Phoebe Prince Update: 3 More Schoolmates Plead Not Guilty to Bullying Charges

By: Carlin DeGuerin Miller
Topics: Daily Blotter

Clockwise from top left, Sharon Chanon Velazquez, Sean Mulveyhill, Kayla Narey, Ashley Longe and Austin Renaud. (Facebook)

HADLEY, Mass. (CBS/AP) Ashley Longe, Sharon Chanon Velazquez and Flannery Mullins, three teens who prosecutors say participated in an "unrelenting" three-month bullying campaign against Phoebe Prince after she briefly dated a popular boy, had not guilty pleas entered by their lawyers in Franklin-Hampshire Juvenile Court Thursday.

PICTURES: Phoebe Prince

Longe, Velazquez, and Mullins, all 16, are charged with civil rights violations and harassment.

Sean Mulveyhill, 17, and Austin Renaud, 18, and Kayla Narey, 17, three other teens charged in connection with Prince's death, had not guilty pleas entered by lawyers on Tuesday.

Mulveyhil and Renaud are charged with statutory rape and Narey is charged with civil rights violations and harassment.

All six students were ordered to stay away from the Prince family.

Price was 15-years-old when prosecutors say she was stalked and harassed almost constantly from September 2009 until she killed herself Jan. 14. Many parents and teachers at South Hadley High School are outraged that the harassment went on so long, reportedly under the noses of students and faculty.

MORE ON CRIMESIDER
April 6, 2010 - Phoebe Prince Bullying Suicide: 3 Plead Not Guilty
March 30, 2010 - Phoebe Prince Suicide: South Hadley High School Didn't Use Advice to Stop Bullies, Says Expert
March 29, 2010 - Phoebe Prince Update: Nine Teens Charged in Girl's Suicide
February 5, 2010 - Phoebe Prince "Suicide by Bullying": Teen's Death Angers Town Asking Why Bullies Roam the Halls
January 27, 2010 - 15-Year-Old Girl's Suicide May Have Been the Result of Cyberbullying

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by jessicastuart July 25, 2010 6:53 PM EDT: WOW! Sharon Chanon Velazquez and Ashley Longe had nothing on Phoebe's looks. I can see why they would be upset. A wonderfully beautiful girl moves in and the jealousy begins. Such a sad story for phoebe.
Those girls deserve prison; Reply to this comment


by Phelomena May 30, 2010 4:37 PM EDT: I thinkg bully at school or in any place should considered as crimen. Does not matter any skin color, culure, language or economical life style.In this case those kid commited a crime and they need to be punished or recieve a sentence and send them to juvenil, of course those punishement does not bring Phoebe to life but at least they recieved a lesson. Later send them to jail they will recieved a very good lesson until they feel sorrow what they did to Phoebe Princes and those bullies who remaind bulling others they will now that jail is wating for them crimes.; Reply to this comment


by monick91 May 14, 2010 1:57 PM EDT: Merrill78, I think that you are the one that is mentally imbalanced for leaving a comment like that! Those students should be held fully responsible for what they did to that girl! You obviously have no idea how teenagers function. They can be happy one minute and miserable the next. What other teenagers and their peers do and say has a huge impact on their self esteem, especially when you are new and trying so hard to fit in and be liked. Most adults could not take the kind of torture she went through! Being harrassed and tortured and spit at and things thrown at you and called every name in the book! You try and deal with that for 1 day let along the weeks she endured it and see if it doesn't take a toll on your self worth! I pray that Phoebe's family gets justice for what those horrible students did and I hope that they never ever forget what they did. They do not deserve to go on to college and have happy, normal lives. Not when they took all of that away from another human being.; Reply to this comment

by fpcbs April 14, 2010 11:12 PM EDT

After these students are sent off to jail, next up needs to be the administrators and teachers at that school. Somebody needs to post their address and phone numbers so they can be tormented 24/7. Hopefully they get hit by a garbage truck and die a slow painful death. I bet NONE of them are taking responsibility. I bet NONE of them will quit on their own free will; admit that they aren't good teachers. They know that's ALL they have. They would never get another job equal to that. In essence, they are merely challening their own downfall. We should force them to quit or die. End of story. They have no business being in that position. Weak, pathetic, losers. Just like most teachers out there. Leftist trash, want to teach because they don't have to work shoulder to shoulder with other adults; like the government job and benefits that they can't ever lose. Make them pay.

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by Merrill78 May 3, 2010 9:16 PM EDT: What exactly are they supposed to take responsibility for? The fact is that young lady made a choice to end her own life. I acknowledge that the bullying was innapropriate and the lack of diciplinary action for the behavior was negligent at best. However at some point in every person's life they have fallen victim to being bullied. Normal people who are healthy and happy with the majority of their lives do not respond by killing themselves. I consider Phoebe's sucicide a testimony to her mental imbalance. It is unjust to expect her peers to shoulder such a burdon of responsibility. Phoebe Prince was in obvious need of proffesional care. Her mental imbalance was probably the leading cause of her bullying. What is truly unfortunate is that Phoebe's family and the other adults responsible for her well being failed to recognize that child's inabilities to function on the same level as her peers. As difficult as it may be for society to accept, Phoebe although intelligent and extremely lovely was for a lack of better words unstable. In this case it is hard to deny that the bullying was her stressor, but with out her recieving therapy of some sort, I believe that at some point some other trigger would have lead to the same tragic ending. As parents we are responsible for our childrens safety from others and in Phoebe's case from herself.

by thunderridge April 13, 2010 6:13 PM EDT

These defendants do not regret their actions because of Phoebe Princes death, rather their regret is based on what is currently happening (legal action, national media coverage) to them now. My hope is that in the future by standing students will stand up for the bullied.

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by nrlive May 23, 2010 5:30 PM EDT: I agree with you, these children need to be branded such as they do with sexual offenders. This was not a typical case of kids just being mean, this was planned and thought through. They have no regrets for what they have caused, and should be treated as such!


by Phelomena May 30, 2010 4:55 PM EDT: Those kids who bullied Phonbe are criminals, nodody deserve to be bullied,nobody deserved to be a target of those kids who really are in mental desbalance.Is not Phoebe responsabilities about what happende to her, she was a student, she was nice and for sure good girl, that the problem whit those guys whom abused her.That was the only way to feel they have power, those kids were in groups as many cowards do,they gather in group to attacked a nice human being because alone they cant.Cowards! criminals!


by jjericho April 10, 2010 12:40 PM EDT: In life, many different things can affect the decisions one makes. People who bully other people often have mental emotional issues themselves, and the raging hormones of being a teenager can escalate these issues. One who feels secure about who they are has no desire or need to make someone else feel "less".
In the desire of teenagers to be accepted, they may become sexually active sooner than they are ready. This may lead to a visit to planned parenthood for a script for birth control pills. Birth control pills have been found to cause hormonal imbalance, B vitamin deficiencies, mood changes and depression.
When a teenager becomes depressed or irritable and angry, parents and educators may recommend a therapist, who recommends anti-depressants or mood stabilizers. These drugs may further destabilize a teenager, given their changing hormonal levels and go unrecognized.
There may be many factors involved that had an affect on the teenagers that were bullying this young girl and factors that had an affect on this young girls decision to kill herself that we do not know or understand.
Perhaps in dealing with this, we should look below the surface, to find the cause behind the cause, and to understand the multiple factors which lead to a young, beautiful, intelligent woman feeling that life was so unbearable she needed to end her life.; Reply to this comment


by kingkrab April 9, 2010 4:12 PM EDT: Their faces need to be seen as other criminals are seen. They are no different than other thugs who have been caught. Only now, they are crying like cowards. They taunted Pheobe Prince to the point of death knowing full well their consequences on her mental state. They should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. Pheobe Princes parents should not only sue them and their families but the individual school teachers/administrators who stood by and watched this happen. I hope they get every cent they can from these criminals though that won't replace their beautiful daughter-who by the way was far more stunning than them.
I wish Pheobe Princes parents and her sister all the best and will keep them in highest esteem.; Reply to this comment


by jnostromo April 9, 2010 8:56 AM EDT: it is not mean or unforgiving...These kids faces need to be shown to the entire country...That is proper procedure in this country when dealing with criminals...What concerns me is that they kids are free to continue terrorizing others...Don't think they wont..how do you know..don't think they won't try to intimidate any witnesses from their school?...; Reply to this comment

by Aquinnah1 April 9, 2010 8:09 AM EDT

Now it turns out that, despite the denials of school administrators, Phoebe Prince personally reported the bullying to them. She was sent back to class. www.eightfits.blogspot.com

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by jnostromo April 9, 2010 8:57 AM EDT: In addiiton her parents went to the school administrators...my guess is the families of the animals are well connected with the prinicpal..


by hippykitten April 8, 2010 11:20 PM EDT: Has the South Hadley Police Department ruled out Phoebe's death as a homicide? I am bothered by every report in the news that says Phoebe's sister found her, and by the fact that that day accounts are that she was bullied worse than ever, followed home-stalked, with a can thrown at her; according to a report about court documents released today, Shanon Velazquez, on several occasions, threatened Phoebe with bodily harm, to wit, to beat her up. This is not 'kids will be kids' taunting, these psychopathic kids crossed the line. Why would Phoebe use a gift given to her at Christmas by her beloved sister to kill herself? Why not use a 'emotionally neutral' object? Reports say Phoebe was 'found' by her sister, which leads me to wonder: was Phoebe alone for any amount of time, or were other family members home when she allegedly hung herself?? Also, she left no note. Given the circumstances, it seems she would have left a note rather than not have left one. I'm strongly bothered by this and think these kids, one or all, could have followed her home and hung her. They also were known to have suggested to Phoebe that she hang herself. It seems these girl's obvious and extremely pathological jealousy of Phoebe, and the extreme cowardly Mulveyhill would have lent itself to them crossing that one final line that they had yet to cross, but suggested to Phoebe that they would cross. I hope the South Hadley PD definitely thoroughly investigated this strong possibility.; Reply to this comment