By Shane Hickey
INDEPENDENT IE NATIONAL NEWS
THE official in charge of a US school where an Irish teenager was bullied before she took her own life has defended how staff handled the situation which has resulted in nine students facing charges.
Schools superintendent Gus Sayer said staff at the school where Phoebe Prince was a pupil only became aware of the degree of bullying the 15-year-old was facing a week before her suicide.
Phoebe had been living in Massachusetts since last year after her family moved from Fanore in Co Clare where she had grown up. She killed herself after a tirade of bullying from a group of so-called 'mean girls' which followed a brief relationship she had with a football player in her school.
Officials have come in for substantial criticism since the death in January with the possibility of legal charges being laid against them not being ruled out. However, Mr Sayer has told US media that they took "very strong action" once they became aware of the abuse, which extended to social networking websites. "We don't have knowledge of any bullying or other incidents before that. No one turned their back on this. I think we did everything we could. If I thought I had done something wrong, I would resign. But I think we did our best," he said.
Earlier this week, local district attorney Elizabeth Schiebel said the bullying had been common knowledge amongst the student body, criticising the alleged lack of action on behalf of some members of staff at South Hadley High School.
Phoebe hanged herself in her family's apartment on January 14, after a final, horrific day of abuse.
Mr Sayer disagreed with the district attorney and said her claims countered the findings of an investigation conducted by school principal Dan Smith. "Based on our investigation, that wasn't the case. He followed up every lead, but we didn't get any other reports," he said.
He said the abuse happened outside of the awareness of adults. "The kids have a way of communicating with each other without us knowing about it,'' he said. "They really have their own world.'' These comments in turn were responded to by Ms Schiebel who accused the schools official of "lashing out" and being unaware of the evidence.
Nine students, including seven girls, have been charged with offences including civil rights violations, statutory rape, stalking and inflicting bodily injury to Phoebe Prince.
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
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I think they should be taking very strong action against any school that just throws this stuff to the side. Bullying doesn't only consist of pushing kids around or calling them names. The teachers don't relize that kid's are doing stuff behind their backs, like turning everyone against one student... and it's hard for those students to speak up, because then you get more crap. You get called a snitch, a squealer, and much much more! And even in Warroad, there are kids that will harrass other students right in front of the teachers, and yet the teachers just watch... sometimes even join in themselves.(depending on the teacher)... the teacher might trying to be kidding around, but they don't relize how it really affects the students. I personally have had troubles with these issues. When i got mad and yelled at kids to just leave me alone and to stop harrassing me, They didnt get sent for harrassing, not even get told to stop or anything, instead, I get told to go to the office for yelling. I go to the office, principle asks why I'm there, I tell him, guess what! "Oh, ok then." No one tries to even do anything. Teachers aren't really trying. There's no way that these teachers all actually went and helped this girl. They say "hey. be nice. have a good day." Well, how are kids supposed to do that when they're getting crap? It's impossible! I have went and reported things, and nothing had been done. I'm not accusing just Warroad, but all schools. Roseau was the same way. I had a girl dig her nails into my wrist and go psycho. It got reported, mom called to see if they did anything "I'm sorry mam, but there is nothing we can do about this. Would you like the police number?" They couldnt even talk to her! While my wrist were scarred for quite a while, they sat on their duffs and didnt even try. In which the police finally got brought in, and something was finally done. Well, I think this is getting a little long, so I'm gunna end it. These schools do need to be punished or given strict policy on bully.*a policy that will actually be followed.*
ReplyDelete-Dorothy R. hr.2
I feel sorry for the death of the girl above all, and it is a pity that her death might have been simply just a consequence of teenage girls' very reckless deeds from jealousy or something like that.
ReplyDeleteI roughly understand it's hard for teachers or staff to "be aware of bullying happening in the school" unless they intend to find it, but they seem to be really irresponsible for saying like that. Regardless of whatever they did which they say was their best things to do, they deserve to be punished since the student whom they were responsible for taking care of took her own life despite of "strong action" taken by school to bulliers - it means their "strong action" wasn't enough to keep bulliee from bullying. It is really absurd that the person in charge of schools superintendent dare say "If I thought I had done something wrong, I would resign."! It doesn't make sense at all, and they definitely should be legally charged.
I agree with eden because the superintendent shouldn't have said that and its just sad on how the girl took her life just because the teachers and faculty couldn't or mabey didn't even try to find out who was bullying her. I think that she should have told a teacher or a counsolor about what was going on instead of killing herself. I thinkg everybody who has herd about this can really think about what should have happened and instead of what did happen. I think that we can learn that if you are being bullied, you should go up to an adult, teacher, principle, or a counsolor, so that things can be taken to the right measures by stopping the bullying around your school or naborhood.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Eden especially on the sorrow for the family of the bullied girl. Also that the school faculty should have taken stronger action on the part of finding out who was bullying her because then maybe this whole thing could have been prevented. I do believe that all nine of the students who bullied her should be charged of all of the offenses. Also I think in some way the faculty who didn't do very much sould have some type of punishment.
ReplyDeleteIt's a shocking news but it can be a common news if we ignored this and tried to do nothing. What we have to do is making a real helpful things to another Phoebe Prince. I agree that students have their own world. They have own rules and they have own standards to judge others. Of course it's difficult to find their way but I wondered that how could Mr Sayer said that he did his best. Does he really think that he did everything for her? Actually many teachers don't care about students' relationship with others. They think that's just students' problem and students should deal with that by themselves. My point is some teachers have to be changed. Phoebe Prince's death is not just her thing. They have to think about bullying seriously. Teachers have to regret that they didn't care of this much and being busy to make a reason to escape from this.
ReplyDeleteWe have to do is making students realize what is wrong and how sad and terrible that bullied person feels. Actually bullying is happened to a same person for a long time. In other words, if someone was bullied, he/she is still bullied. So no one feels sorry for people who are bullied because they don't know what's wrong. They just enjoy that they are involved in one group that they can bully another one or some of them really don't want to bully but they don't want to move apart from others. Enjoying bad things can't be a reason for making someone suicide. Most of time there is no serious reason for such a terrible thing. If there were reasons they can solve that from talking to each other but if there were no reasons, then we need some help from teachers and adults that they can tell students bulling is a terrible thing. stop bullying is such a big problem to everyone but if no one tried to stop this, our future will be worse.
I just don't understand how someone can do such a thing to a person. Make her that down that she feels like shes not worth to live anymore. How can people make someone feel so bad? Make feel someone so bad that this person kills herself. I think its horrible, and to see that no one tried to help her or to stop the bullying is even worse. I don't know if they should be charged, because that wouldn't bring the girl back and it also wouldn't make them look any better. I just think, that this people have something to think about and maybe to change in their lives to help stopping things like that!
ReplyDeleteAnnaR.2
k. Well, im sure i agree with everyone and what happened was wrong! I think what they horrible. There is always going to be bullying, thats just a part of life, but this was took to the next level and all the people who were involved should be in alot of trouble. What kind of people bully a person enough for them to commit suicide? Im guessing the girl already had problems at home and was stressed and had a lot on her mind. All this did was add to her stress, but the bullying must have been pretty bad. The school made a mistake on not taking action a lot quicker and thats obvious.
ReplyDeleteAs all the kids above me saying, I think the major probelm of this case was adults not taking strong action. It is nonsense that Mr sayer or something saying that they did their best. If they couldn't prevent girl dying with their best effort, who should have done more? It must have not been enough action when you see the result. So I think adults should have done more such as suspending the bullies from school after a warning to their parent, or even changing their school.
ReplyDeleteI think that this whole bullying thing is just wrong. I think the authorities definely need to punish the students who did the bullying and the school leaders who didnt do anything about. Bullying is something that happens all the time but students need to know when enough is enough and stop. This is how shootouts like red lake and etc... start, with some kid getting picked on way too much, and then finnaly they cant take it any more and deaths occur. But also the parents could of picked up signs of it and gotten them help. Or just pull them out of the school.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Tyler Hansen that the bullying was taken to far, and it was a very horrible thing to bully a girl to the point where suicide was the only escape to her in her mind. I think the schools should have taken stronger action and stepped in against the "mean girls" before things got that out of hand. And the girls should have charges pressed against them because if they were in that situation they would want justice. And i also agree when people say her parents should have seen the signs and done something to help. I just think more should have been done to aviod this in general.
ReplyDeletei personally believe that this is sad and pathetic. there is no excuse to bully someone to a point that they dont want to live anymore. or bully someone at all for that matter.i think the school should have taken stronger action and gave her therapy or something along those lines. those young men and women that are responsible should be tried for, in my mind, murder. thats basically what they did. its just awful.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Tyler Hansen. Bullying is totally a part of life, it's something that pretty much everyone goes through even though no one wants to. But when it gets to the point where someone is thinking of suicide then its gone too far. Something should have been done, she was only 15 years old that's not right. Those girls truely were "mean girls", I never thought people could be SO mean. The girl probably didn't even do anything to deserve being bullied that bad, I don't think anyone deserves anything that bad. Except for the people that pushed her over the edge to suicide, they should really regret everything and get in a lot of trouble. How did her parents not notice that she was depressed? And if they did notice, why didn't they do anything to help? Or her school teachers, or anyone else involved. I think something should have been done before a 15 year old girl took her own life.
ReplyDeleteTORI LAMBRIDES-
I agree with tommy. The fact that bullying resulted in suicide is crazy! Im glad those kids are getting what they deserve but schools need to start cracking down on these kinds of things. Also I agree with Eden, this superintendent guy is insane if he doesn't think he did anything wrong, honestly a girl died in his school because they couldn't figure out what this girl was going through. All in all I feel bad for this family and those kids need to get what they deserve
ReplyDeleteI agree with Tyler bullying is apart of life. I think that the girls should feel really bad about themselves because that was totally unacceptable. How can some girl's be so jealous of a the relationship she had with a football player? I just can't believe she took her life because of it. How can the superintendent say they "took strong action" if she was depressed enough to commit suicide? I agree with Cole when he says the girls should be charged with offenses. With charges they will have the guilt of bullying a girl until she was depressed enough to take her life. Even then I don't think that would be punishment enough.
ReplyDeleteI agree the school should be punished along with the students involved. Often times teachers see someone being bullied and dont do anything about it or just tell the kids to knock it off but no one ever gets in trouble. Kids these days are crule they will sit and pick on you and then others will join in. when people picks on someone else about something it donesnt just go on for a day or two they keep at it cause they know it bugs you to the point where you are sick of hearing it and dont want to do anything that would make you be around those people. Those kids at that school probly tormented that girl and its sad she had to take her own life to get away from it.
ReplyDeleteI agree with everyone who has said that this is wrong. But you do have to admit that bullying will be there no matter what teachers do, there is no way around it. But for this girl to be bullied to a point of where she wanted to commit suicide, now thats just wrong. And honestly there would have been ways around it to. But no one took action. And I am one of those people that think that people who commit suicide are people that just want to take the easy way out. But I also know how high school girls can be. It is life, you have to under stand that. I dont think that these kids should be tried for murder. They didnt really know how far it could go. Its high school. But i do feel badly for her family, and anyone who cared for her. But if they really did care dont you think that they would have stood up for her? I just think that this whole thing is a mistake. One bad thing gone wrong. Like I said its high school there is no way around it.
ReplyDelete-Dani H2
I agree wtih everyone about how this is sad and the people should be punished, but did she really get bullied a lot more than normal people? I'm sure that most people at every school get bullied in some way, but they figure out ways to deal with it, whether it's talked to a teacher, counselor, or another adult. I'm sure that if she tried enough she could have gotten everything worked out. maybe just try to stay away from the people, hang out at new places, or if it was bad enough maybe go to a new school. She probably could have talked to her parents about how bad it was getting and they would have been more than happy to help her out. They would have done anything to make this stop rather than have her kill herself. My other question is are these students only getting charged because she killed herself? If that is what is happening, i don't agree with it at all. I would say that everyone ends up bullying someone in their lifetime and they aren't getting charged for it. I understand that this might have been way worse bullying, but I'm sure something could have been done.
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ReplyDeleteI agree with Hannah on the fact that it is high school and you are going to get bullied one way or another no matter who you are. That's just how it goes so deal with it. These kids shouldn't be tried for murder because like Hannah said "They really didn't know how far it could go." Suicide is the easy way out and there should be no reason that anybody would think of that as a way out. Life sucks sometimes and maybe highschool wasn't the best time for a lot of people but for some people to commit suicide over something as dumb as that straight up pisses me off!(Sorry Mr. Fermoyle) People aren't always going to be there and back you up, take action against bullies, or anything else in life that happens and makes you want to quit, you have to deal with on your own sometimes and just take it by stride. Some people need to just pick up their bootstraps, take control of their own life, and move on! Quit dwelling on things all the time feeling sorry for yourself. A football player (although awesome) are not something to kill yourself over. I may not be too sensitive on this subject but I don't care, sorry this is my opinion.
ReplyDeleteThat being said I do feel sorry for the family because nobody should have to deal with the loss of a loved one like that.
This whole situation is terrible! Kids don't realize the consequences of their actions and how their words can have such a big affect on others. This poor girl moved to Massachusetts from Fanore in Co Clare, and after a year, she committed suicide. My immediate thought was- Wow, what does this say about, not only Massachusetts, but the whole United States?! Hearing about this worries me about our school and others in the nation. What are we going to do to stop what goes on "behind the scenes"? Bullying is not a light topic. When we hear the word "bullying", we often picture a kid pushing someone smaller into a locker or a miniature fist fight in the lunch room, but it is so much more than that. I almost don't even like referring to it as bullying, because it's so... cliche. The question I want to end with is- If someone in our school were to commit suicide, would it be a smack in the face, or would we brush it off and convince ourselves that it wasn't our fault?
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