Phoebe Prince has been back in the news in the past week. This time it is about those who abused her relentlessly before she took her life as a result of being abused at the hands of her peers. Phoebe Prince had moved from Ireland to Massachusetts and enrolled at South Hadley High School. A older boy asked her out and these abusers did not like it. So, they abused Phoebe in person, through technology and as a result, Phoebe took her own life. Her younger sister found her after she died. If this is not disturbing enough, Phoebe was mocked in death and a Facebook page was made stating that these bullies murdered Phoebe Prince. Yes, mocking her in death.
Currently nine of these bullies are facing charges such as statutory rape, violation of civil rights resulting in bodily injury, criminal harassment and disturbance of school assembly. Six of these bullies have been named publicly while three of them are juveniles and cannot be named. Three of the six pled not guilty yesterday through their lawyers in a Hampshire Superior Court and were released on their own personal recognizance on the condition that they stay away from the family of Phoebe Prince, the girl who died.
Folks, what is wrong here? So much damage has been done and many have been hurt by the actions of this group of teens who should have known better. Why are the adults at the school not held accountable? Why are these kids saying they are not guilty? Why is a parent excusing the behavior of her daughter? Grow up and take responsibility for your actions! This is one of the greatest problems in America today. We sit back, wait for a tragedy to happen and once it does, everyone runs to cover their tracks. Bad behavior is considered good and we act on it with the goal of not getting caught. A life was lost here and who is stepping up to take any responsibility? Phoebe arrived in America a healthy and well adjusted girl. These teens pushed her and she snapped. Its high time they accept responsibility for their actions.
I commend the citizens of Massachusetts for pulling efforts together and working towards a brighter future in their state. Facebook groups are being made and again, kudos! As for the bullies who are pleading not guilty, I suggest extensive psychotherapy. A clinical assessment and evaluation conducted. Their behavior is disturbing and they have proven to be a danger to society. It is easy to come online and cyber bully these teens but what would that prove? No, we need to hope that they get the help they need. Abusing them back or any vigilante justice only makes the situation worse. Lets hope justice is served to all involved and not just the teens. May Phoebe rest in peace.
Elizabeth Bennett is the Social Justice Guru seeking social justice for all. She is also the author of “Peer Abuse Know More! Bullying From a Psychological Perspectiveâ€Â along with the e-book “Child Safety Online: Top Tips to Protect your Child from Internet Predators.†Please visit Peer Abuse Know More! To learn more.
9 users commented in " The Bullies of Phoebe Prince do not get it! "
Follow-up comment rss or Leave a TrackbackElizabeth I agree with you totally. These bullies have no idea of what they are doing or have done. The mother of one of them has even said her daughter didn’t harm Phoebe. When will people wake up and take notice that today’s children are becoming more and more violent. Please keep up your good work and let’s finally get some change going.
Growing up is tough enough, but moving to another country and adjusting to different lifestyles would have been hard on any teen. Phoebe Prince should have never been subjecting to any abuse. The parents of the “bullies” need to step back and realize this could have been their own child. Would they accept this kind of behavior if “their” child was the one who committed suicide? Should the school accept responsibilty? Absolutely. This child was “bullied” on their property, and hence, the bullies should have been punished accordingly. To defend bad behavior is to accept it. Phoebe would be alive today if the school and the administrators had of did their duty and took action against the perpetrators of this injustice. I am sickened these people decided to “bully” her even after own death. Some people are just born pure evil–and the evidence of that is the teens in this case. The parents that have defended their children’s actions are just as guilty as the teens themselves. Turning a blind eye does not make a problem go away. Phoebe is dead because of the actions of these “bullies”–there is no justification for allowing them to walk free to torment another child. This needs to be a wake up call to all school, parents, and teens. Phoebe’s parents have shown grace and class through this immense tragedy. I just wish the teens, the parents, and the school would have shown just a little bit. This is a growing epidemic and needs to remedied. Stiffer laws and penalties aimed at stopping this kind of abuse, before another life is lost at the hands of “lawless teens” and peer pressure. Sad it took a death like Phoebe, and many others like her, to address this issue!
This is very sad. As a parent, I think that I would have to slap the living shit out of someone else’s child(ren). I have a very low tolerance for bullshit where my children are concerned.
What happened to her makes me absolutely sick and as a country we need to start taking responsibility for what we do to others.
What Denise said. A totally preventable death, very tragic.
Unfortunately, this is neither an isolated case nor a new trend. Since individual schools can’t or won’t deal with the issue appropriately, federal laws need to be enacted to protect the children being bullied. I keep checking out websites about “Pheobe Prince’s bullies” because I want to know what punishment has been given to the teens that harassed Pheobe. So far I found nothing. One mother said her daughter hadn’t done anything but “call Pheobe names.” In high school, that’s enough to cause irrepable damage. The kids, their parents and school officials should all receive dire consequences for what happened to Pheobe.
I am writing a paper on bullying.
I know this might be an unpopular view of rightful punishment but in my mind it is warranted.
1. These immature psychotic jealous twits should be forced to:
a) take the body down and prepare it for burial.
b) be made to personally dig the grave and cover it up after everyone leaves. They should not be allowed to leave until they have complete completed their task.
c) have to watch the mourners- remotely if need be to see the grief first hand.
d) made to travel at their or their parents expense to talk to children and teens about cyber bullying
e) They should be tied, bound and ganged while family and friends of the girl scream and shout at them for a period of one hour for every year of the girls life.
f) They should be made to visit the girls grave each and every holiday, birthday or anniversary of her death.
g) They should have to write a book about the girl, her life, her death of epic proportions written so well you would feel they know the person personally.Right down to her favorite color.
h) they should have to write a book about who does this sort of crap and how to combat it.
i)NONE of these girls are to EVER touch any sort of cyber technology for the rest of their life
j) They Should never be allowed to be in contact again for the rest of their lives
l) The should never be allowed into any place of education at any level
m) The parents should be forced to home school their neurotic little brats
n) The parents should be forced into counselling with the child.
o) The parents should be forced to pay any funeral costs
p) The parents should have to take courses in being better parents.
q) The girls should have to tell the dead girls family every year on the anniversary of her death exactly what they did that year to honor their daughter and what worthwhile thing they did to make the world a better place and beg forgiveness each and every time.
r) The girls should be put away someplace septate and mentally examined for a period of a year with no outside contact. Preferably in some sort of isolation to contemplate their evilness and undeserving of life.
s) The parents should be deprived of their little darlings for the first 5 years.The girls mom will never see her child again!
Failure to comply would be automatic death.
If this was my kid who died I would be the perpetrators biggest nightmare. Starting with catching and torturing them painfully and slowly.Screw political correctness or the law. I would make it last and last and last. It is better than they deserve.Oh, and when I say torture-it would make all those scary movies pale in comparison.
these bullies should go to jail for the rest of their lives, and facing charges isn’t enough of a punishment for them.
This story is old but it’s still shocking and wont be forgotten.
Shame on the bullies, their lives should be destroyed just like how they destroyed Pheobe’s.
It can be the worst years for people who experienced high school bullying 🙁
this is sad and shocking
and plus…these bullies have absolutely no feelings, they had and still have no idea what Pheobe was going through, they showed no care to her or her family. The bullies will never care…. because they are jealous and what not.
Pheobe has done nothing to hurt anyone. The bullies abused her and behaved aggressively above the limits, wayy to far. That was a crime the should be sentenced to jail.
R.I.P Pheobe Prince
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