemed to have stayed silent through her abuse, even her friends.

 

[jcottonl02]

My twin sister was bullied for being the cleverest in our year throughout the GCSE period. Name-calling, tripping up, stabbing with pens and pencils etc. I certainly stuck up for her etc. and multiple meetings with teachers etc. took place, but nothing could/would be done.

Now she is probably the most beautiful, gorgeous girl anyone has ever seen, ended up with 5As at A level, Maths, Further Maths, Biology, Physics and Chemistry, and is now doing Dentistry at Birmingham. Her figure is to die for, she's hilarious, and is living with her boyfriend who loves her with all his heart.

Needless to say, the bullies can all stand jealously watching her, while they remain in their dead-end jobs (if they have jobs), with no friends and no hopes, realising they helped her to become the strong, amazing woman she is now.

Unfortunately this isn't the case for lots of people. Bullying can either break you, or make you stronger. It seems to break many people...and something has to be done to stop it. It's getting more and more serious now, and something HAS to be done.

 

[irishbunny]

I think a lot of Phoebe's bullying was due to her being very pretty and easy to get along with. Kids got jealous. I'm really sorry for all of you who were bullied, or have family and friends that were. It sounds totally awful.

Pam- I can't believe kids would text her that??? :O

In school, the UK and US were some of the countries with the worst cases of bullying, no idea why really, I guess it is a mix of things, smartness, looks, personalities, back grounds.

Just send some of those kids to my school, with my teachers, they wouldn't know what hit them!

 

[jcottonl02]

Teachers should be given more authority. I obviously don't believe in physical punishment, but 30 years ago, when kids behaved in school, a lot of it was to avoid a smack on the bum with a ruler!!
Nowadays if it a teacher barely touches a kids shoulder they can get sued.

And it's letting kids get away with....well....murder literally....

 

[Sabine]

I'd say bullying in Irish schools is as bad as anywhere else if you don't fit in with the mob. I was lucky that I had my children in a multidenominational school in the city. Had I opted to sent them to the local schools daily beatings would have been the rule. They endured enough abuse just sticking their head out the door.

 

[pamnock]

Here's a photo of my daughter who was relentlessly teased because shewas so "ugly" and due to her "ethnicity" (kids called her Russian, Asian, Indian, etc - but she's actually just a run of the mill European (German/Polish).

 

[pamnock]

Here's a photo taken a couple days ago of my "baby girl". I still harbor a lot of resentment over the bullies who made her life a living hell.

 

[jcottonl02]

Lol- UGLY???? Wow...it really sounds like some serious jealousy going on there....

 

[Sabine]

My kids look rather average. Nothing that would give away their half German background. They were born and raised in Ireland. But the fact alone the didn't use the foul language and bad grammar some of the local kids use they were taunted for having a "German accent" another reason for a good beating

 

[jcottonl02]

I'm so sorry . It's just not fair.

 

[Luvr of Wabbits and Polar Bears]

Pam your daughter is Beautiful.
My sister and I were bullied in Elementry school and it continued into HS for her. Were took most of the same classes for the first 2 years so I knew it was going on. I think for us we were bullied 'cause we didn't fit in. Our family didn't have money to buy us nice stuff, but it didn't bother us it bothered everyone else.

 

[mistyjr]

Holy Cow! Pam she is sooooo Beeeeautiful!

 

[irishbunny]

Sabine wrote:

I'd say bullying in Irish schools is as bad as anywhere else if you don't fit in with the mob. I was lucky that I had my children in a multidenominational school in the city. Had I opted to sent them to the local schools daily beatings would have been the rule. They endured enough abuse just sticking their head out the door.

We get that down in the rougher areas here too, but it is more like ''kids beating other kids'' kind of thing. There isn't really a mob per say. Just different groups of kids attacking each other. I rarely see one kid being targeted, and if it starts, in our schools anyway it finished fairly rapid.

Of course you get cases though, but in my experience never anything as finish as Phoebe or Pam's daughter.

Pam- She is so pretty! Wouldn't be suprised if that was part of it