Business & Legalese

I seldom blame “only” the bullies, since the parenting factor has to enter into consideration when your kid is unattended, however, the Phoebe Prince case in Massachusetts makes me reconsider my personal generalization of the matter.

Phoebe Prince was just the victim of the new version of the cruel kids.  A freshman from Ireland, that had a crush on a kid from the school, and dated him, only to be subjected to attacks and humiliation from that kid and his friends.  What makes this case worse? School officials had knowledge of the attacks against the girl, and did absolutely nothing.

The abhorrent indifference demonstrated by school officials and the bullies’ parents in this case makes me wonder who was in charge of raising these kids.  The only answer I can come up with is: Nobody.

Kids have been cruel forever.  There is always the classification of cool, geek, loser, and other nasty wording not relevant to this post, but the fact of the matter is, that these situations served as a starting point for the discipline of the bullies.  Punishments, suspensions, expulsions, no TV for a month.  I’m wondering what is happening to parenting nowadays.  I’m not yet a parent, however, I was a kid and I remember situations like the ones described in this school from South Hadley, Massachusetts.  School officials need to address why they did nothing prior to the death of Phoebe.  They have to come forward and say what actions, if any, they took to prevent this after Phoebe’s mother went to school and spoke with the Principal and teachers about what was happening to her daughter.  Phoebe’s mother was proactive, what’s the story with the school system?

There is the mother of one of the girls that was indicted for civil rights violations resulting in bodily injury, stalking, among other things, just saying that girls were being girls, and that her daughter was never physically violent against Phoebe Prince.  She went as far as saying that Phoebe was the one that verbally abused her daughter.  It is very easy to speak ill of the dead, however I understand her anger and disappointment in this matter.  But where was she when the school did nothing to discipline her daughter?  Where was she when Phoebe allegedly verbally abused her daughter?  Did her daughter came forward at the school because Phoebe verbally abused her? (Please read this story published in the Boston Herald.com, titled: Suspect’s mother: ‘My daughter never fought with Phoebe Prince’)  In fact, in that article, the mother of one of the indicted girls, who because she is a minor and will be tried as a youthful offender I will reserve her identity, even though the article does not, manifested that her daughter admitted that, when Phoebe Prince was walking towards her home the afternoon of January 14th, 2010, she pointed her finger towards Phoebe.  Apparently that was interpreted by Phoebe as intimidating, given the fact that she got home and got inside of her room and hung herself.

Furthermore, there are two boys here charged with statutory rape.  I don’t know the amount of evidence that there is available to prove this matter, but I’m guessing that someone spoke against them.  And my worry is that Phoebe Prince was just 15 years old.  She was just trying to fit in, and her classmates made it a real living hell.  That deserves more explanation than “boys will be boys”.

I feel as Jodee Blanco does with regards to this case.  Jodee Blanco is an activist against school bullying having being a victim herself.  She wrote:

“While I mourn this young girl’s loss with my whole heart, none of us can do anything for Phoebe now. But it’s not too late to save the next one and the hundreds after that and then the thousands after that. That’s something we can do. And make no mistake. What happened at Phoebe’s school is not rare. It is far more common than you may realize.”

The rest of her column can be read in CNN.com’s “I know the terror Phoebe felt”

This case can be distinguished from cyberbullying.  With cyberbullying, the victim’s parents are also to blame, since the access to the Internet can and must be regulated by the parents, while educating the minor on the uses, advantages, and disadvantages of the world wide web.  Eternal vigilance must be had for these kids.

But the bullies in this case were crude, cruel, and soulless.  Instead of a warm welcome, they gave Phoebe a cold and heartless slap on her face, that resulted in the end with the loss of what might have been a great human being.  A productive life, laid down to rest in Ireland because some kids decided that it would be fun just to make fun of her, or that it was fun to humiliate her.  This has to stop.

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Charles

Twitter:  @charlesgustave              @Business_Legal