Nine charged with irish teenagers death

Melion · 30-03-2010 09:56AM #1

http://www.rte.ie/news/2010/0330/princep.html

Nine teenagers have been charged in the US in connection with the death of a Co Clare schoolgirl in Massachusetts earlier this year.

Seven of the accused are girls and three of the nine are juveniles.

Four girls and two boys face charges including statutory rape, assault and stalking.

15-year old Phoebe Prince, who was originally from Fanore in west Clare, took her own life on 14 January.

She had allegedly endured weeks of bullying on the social networking forum Facebook, via text messages and in the corridors of South Hadley High School.

The teenager and her family had moved from Fanore in to South Hadley, where they have relatives, last year.

District Attorney in South Hadley, Elizabeth Scheibel, said that the the accuseds' 'relentless activity directed toward Phoebe designed to humiliate her and to make it impossible for her to remain at school'.

She went on to say that: 'their conduct far exceeded the limits of normal teenage relationship related quarrels

I'm friends with someone who knew this girl. Absolutely horrible behaviour from kids in America. I hope they get what they deserve but i doubt it.

pickarooney · 30-03-2010 10:06AM

In before Kim Wilde

I don't understand how you can be bullied by Facebook. If people are sending you messages surely you would just unfriendalise them or, you know, stop logging in all the time.

dasdenny · 30-03-2010 10:11AM

pickarooney wrote: »

In before Kim Wilde

I don't understand how you can be bullied by Facebook. If people are sending you messages surely you would just unfriendalise them or, you know, stop logging in all the time.

Does the same apply for school/work?

Fuhrer · 30-03-2010 10:13AM

dasdenny wrote: »

Does the same apply for school/work?

Yes because you can block people and unfriend them in real life...

prinz · 30-03-2010 10:13AM

dasdenny wrote: »

Does the same apply for school/work?

No. Unless in the space of a couple of minutes you are able to use an invisibility cloak and only let the people you want to know that you're actually in work today. If not, then no, they're not same does not apply.

miss5 · 30-03-2010 10:15AM

It's very sad it got so out of control that she felt so helpless.

Fuhrer · 30-03-2010 10:16AM

Melion wrote: »

. I hope they get what they deserve but i doubt it.

What do they deserve?

OutlawPete · 30-03-2010 10:16AM

pickarooney wrote: »

In before Kim Wilde

I don't understand how you can be bullied by Facebook. If people are sending you messages surely you would just unfriendalise them or, you know, stop logging in all the time.

Yeah, but if your just a kid and other kids are posting shit on your page and all making fun of you etc.

I can see how at that age it could become overwhelming.

All kids want to be popular and at the very least not hated and laughed at.

I remember one girl at my school slit her wrists cause of bullying.

I can only imagine that with today's Social Networking sites that must be infinitely escalated.

Bullies make me sick tbh.

Funny how you never see a bully on their own also.

They always sneer and bully with company, the sure sign of cowards.

bonerm · 30-03-2010 10:16AM

Six of the nine were named and it's interesting&not-unexpected that 3 of that 6 have Irish surnames. Ironic considering one of the taunts they liked to throw at PhoebePrince was "Irish slut.". I bet they are the same sort people going around professing their Irishness come Paddys day. I hope they throw the book at the scumbags.

I spent a short time staying in a college in New England and even I could see there was a clear hierarchy there that everyone unconciously adhered to without question. I can only imagine it was the same at this school. We know nothing about school-yard bullying and minding your place over here when compared to the yanks.

Aside, this story reminds me of the Shanda Sharer case from the early 90's (tho not as extreme). Schoolyard flings, that turn to bullying with tragic consequences.

Melion · 30-03-2010 10:22AM

Fuhrer wrote: »

What do they deserve?

The same as they would get if they had murdered her themselves.

dasdenny · 30-03-2010 10:22AM

Fuhrer wrote: »

Yes because you can block people and unfriend them in real life...

Fight Sarcasm with Sarcasm

seamus · 30-03-2010 10:25AM

pickarooney wrote: »

In before Kim Wilde

I don't understand how you can be bullied by Facebook. If people are sending you messages surely you would just unfriendalise them or, you know, stop logging in all the time.

There wouldn't be much to stop them posting messages on other people's profiles against her though. Quite easy to stalk someone on facebook and you can't put someone on "ignore" (afaik).

Remember the girl was a teenager. "Sticks and stones" and ignoring people aren't quite so easy to do when you're 15 because you're already paranoid about your outward appearance.

With adult hindsight, it's very easy to look back at any bullying or jibes you took as a teenager and realise how easy it would have been to disarm them, but to teenagers, position and caste are everything. The worst thing in the world is to have people who hate you.

This is endemic in the US school system, a side-effect of US capitalism where you're nobody unless you're the best sports star or the most attractive female. This is at best ignored, but often enforced by the teachers and administraton in the school.

In this girl's case, the teachers knew it was going on and ignored it.

What's saddest about the whole thing (and what is no doubt eating her parents up) is that if she'd just told them, she could have been moved to a new school and the whole thing put behind her. But this kind of bullying consumes your life as a teenager to the point where you think it can never end. In fact, that's what gives the bullies their power.

What do they deserve?

Jail time and criminal records. That'll ruin the rest of their lives pretty much and ensure that they can't get anything but the "hottest and noisiest" jobs and leave them stuck in their little small-town rut.

JONJO THE MISER · 30-03-2010 10:26AM

Scumbags i hope they go to Jail for this.

Fuhrer · 30-03-2010 10:27AM

Melion wrote: »

The same as they would get if they had murdered her themselves.

So,

Charged with murder in the first degree?

cafecolour · 30-03-2010 10:53AM

Other articles have stated it had something to do with a 'relationship' she had with one of the lads. ie from http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/03/29/massachusetts.bullying.suicide/index.html?hpt=T2 :

The harassment that day, by one male and two females, "appears to have been motivated by the group's displeasure with Phoebe's brief dating relationship with a male student that had ended six weeks earlier," she said.

I wonder if she dated a lad, dumped him, and he couldn't take it so he and his friends started stalking and harassing her.

Kiera · 30-03-2010 10:57AM

The poor kid. Its not the first time social network sites have been involved in bullying and defo will not be the last. Its so sad

seamus · 30-03-2010 11:02AM

cafecolour wrote: »

I wonder if she dated a lad, dumped him, and he couldn't take it so he and his friends started stalking and harassing her.

From earlier reports it appears that she started going out with some jock soon after she arrived at the school, but his friends didn't appreciate her dating above her station and decided to harass her about it.

Gummy Panda · 30-03-2010 11:15AM

I wonder was there ever any reports of bullying among users on boards

OutlawPete · 30-03-2010 11:16AM

Gummy Panda wrote: »

I wonder was there ever any reports of bullying among users on boards

I'd be shocked if there wasn't.

Kev37 · 30-03-2010 11:25AM

Just on the statutory rape charges I assume the two boys charged planned to have sex with her in order to be able to tell everyone she was a slut and target her?

Absolutely horrible if true.

Gone Drinking · 30-03-2010 11:32AM

Think she was dating one of the jocks, and the popular girls didn't like it..

What a bunch of cnuts

cafecolour · 30-03-2010 11:32AM

seamus wrote: »

From earlier reports it appears that she started going out with some jock soon after she arrived at the school, but his friends didn't appreciate her dating above her station and decided to harass her about it.

Ah. A jealous female friend who turned everyone against her?

seamus · 30-03-2010 11:36AM

cafecolour wrote: »

Ah. A jealous female friend who turned everyone against her?

No, not everyone only a handful of complete scumbags. They also posted abusive/congratulatory messages after she'd killed herself.

They're dirt of the lowest order.

flames · 30-03-2010 11:41AM

The poor girls parents must be devastated, I only hope that the parents of the other kids are soooo proud of their little angels, and may they be visiting them in prison for years to come...

Kiera · 30-03-2010 11:44AM

seamus wrote: »

No, not everyone only a handful of complete scumbags. They also posted abusive/congratulatory messages after she'd killed herself.

They're dirt of the lowest order.

No way! Thats horrible!

cafecolour · 30-03-2010 11:46AM

seamus wrote: »

No, not everyone only a handful of complete scumbags. They also posted abusive/congratulatory messages after she'd killed herself.

They're dirt of the lowest order.

Spoiled c*nts.

The jock-worship in some US schools is absolutely insane. You treat teens like they're better than everyone else, and they'll run rampant.

irishdub14 · 30-03-2010 11:46AM

I read the story this morning for the first time, truely heartbreaking, if only her mother dicided to go back to Ireland earlier or move her to another school. I wonder did the girl defend her self or was she to overwhelmed by the crowd that was bothering her. Its exactly like the movie mean girls.... just proves how bad schools have gotten in the US.

Edit: I was on the schools website and it didnt say a word about her death. ??

OutlawPete · 30-03-2010 11:48AM

Two news reports:

In one report they say she was called: "An Irish Slut".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-r38uxKBGuw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6UE7XqiDT6E

seamus · 30-03-2010 11:55AM

Kiera wrote: »

No way! Thats horrible!

Here's a more local, if annoyingly american source:

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2010/01/24/the_untouchable_mean_girls/

Dionysus · 30-03-2010 11:57AM

OutlawPete wrote: »

Yeah, but if your just a kid and other kids are posting shit on your page and all making fun of you etc.

I can see how at that age it could become overwhelming.

All kids want to be popular and at the very least not hated and laughed at.

I remember one girl at my school slit her wrists cause of bullying.

I can only imagine that with today's Social Networking sites that must be infinitely escalated.

Bullies make me sick tbh.

Funny how you never see a bully on their own also.

They always sneer and bully with company, the sure sign of cowards.

This. Wisdom.

bazmaiden · 30-03-2010 11:59AM

pickarooney wrote: »

In before Kim Wilde

I don't understand how you can be bullied by Facebook. If people are sending you messages surely you would just unfriendalise them or, you know, stop logging in all the time.

But she should be able to log in whenever she wants without being harrased, and it's not as simple as that as i'm sure there were many conversations/abuse about her for everyone to see even if she did unfriendalise them

Nine charged with irish teenagers death

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