Nine charged with irish teenagers death

Melion

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

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

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

dasdenny wrote: »

Does the same apply for school/work?

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

prinz

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

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

Fuhrer

Melion wrote: »

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

What do they deserve?

OutlawPete

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

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

Fuhrer wrote: »

What do they deserve?

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

dasdenny

Fuhrer wrote: »

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

Fight Sarcasm with Sarcasm

seamus

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

Scumbags i hope they go to Jail for this.

Fuhrer

Melion wrote: »

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

So,


Charged with murder in the first degree?

cafecolour

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

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

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

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

OutlawPete

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

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

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

What a bunch of cnuts

cafecolour

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Kiera

seamus wrote: »

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

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

O’Brien is thinking about going to that meeting and suggesting that they have the kids who bullied Phoebe look at the autopsy photos.

“Let them see what a kid who hung herself looks like,’’ he said.

I dont think they'd care tbh. Cant believe they're still in school and nothing has been done about it. Truly heartbreaking.

podgemonster

CNN said this,

Though initial news reports blamed Prince's suicide on cyberbullying, Scheibel said the students' actions were "primarily conducted on school grounds during school hours and while school was in session." She said any use of electronic social networks was secondary to "commonly understood bullying methods."

The girl was harassed in the library, in the halls, on the way home and in her home via facebook.
Its seem pretty clear that she did have a relationship with another student 6 weeks earlier and that was enough for this group of animals to turn on her.

And it is true that they continued to mock and ridicule her after her death, no remorse, no guilt. This is awful.

Id like to think that this school is an exception but we all know that it is not!

Sentences for and criminal records for the accused is what i'd like to see! Maybe cancel their Prom, that always seems to be the highlight of their sad existance.

prinz

bazmaiden wrote: »

But she should be able to log in whenever she wants without being harrased...

Yes she should, but that's not the point. My OH should be able to feel safe walking alone at nights in parts of Dublin. She doesn't. We all should be able to do a lot of things, but we can't. So we take precautions.

This is a horrible story, but everyone who takes it as given in the US should remember that bullying is happening day and day out in this country, between kids and adults.

Gummy Panda

I usually find these bullies in hunt in packs and are weak & pathetic on their own.

They feed their egos with someone else's suffer until they pick on the wrong person.

Kiera

Gummy Panda wrote: »

I usually find these bullies in hunt in packs and are weak & pathetic on their own.

They feed their egos with someone else's suffer until they pick on the wrong person.

The second you stand up to idiots like this they back down. They're nothing without their little pack.

BaZmO*

Kev37 wrote: »

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.

Is that assumption based on watching Carrie too many times?

I'd say it's more likely that the guy(s) had sex with her because they could. And the fact that she was under age makes it statutory rape.


Ironically enough the same social networking site that they used to bully her has posted pictures of some of the people involved.

Jaxxy

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.

This is a prime example of the horrors of the mob mentality. Once they have the numbers they feel safer, and obviously now completely devoid of guilt. They will soon realise that not only have they ruined and subsequently caused this girl to end her life, but their lives are due to take a severe downhill slide. I'm thankful that some of the names have been released, and I hope that this goes on all of their permanent records.

There is something very wrong with those children. It's despicable and now I find myself fearing for my little cousin who is due to start middle school in FL next year.

Kiera

BaZmO* wrote: »

Is that assumption based on watching Carrie too many times?

I'd say it's more likely that the guy(s) had sex with her because they could. And the fact that she was under age makes it statutory rape.


Ironically enough the same social networking site that they used to bully her has posted pictures of some of the people involved.

I have no clue about FB, is it modded? As in, is there an option to report comments/emails?

IvyTheTerrible

Kiera wrote: »

I have no clue about FB, is it modded? As in, is there an option to report comments/emails?

Yeah you can report comments and emails, I don't know how quick they are to act on reports though.

mikom

pickarooney wrote: »

I don't understand how you can be bullied by Facebook. .

Ahhhh...... Johnny has set you a happyslap via Farmville.
Do you wish to accept it.

SlabMurphy

Kiera wrote: »

The second you stand up to idiots like this they back down. They're nothing without their little pack.

Easier said than that. Whatever for girls/women, for lads the bullies tend to be older/larger. If a bloke risks it by standing up to one and physically comes off second best, life is made much, much worse for him.

Another thing about this happening in America, I'm sure a young American can be on the receiving end of nasty comments when they come over here. Mel Gibson spoke of this when his family moved to Australia from America as a teenager and how he faced a terrible time about been a " yank " unitl he lost his accent.

m5ex9oqjawdg2i

Poor girl, RIP...

Scum of the earth done this, may they have a terrible terrible life for what they have done.

chuky_r_law

looks like someone is in denial

http://www.bostonherald.com/news/regional/view.bg?articleid=1243311&format=comments#CommentsArea

'strong values' me arse

ejmaztec

Here's the nice school's website. The school's working mission obviously isn't working too well.

http://shschools.com/shhs/shhs.htm

Our Working Mission:

"We pledge to create a challenging and supportive academic community in which each student will acquire the knowledge and skills needed to successfully pursue post-secondary options of their choice and act as a responsible citizen in a diverse and global society."

Bonito

Kiera wrote: »

The second you stand up to idiots like this they back down. They're nothing without their little pack.

QFT. They may bully you when you're younger but when you wise up as you get older and have a proper look at them you realise they're nothing but snivelling little fúcks protected in their little group. Catching them on their own they wont even raise their head to you. It always comes to the day where they will mess with the wrong person and have their arses handed back to them while they run home licking their wounds and crying to their mammy.

ejmaztec

chuky_r_law wrote: »

looks like someone is in denial

http://www.bostonherald.com/news/regional/view.bg?articleid=1243311&format=comments#CommentsArea

'strong values' me arse

There aren't many parents who would admit that their "angel" of a child is an obnoxious, shallow and retarded fuckwit.

I knew a guy years ago in the UK, who was driven home on a regular basis in the back of a police car, but he was never guilty of anything according to his mother. On one occasion, he was caught behind the wheel of a car that he and his pals nicked, and even then his mother said it was the other lads' fault, and that they had forced him to drive it. The guy was an out and out little sh1t.

LittleBook

Statement from Northwestern DA

"Contrary to previously published reports, Phoebe’s harassment was common knowledge to most of the South Hadley High School student body. The investigation has revealed that certain faculty, staff and administrators of the high school also were alerted to the harassment of Phoebe Prince before her death. Prior to Phoebe’s death, her mother spoke with at least two school staff members about the harassment Phoebe had reported to her."

For crying out loud, what's the point in teaching kids to report bullying if the "grown-ups" can't/won't deal with it!

L.Jenkins

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.

How about real life, it's not so easy to avoid!!!

Fuhrer wrote: »

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

:mad: As a teenager in a horrible ****ty situation, how is this possible when you attend the same school and there always in your face.

Bonito wrote: »

QFT. They may bully you when you're younger but when you wise up as you get older and have a proper look at them you realise they're nothing but snivelling little fúcks protected in their little group. Catching them on their own they wont even raise their head to you. It always comes to the day where they will mess with the wrong person and have their arses handed back to them while they run home licking their wounds and crying to their mammy.

Freaks like that will never say shit outside the protection of there little social group and will make sure to look over there shoulder because they know the consequences. Any person who bullied me as a teen, I gladly kick the shit out of them outside a hospital of there choice!

mojesius

Bonito wrote: »

QFT. They may bully you when you're younger but when you wise up as you get older and have a proper look at them you realise they're nothing but snivelling little fúcks protected in their little group. Catching them on their own they wont even raise their head to you. It always comes to the day where they will mess with the wrong person and have their arses handed back to them while they run home licking their wounds and crying to their mammy.

I agree but it's very difficult to see the light at the end of the tunnel if you're being bombarded with this crap day in day out. I'm thankful that social network sites weren't around in my day, some of girls in my school were right little b*tches (still are when I have the misfortune of running into them). We had a student-run 'anti-bullying committee' but the reality is that most bullying went completely unreported.

This poor girl had the added pressure of fitting into a new culture, a new school. Yes, the kids involved deserved to be punished but across the board, there needs to be major changes to stop this from happening - a strict zero tolerance policy, an open culture of communication within schools, a mentoring scheme with older pupils/ teachers, immediate expulsion. And of course, parents need to be very vigliant not to confuse visible behavioral changes, such as depression with adolescent growing pains. This is not purely an issue bred within American society. It is rampant in Ireland too.

L.Jenkins

If I were a parent of a child subjected to this sort of carry on which could potentially lead to suicide, I would go fucking balubass!!!! If the situation wouldn't drive me to kill, then I'd bankrupt myself using every legal process to make them all suffer!