9 Teens Charged for "Unrelenting" Bullying
Nine teens have been charged in the "unrelenting" bullying of a teenage girl from Ireland who killed herself after being raped and enduring months of torment by classmates in person and online, a prosecutor said Monday.
Northwestern District Attorney Elizabeth Scheibel said 15-year-old Phoebe Prince of South Hadley was stalked and harassed nearly constantly from September until she killed herself Jan. 14. The freshman had recently moved to western Massachusetts from Ireland.
"The investigation revealed relentless activities directed toward Phoebe to make it impossible for her to stay at school. The bullying for her was intolerable," Scheibel said.
Six teens - four girls and two boys - face charges including statutory rape, assault, violation of civil rights resulting in injury, criminal harassment, disturbance of a school assembly and stalking. Three younger girls face delinquency charges.
Scheibel said the harassment began in September. She said school officials knew about the bullying, but none will face criminal charges.
While making the transition to a new town and a new country, Prince, officials believe, became the target of intense cyber-bullying.
CBS News correspondent Whit Johnson reports Prince seemed to be well-adjusted and happy, but underneath, friends say, the 15-year-old freshman was tormented - a victim of cyber-bullying.
A friend who did not want to be identified told CBS News, "She was being bullied because she was pretty and people were just jealous." The friend said she was called an "Irish slut" and a whore.
According to a letter from Prince's high school principal, what began as "mean-spirited comments" at school soon found their way online, something experts say is far more dangerous.
Prince was found dead in her South Hadley home on Jan. 14, just days before a big school dance.
The night after she died, fellow students held a candlelight vigil.
"The actions of these students were primarily conducted on school grounds during school hours and while school was in session," the prosecutor said.
Scheibel refused to discuss the circumstances of the rape charges.
Prince's family has moved away from the area and could not immediately be located for comment. Scheibel spoke for them at a news conference to announce the charges.
"The Prince family has asked that the public refrain from vigilantism in favor of allowing the judicial system an opportunity to provide a measure of justice for Phoebe," she said.
Some students accused of participating in the bullying have been disciplined by the school and will not be returning to classes.
The Massachusetts Legislature cited Prince's death and the apparent suicide of 11-year-old Carl Walker-Hoover of Springfield last year when members passed anti-bullying legislation earlier this month.
This isn't the first time cyber-bullying has ended in death. In 2006, 13-year-old Megan Meier killed herself after being harassed on MySpace by a neighbor's mother, posing as a 16-year-old teenage boy. Several other well-publicized instances have followed.
© 2010 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report. Northwestern District Attorney Elizabeth Scheibel said 15-year-old Phoebe Prince of South Hadley was stalked and harassed nearly constantly from September until she killed herself Jan. 14. The freshman had recently moved to western Massachusetts from Ireland.
"The investigation revealed relentless activities directed toward Phoebe to make it impossible for her to stay at school. The bullying for her was intolerable," Scheibel said.
Six teens - four girls and two boys - face charges including statutory rape, assault, violation of civil rights resulting in injury, criminal harassment, disturbance of a school assembly and stalking. Three younger girls face delinquency charges.
Scheibel said the harassment began in September. She said school officials knew about the bullying, but none will face criminal charges.
While making the transition to a new town and a new country, Prince, officials believe, became the target of intense cyber-bullying.
CBS News correspondent Whit Johnson reports Prince seemed to be well-adjusted and happy, but underneath, friends say, the 15-year-old freshman was tormented - a victim of cyber-bullying.
A friend who did not want to be identified told CBS News, "She was being bullied because she was pretty and people were just jealous." The friend said she was called an "Irish slut" and a whore.
According to a letter from Prince's high school principal, what began as "mean-spirited comments" at school soon found their way online, something experts say is far more dangerous.
Prince was found dead in her South Hadley home on Jan. 14, just days before a big school dance.
The night after she died, fellow students held a candlelight vigil.
"The actions of these students were primarily conducted on school grounds during school hours and while school was in session," the prosecutor said.
Scheibel refused to discuss the circumstances of the rape charges.
Prince's family has moved away from the area and could not immediately be located for comment. Scheibel spoke for them at a news conference to announce the charges.
"The Prince family has asked that the public refrain from vigilantism in favor of allowing the judicial system an opportunity to provide a measure of justice for Phoebe," she said.
Some students accused of participating in the bullying have been disciplined by the school and will not be returning to classes.
The Massachusetts Legislature cited Prince's death and the apparent suicide of 11-year-old Carl Walker-Hoover of Springfield last year when members passed anti-bullying legislation earlier this month.
This isn't the first time cyber-bullying has ended in death. In 2006, 13-year-old Megan Meier killed herself after being harassed on MySpace by a neighbor's mother, posing as a 16-year-old teenage boy. Several other well-publicized instances have followed.
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Those 9 teens need harsh punishment so they can remember that later on in the adult world, they will know that what they did was illegal and the penalties are swift and unpleasant.
We should all wake up and see what we're doing to our children! They ARE our future and we need them capable of making the decisions that we will live by in the years to come. Everything we are or will be as a nation depends on our kids.
But what do we do? We spoil, coddle, physically, sexually and mentally abuse them (or allow it to be done). The biggest thing we probably do wrong is not hold them accountable for their actions and behavior or fail to stick with it when we make the decision to do so.
God put the extra flesh on our behinds for a reason. My back side took many a swat and the funny thing is that the one's that did the swatting were the ones I respect to this day. Why? Because they cared! They didn't abuse theire right to correct me and get my attention. They did what was necessary to ensure I had a moral compass (that worked) and grew up to be a responsible member of society.
Parents need the right to correct their children and so do our educators. All of us that can vote need to let the Judges and Politicians know that we need and want this. While we're at it saying the pledge of allegence and bowing my head for the morning devotional never hurt me a bit either!
That pledge helped many things sink in like a sense of pride in my nation and the ideal that we are a melting pot that we should embrace as every individual brings something to us as a whole. The sad part here is that beautiful young girl wasn't even given the chance to be a part of this great experiment of ours.
Think about this. She might have grown up to become a great and skilled Physician or Researcher that might have discovered the cure for a horrible disease. Let's take it one big step further. Your Grandchild was afflicted with that disease that Dr. Pheobe Prince might have discovered the cure for. But, the ones that pushed her to her limits...they'll be the drug addicts and welfare mothers you and I will be supporting all their lives because they're too lazy to even think about getting a job and throwing in with us!
If you do nothing else for your children, Please tell them how much you love them every day!
I don't doubt that her tormentors and most likely some school officials committed crimes, by why don't I ever hear about anybody being charged for this sort of thing unless the victim's committed suicide? Maybe I'm just too old, but I don't understand the "cyber-bullying" thing... Why not simply stay away from certain sites, block senders, etc?