You know things have gotten bad when prosecutors start prosecuting teens — some on felony charges that could result in significant jail time — because of bullying. Yes, bullying.
Most of us have experienced bullying at one point in our lives, or know someone who has been bullied. Of course for most, the bullying didn’t result in lifelong scars. Part of that is because the extremes of bullying were not really known 20 or 30 years ago. You couldn’t bully someone 24/7 through Facebook, Twitter, email and forums devoted entirely to making other people’s lives miserable (yes, such online communities exist).
So nowadays sometimes bullying is taken to an extreme. Not by one or two teens or kids, but by a whole gang of them.
In central Massachusetts, it led Phoebe Prince — a 15-year-old Irish immigrant — to hang herself. And now 9 teens have been indicted on charges related to her humiliation and threats. Threats that ultimately led to her death.
The details of the case are disturbing … Not just for the behavior of the teenagers involved, but also in the negligence of school officials and teachers who failed to do anything about it:
It was particularly alarming, the district attorney said, that some teachers, administrators and other staff members at the school were aware of the harassment but did not stop it. “The actions or inactions of some adults at the school were troublesome,” she said, but would not lead to criminal charges.
Ms. Prince had recently moved to the United States from Ireland when she started at South Hadley High School as a freshman last fall. The taunting started when she had a brief relationship with a senior boy; some students reportedly called her an “Irish slut,” knocked books out of her hands and sent her threatening text messages.
On the day of her death, the investigation found, students abused her in the school library, in the lunchroom and the hallways and threw a canned drink at her as she walked home.
So while I believe the response — although perhaps extreme — is the right one, it also doesn’t address the school’s negligence in stopping this inappropriate behavior from occurring over and over again in a single day.
There may not be a single “right” response to such bullying. But hopefully what this indictment shows is that if you want to bully someone as a teen, and then they go and do something extreme, you may find yourself being held accountable. And not just to juvenile crimes (which typically have lesser and less severe sentences), but to adult crimes as well.
It’s a hard way to learn that life is unfair. But you make what you want for yourself and out of your life. And if you want to feel the power associated with bullying, be prepared to enjoy the prison time that comes along with it. Crimes are crimes and driving a person to death by relentless threats and harassment is nothing to be proud of.
Read the full article: 9 Teenagers Are Accused of Bullying That Led to Suicide
25 comments
I was bullied severely at an all-male Catholic high school in suburban Philadelphia between 1998 and 2002. I was constantly kicked, slapped, pinched, punched, spit on, called every name you can imagine.. I was constantly told I was so ugly and that I should kill myself. I was stabbed with lots of things that aren’t traditionally considered weapons. I had a knife, or what I believed to be a knife, held to my throat in the hallway. It felt like an impossible situation at the time, because if you tell someone you’re a rat, and sometimes the administration reacted as if these were just silly teen rivalries and it wasn’t their problem. If you fight, you’ll probably get hurt badly, and also risk getting expelled. You can tell your parents, but what are they doing to do? Freak out and call the school or something: a worse version of the rat problem. People stole my stuff all the time, pushed me into lockers.. it was hell. I still have issues from what happened.
Those little psychopaths should be locked away for a long time… I had similar experiences like Matt, and nobody ever said a word!
I was bullied in all the schools I attended, and I was contemplating sucicde by high school. I hung on only because of my cousin. She saved my life.
This is an instance of organized stalking – not as extreme as the state-sanctioned campaigns directed at adults – but intensified for a teenager because she can’t simply stop going to school or switch schools.
I cover the incident here:
http://areyoutargeted.com/2010/03/29/authorities-uncover-a-conspiracy-of-harassment-and-stalking-directed-at-teenage-girl/
As for understanding the issue of state-sanctioned organized stalking:
http://areyoutargeted.com/welcome/
There’s a whole world out there that you can’t see because your eyes are glued to the TV.
Yes, many of us may have experienced bullying when growing up, but this is an extreme. It is so important for kids to have friends who can surround them and stand up for them if there is bullying. A child that feels isolated and alone is the worse. This teenager just moved here from Ireland and may not have had enough time to establish a good support system. As a mother, my heart goes out to her family.
As cruel and unrelenting those kids’ actions were, I think the school officials, teachers, and other adults should be held partly responsible. Those people are grown-up adults with greater authority and knowledge than a group of teens. (I don’t know their ages). Furthermore, sending a bunch of kids (again don’t know ages) to prison for long periods of time, will do nothing. It will more than likely cause these students to commit more crimes and not turn their life around or get them proper counseling. I doubt it will be a proper deterant either. Teens have brains that are less developed than adult brains thus they are much more impulsive, prone to peer pressure, and are more vulunerable to emotional problems than adults.
On the other hand, if these bullies really are psychopaths, then locking them away will preven them from commiting any more crimes for awhile.
But anyway, maybe this case will force more communities and schools to take bullying seriously.
These indictments will never stick. There is no way to get a conviction. The DA’s office is opening themselves up to a huge lawsuit. Just like the Duke Lacrosse case. The problem is we have raised a generation of kids who have no ability to cope with adversity. We have so “over protected” them that they can’t deal with not getting every thing they want. We ban All Star teams, we ban dodgeball, we give trophys and awards to every kid. We have failed our children. Trying to put these 9 in jail will not fix anything. The parents should go to jail. Maybe if we start jailing parents they may start doing some real parenting.
Considering that Phoebe Prince grew-up in Ireland, and only recently moved to the US, I don’t think you arguement about “over protected” children has any merit in this case. Oh and I am sure there were youth suicides related (I don’t like to use the word “caused”) to bullying back before people called them “suicides.”
We need a way for kids being bullied to anonymously tell authorities without any risk of being labelled a “rat.” Perhaps their could be an online “suggestion box…” or “letter to the principal …” or there could be peers around campus trained to notice (and report) bullying incidents. This could be done, if first consciousness (e.g. assembly, speakers like parents of teen suicides) must be raised. Whoever said the teen brain is not fully developed is right, but exposing that brain to the “other side” of the reality may improve things.
there needs to be conflict resolutions! this can not keep going on. people need to be aware of what they are doing and stop.
I was bullied throughout primary school and I am very pessimistic. It’s good to see that bullying is (finally) starting to be taken seriously, but I honestly don’t think there’s anything teachers can do to help, because:
1) Let’s be honest, what can teachers really do to change a child’s personality? If a kid has been badly raised to be a bully, no amount of ‘conflict resolutions’ or ‘time-outs’ will change their behaviour or their desire to hurt and put down others because that behaviour is being reinforced by the most influential people in the kids’ lives – their parents.
2) Teachers don’t spend enough time with children in a day, nor do they have the resources or energy to constantly monitor and supervise every child, so there will always be opportunities for bullies to be bullies.
3) Often these kids act out because they want attention, so I’m concerned that increasing ‘conflict resolution’ etc. would only reinforce the child to keep bullying, because it means more attention for them.
The parents are responsible and need to take 100% responsibility.
I think everyone is bullied at some point in life. I really hate that it leads to death sometimes. Sad to say, most cases with teenage bullying, leads to suicide. I don’t understand how someone can say or do something so hurtful to another INNOCENT human being. I’m sorry for anyone that has been hurt by bullies. They should know that they can get through anything but they have to speak up before it’s to late. Don’t worry about what other people think. They’re the bad guys and you’re the good guy!! You can get through this!
Does anyone have any thoughts on “why” today’s teenagers aren’t able to “cope” with the same things that my generation were able to cope with?
Being mean to other kids is not acceptable but it does not need a whole ‘nother category bullying… it’s seems we want to label everything these days… as if for example someone killing someone and it being classified as a “hate crime” vs just plain old murder…
As far as I know.. there are no degrees of being “dead”, right? If you are dead you are dead.
Do any of you realize that now the psyho industry wants to label everything so they can have more ‘diseases’ or ‘syndromes’ to treat… it’s called in latin “jobus securitus”
If anyone bullies my kids, and it does not stop when brought to the school and other parents’ attention, I will be seeing all parties in court.
I have my own bullying horror story and it still sticks with me today. Both kids who are bullied and the ones doing the bullying need help to deal with what’s going on. If your kid is being bullied, check this out:
http://www.byparents-forparents.com/parenting/what-to-do-if-your-child-is-being-bullied.htm
If your kid is the one doing the bullying, check this out:
http://www.byparents-forparents.com/parenting/what-to-do-if-your-child-is-a-bully.htm
im tired of all this because no adult action or stupid detention slip isnt going to change that but i realy feel sorry for all of you espescially Matt i hope their is some peace in this world that way all of us can make it through life.
i feel sorry for every one of yall and i wish there was something i could do and hopefully there is a sliver of hope in this hellhole we call life.
ive been bullied a lot and i have deppresion im 13 and suicide has been on my mind. sad to c what sm1 else did .i wish the world was nicer and less violent.
Don’t we all Chelsey… Some people can be soo mean! and I’m very sorry to hear what happened to you. Just try to ignore the people that are bullying you and if they keep doing it tell your parents or some responsible adult. Have a good day girl! 🙂
The solution involves holding three constituencies accountable:
1. Jail juveniles who participate in an incident that leads to self harm of another person.
2. Hold parents of these thugs responsible (criminally and civilly)
3. Have a “no tolerance” policy in all schools for bullying (just like weapons). Any school personnel not immediately reporting bullying to the school officials and/or school officials not handling these reports seriously should be fired.
Enough enforcement of all three items above would greatly deter bullying.
I see no point of the school staff being as irresponsible as they did. But, not only in this case, now a days it’s not hard to put all the blame over few people and ignoring the real one’s that hide behind the walls. For sure, I am not picking on any particular group, all what i am trying to say is that we see bullying everywhere but, we never take a stand against it or we just walk by a person saying that we don’t know them personally so we don’t care. Even, if the only one person tried to help Ms. Prince then i am pretty sure that the results would be much different. Instead of just talking or making long comments on these kind of articles, I think we all should learn from this case which is very shameful, not for the girl’s family but, for her society who ignored all the things that she was going through and learn the moral of helping people without knowing who they are. And keeping the fact in mind, that we all are humans and we all can be in place of Ms.Prince. May God rest her soul in peace.
My survival was put on the line by my bullies when I was an adolescent… That is really taking it to the extreme, my psychological integrity was already taken, a result of absolutely merciless taunting, and usually bystanders were recruited to join in the fun while I stood there and looked at all of them, feeling very afraid, that mixed with despair.
The instructors, principles, counselors… None of them even acknowledged there was a problem when I was being bullied. Same with the busdriver, but, you know, you don’t study at University to be a bus driver.
I kept myself alive somehow and I don’t really understand that. I don’t know how I faced 2 years of that. It ended when one of them sucker punched me in the nose so hard… THEN the principle got involved. Two adolescent boys expelled from school. A school counselor got involved just enough to warn my parents that he thought I was suffering paranoia. He hadn’t even interviewed me. Jackass.
So, this crap about most people experiencing some form of bullying growing up, and about that not leading to lasting damage…
I did not witness more than a few others bullied in my childhood and adolescence. It definitely is a phenomenon of a victim being selected and then tortured, and they seem to gain momentum from your experience and expressions of pain.
I have recently had a bullying supervisor. He was an artist, I swear, having PTSD he somehow new how to just barely get under my skin so that after three years I decompensated. His problem is a very common one among Americans: he had a driving need to inflict punishment. I don’t mean to pick on Americans, as I am one, but look at how many people we incarcerate. There is little benefit to society from incarceration, except it keeps the really bad ones like the psychopaths safely away from us.
The damage done has, in a sense, destroyed my life. I’m 40 now, haven’t been in a relationship in over ten years, the ones I’ve been in, those women were smart enough to break it off after about two years. I was not equipped to relate well to others or society when I left home. I’ve had to learn how to socialize as an adult. To this day I will not initiate a conversation with a woman I am interested in. That I just won’t face, I guess. It ought to be as simple as thinking it through and acting it out. And if something bad happens who cares.
What I wish I could change is all of the self-sabotaging, destructive thinking that held me back and the behaviors like drinking and especially all of the bad choices I somehow managed to make in spite of being really smart guy.
I spent around 20 years in my last career. It’s over and I live in poverty on my pension. My employer couldn’t tolerate a subordinate with dissociative amnesia generating bizarre, rambling emails that suggested threat. I guess I only wrote one, but they wouldn’t really discuss it with me.
My abusers were never charged with a crime. They should have been, because they perpetrated many against me. That’s the way it is… A violation of the law is dealt with by way of our criminal justice system. I think that is a lot of anger talking, though. I’m one of the US justice system’s biggest critics. It destroys people who need to be rebuilt up. Don’t make me count the ways it’s just wrong, it starts with policing and ends with employer access to criminal records.
The bullying phenomenon really needs end. This witch hunt these days where we are all out to punish the bullies is born of something like a sadist desire. The bullying problem can be stopped, actually, but not until people start learning to understand the bully. We need to intervene, certainly. But American society needs to get over this mentality of tossing the bad people away somewhere, like into a California prison, where human rights violations, in our own country, really compromise our integrity as a people.
Bullying is getting worse everyday. Why do people bully. u know what bullying does to a person. It makes them feel unloved and make them feel like their a mistake. no person deserves all that pain. no ones perfect. bullying leads to suicide and cutting sometime and that is horrible. cause u should ignore the bully and don’t listen to them. plz help me stop bullying
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