Phoebe Prince was Harassed to Death for Dating Her Tormentors' Boyfriends

• I hope those bitches that bullied Pheobe to death rot in hell! They aren't paying here on Earth but God will see to it. R.I.P Phoebe; you're an angel in heaven now.

• That poor, poor girl. I feel so sad for her. Thoses bullises need to be punished so they feel the same sense of terror that Pheobe felt.

• I think that Amarica should of imputted the anticyberbulling law sooner and that school need to take a harder punishment to the kids caught or reported bullying. If this happened sooner maybe we whouldn't of lost such a young life!

• they didnt deny it, they are just hiding it!!!! hiding the truth that they knew about this fuckin campaign!!! hiding the truth that they are just shielding their students from an immigrant student who does not come from america. is this what they mean??????!!!!! are the american students really that merciless???? fuck me man!!!!!

• (accuse my language) those fucking girls were just fucking jealous... the bullies are the whores for taking their cheating boyfriends back.

• i get bullied in school...i just ignore it its stupid that people bully

• This just show's what the world's coming to. There are some people out there who are horrible, mean, nast, spitefull little cunts. And I wont rest until they're all locked up in prison. I'm not having people commit suicide because of these little motherfuckers. I'm sorry for my language but I DONT think it's acceptable considering what these jerks have done. Driving her mental and physically teasing her was one thing, but causing her THAT much pain that she'd go ahead and kill herself. Those people must be inconsiderate little twats. No doubt about it.

• Ruth, are you going to be ok? I'm hearing you! You said that the only white person that cared about you was your mother. Yes your mother loved you and your baby, i'm sure very much. I'm white and I care. Are you in need of help? don't do anything that would jeopardize your baby. Please.

• I also feel like taking cyanide due to harassment, bulling and stalking and interference and plain cruelty in my life. the only white person who loved me was my mother. now she is dead a cash lump sum more than a third of 700000 is not honored to me. i get humiliated with tears in my eyes only expired foods are given to me and my baby and we are treated like hobos! no food is given to my baby where i live so that i get rid of him for somebody else to take him as if i am just a fucking incubator!

• I hope you found eternal happiness and peace of mind whereever you are. I will pray for you dear Phoebe.

• the dirty little pricks wat the fuck were dey at ...dey shud of fucked off and left her be...dey shud rott in prison dirty bitches and pricks

• Why didn't she just stop going to school, or seek help from adults? Sad to think none of those boyfriends tried to protect her.

• South Hadley High, google it you can see pics of them then (:

• Was Phoebe Prince Once a Bully? Artical here http://www.slate.com/id/2263470 Phoebe played a different role at the school called Villers called she went to in Ireland than the one she played at South Hadley High. In seventh grade in Ireland, she acted like a bully, not a victim. This doesn't change the fact that Phoebe was later bullied herself, or that this bullying was wrong. But it does add yet another layer of complexity to her story, one that speaks to the universality and fluidity of kids' bad behavior. At the wrong moment, a generally well-meaning kid can slip into treating another child badly. The mother of one of Phoebe's classmates shares the sentiment that Villiers did not do enough to help Phoebe. Her story goes back to Phoebe's seventh-grade year, when her daughter, Gwen, was first a friend of Phoebe's and then a target of bullying by a group that included Phoebe. Gwen and her mother said, Phoebe was part of a group of former friends who turned on Gwen, ostracizing and bullying her over the course of a painful spring. The other Villiers mother I spoke to about Phoebe's departure from the school corroborated their account. Phoebe and Gwen were friends during their first semester of school together. Over a school holiday, Gwen's mother took both girls on a hiking holiday. But in the spring, the relationship between Phoebe and Gwen soured. They clashed over a boy; Gwen went out with him briefly, she says, and Phoebe got angry. About four other girls joined in and made Gwen miserable between about March 2008 and the end of school in June. "I'd come to school and they'd all be there, making up horrid songs about me, going around singing them to everyone. It just never stopped," Gwen remembers. "They all kind of like followed each other. One time, we were in English class and we had to write an essay. Phoebe wrote about a girl and called her a slut who stole her boyfriend. She said in front of the whole class that it was me. I hadn't even kissed a boy yet." Printouts Gwen's mother sent to me show nasty messages mocking her daughter on the Bebo site. The messages are between Heather and an account called "Sex On The Beach <Queen-Phoebe-Prince>," which has a picture of Phoebe. The posts that upset Gwen and her mother are an example of exactly that. One post from Sex On The Beach reads haha GUESS WHAT [GWEN] PAKITHINGY BLOCKED ME ON BEBO!!!!!!!!!!!!! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!! HOW FUNI IS DAT!!! The Bebo pages also include the following exchange: Sex On The Beach: and our uniform is sxual just not on [insulting play on Gwen's real name]!!! hahaha bt I rather she wear it to cover up da flab lyk oooooooooooh I hate her !! Heather: haha ewww—why are we talking about her on my bebo that's ick!!!!!!! gawd ye wud all hate her all de lads dat commented on dis!!!! Sex On The Beach: ew ew ew ew yah you wud hate her the paki whore!!!!!!!!! "I'm split. I think they get a freedom on the Internet that being so young they sometimes abuse." Still, Phoebe's use of "paki whore" (Gwen's father is from Pakistan) is striking because it's essentially the same insult that would be hurled at her by some of the six South Hadley teenagers indicted in connection with her death—they called Phoebe an "Irish whore." For those kids, the slur is a basis for the criminal charge that they violated Phoebe's civil rights—a charge with a maximum 10-year prison sentence. Rather than making accusations, Gwen's mother was upset by the exchange on Bebo, but it didn't change her belief that Phoebe was a good kid. "I don't think Phoebe was racist," she says. "She was a really lovely girl who made the same mistakes a lot of kids do. It's that mob mentality—they do something horrid to another girl because they can." Jeremy Prince says, "One thing Phoebe would never be accused of is being racist." The combination of Phoebe's treatment of Gwen and her problems in South Hadley appear to put her in a group of kids who are both bullies and victims. According to a 2005 study from the Netherlands, about half of bullies actually fall into this category. "The findings suggest that bully/victims demonstrate high levels of both aggression and depression," the authors write. Sameer Hinduja and Justin Patchin, directors of the Cyberbullying Research Center and authors of Bullying Beyond the Schoolyard, report similar findings from their 2007 survey of cyberbullying among about 2,000 middle schoolers. Again, about half the kids who self-identified as bullies said they were also victims. To Alan E. Kazdin, a Yale professor of psychology and child psychiatry, Phoebe's involvement on both sides of the bully/victim divide is an example of "the complexity of human behavior. Some bullies are picked on and some victims are not only victims." Kazdin says bully/victims may display both aggression and anxiety or withdrawal. Most kids with disorders, or just problems, tend to exhibit either one or the other type of behavior. But there's a third group who exhibit both. "They have anxiety but they're also lashing out," Kazdin says. For Gwen's mother, the grief is mixed with a sense of missed opportunity. "I utterly empathize with Phoebe's parents," she says. "My whole reason for saying what I've said is not to come down on Phoebe. The point is that Phoebe needed support, and the people who were there at Villiers to give it to her didn't do that.

• death should be given to those who bullied phoebe.. i wonder what their parents feel right now that their child is actually a murderer? THAT IS AWFUL! to those parents who bullied PHOEBE PRINCE! i think you should go somewhere else where nobody knows you. you dont even know how to discipline your own son/daughter. is that how america is? A HELL?

• Just looking at the pictures of this little darlings makes me want to smack them upside their heads!! Especially, mamacita Angeles Chanon (Sharon Chanon Velasquez' mummy) who says, "Girls call names." Yep, your sweet baby girl got suspended for using profanity. If I used that kind of language, I would have a bar of soap shoved in my mouth. Act your age, woman, not your shoe size!! Act like a real parent would act, not your daughter's bad big sister.

• &#64; Daisy.... he was charged with DWI, minor under the influence and open container in car. And his bail was $4000 not $40. All of the South Hadley 9 have been invisable for the past few months. a few of the families have moved. And those who haven't, have made sure the kids are not spotted. Phobe's family moved to a different town upon their return from Ireland (burying Phobe) and i understand from a friend of a friend of theirs, that they are attempting to change their last names now. They dont like the publicity and want to be left alone. Every now and then, a news hound will get to them. But the family repeats the same thing, no comment. Every now and then, something will be in the news but nothing shocking. This family is still greiving. As far as the SH9, well.... court starts in Sept so we shall see what comes of these charges. The DA is gun ho, but I feel she may have gone a bit overboard with some of the charges. And a lot of people around here feels the same way. Some of the charges are just not going to fly and will most likely get thrown out. I will try and keep everyone up to date as things are in the news up here.

• Seanna: A lot of really unattractive kids suffer too. Quiet kids. Kids with learning disabilities. Maybe they even suffer the most because, at the end of the day, they don't have humor, intelligence, and/or beauty to comfort them. I've seen teachers participating in bullying students, so I don't know what to tell you except that empathy is an emotion that must be cultivated and nurtured. Just try to be a good person, and think about how your actions affect others. Good luck!

• Why do all the smart, funny and beautiful gorgous ones get hurt the most? Schools need to take damn actions against this kind of behavior! Phoebe told the school that she was harassed by the girls and the school did nothing about it. Schools need to take the damn responsisability (sorry i cant spell very well :( for their students. I believe, as a student myself, that schools dont want to get invovled because then they will get in trouble with the higher people. But Im not really sure about a lot of things.

• You know the problem has gotten way out of hand. I graduated in "87", and the teachers were aloud to discipline the kids. Ofcourse that was also a time when if you had a gun in the rack everyone knew you were taking care of the cattle on the ranch. That was in Wy. My son graduated in "07" in NM, and times definetly changed. He would defend himself from certain gangs and he would get in trouble too. It got so bad I went to the school supervisor, and things started to change. This stuff is getting way out of hand.

• It is truly sad what happened to Phoebe. I cannot begin to imagine what her family is going through now. I can only hope the U.S. courts will dole out some decent justice. Here in Canada, if Phoebe's tormentors had done the things they're accused of doing, they would never be charged - or if they were, they would get a 'conditional' sentence (meaning no jail time). So the school administration denies it knew there was a problem. In other words, they looked the other way. All too often, this is the case with bullying. Most teachers/principals don't want to intervene for a variety of reasons - they don't know how; they refuse to admit there is a problem in their school; or worst of all, the bullies happen to be the popular kids (athletes/cheerleaders) who bring great prestige to the school and the school administration values that over another student's life. SHAME on that school principal & the teachers who looked the other way! I went through relentless harassment from a bully myself between Grade 4 & Grade 8, and all the time - the teachers looked the other way or blamed me for it. And we know now that the old 'ignore the bully' advice is USELESS; it simply emboldens the bully. Here's hoping for some justice for Phoebe & her family. God Bless.

• I recently read somewhere that one of the boys was cited for dui, taken to jail and posted a $40 bail. I have never heard of such a low amount for bail..(cannot remember exact charges)It almost seems as if the police were "giving him a break" on that incident.

• Correction: Okay, they did not cause great destruction and kill and injure many people, like 9/11.

• Kay, you nailed it right on. Jealousy mixed with insecurity and revenge is asking for trouble. Those so-called bullies, more like thugs, had all that. Many evil figures are/were insecure, whether it is Nero, Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, Osama bin Laden, Charles Manson, Ted Bundy, or Lori Drew. Sean Mulveyhill, Kayla Narey, and company are not all that different from evil figures in history. Okay, they did not great cause destruction and kill and injure many people like 9/11. These thugs remind me of Lori Drew and Gertrude Baniszewski because they are psychopathic, insecure, jealous, vindictive, and paranoid.

• This is so heartbreaking. What a beautiful girl who had a whole life ahead of her, now dead. It's beyond heartbreaking.

• I agree with Kay. Phoebe's blood is on the hands of this collective bunch of vile monsters. RIP Phoebe. G-d Bless & Keep You.

• "School officials are still denying they knew of the campaign against Phoebe." Here they can say they were unaware of the campaign, but knew about incidents or some shit. Let the ass-covering begin.

• The whole situation boils down to a very simple, yet dangerously caustic human characteristic...jelousy. Fueled with insecurity and vengence it can become fatal and it was. All inflicted by a group of self serving,weak minded unattractive kids who fed their own egos with the obvious suffering of another human being who they most likely secretly admired and envied. The girls could not stand the fact that she was prettier than they were..and that she caught the eyes of their exes. They were tossed aside, whether it was a sincere relationship or not, for the new, pretty freshman from Ireland. Even "Ireland" sounds pretty and they were probably jelous of that as well. Phoebe didn't stand a chance with these snakes from day one. All because of who she was and where she came from. She seemed extraordinary compared to their ordinary. Her looks were above average while theirs were average at best. She was probably sweet and charming with an accent while they lacked anything nice. They preyed on others and were emotional vampires. They simply could not stand the fact that this girl stood out without trying and possessed qualities they could only wish for. They wanted what she had but it wasn't for sale at the mall. Since they couldn't have it, they wanted to destroy it. Mission accomplished. One thing they probably didn't think of was how they are going to handle it if, when they have kids, they may get treated like they treated Phoebe. Huh? It's inevitable they will all get what they gave and reap what they sowed...in ways they will probably not even understand or relate their actions to. I guess no one ever schooled these punks on the Universal Laws of Life that one cannot escape from. Hmmm..too bad. Maybe they would have thought twice if only they had known. What a shame they felt the need to continue to insult her after she died and wallow in their achievements for all of the world to see. Not a smart move. Facing a judge in the courts of law here on earth will be the easy part... As for the school officials, you too will stand trial in one way or another. You call yourself educators, teachers? In what? How to look stupid while looking the other way? How to act like you can hear when you're deaf? Or maybe you can show others the Art and aftermath of not giving a shit? Wipe all you want but the blood will never come off your hands you idiots! Too bad none of you had the time or balls to do something about what you KNEW was happening to Phoebe. You make me sick to my stomach. There is absolutely NO EXCUSE for your selective ignorance. I pity you poor fools...you are worse than the bullies. The only thing that gives me some type of comfort is knowing you are on the east coast and I'm on the west and there is all that land between us. You are scum.

• Phoebe's story is on the cover of this week's PEOPLE magazine (a little late in my eyes, but better late than never I guess) and I about cried again when I read the article. They have pictures of the people who are being charged, except for flannery mullins, austin renaud's on-off girlfriend. All I can say is I can see why they were jealous of Phoebe. Compared to these "girls", she was absolutely gorgeous. The picture they have of sharon chanon velazquez looks like she is a very smug, spoiled brat. Kayla narey is the only other girl who I would say is somewhat pretty. Just looking at sharon's picture makes me want to slap the crap out of her! That smug look is getting to me so bad I can barely read the article! And of course, their all "good kids". Yea cause good kids would do something like they did. Its just disgusting. I hope they get charged and I really hope others can learn from this. Bullying is just gettin ridiculous and out of hand. Maybe if there were harsher punishments in school and out of school, kids would learn. I'm tired of hearing about all these poor kids. Its time we start sticking up for the ones who are bullyied instead of making excuses for the bully's. How many time do we hear "oh, they are a good kid, they would never do something like that" or "they have had a tough life" or anyother lame ass excuse. But yet, if someone "tattles" they are the crybaby or weak or in some cases I have even heard the bullyied deserve what they get. I'm tired of it! I don't know what I will do to stop it, but I will help in anyway I can! Even if its just teaching my daughter not to bully and sticking up for those that are bullyied, I will help. RIP Phoebe. My prays go out to you and your family and friends. Its sad to say, but hopefully out of the lose and grieve, maybe something could be learned from this.

• What you need to understand is that this is not a case of "jealous" mean girls after the pretty girl. The boyfriends were likely part of the scam against this girl. It isnt hard to dramatize a break up and then have the "interested guy" show interest in the girl who has been basically cornered and isolated, and who will do anything to end her misery. So the guy takes advantage and then goes back to his original girl whom he hasnt really left. Then he relays private information to everyone and they use it against this girl as a group, in subtle and obvious ways. It is what some call "organized stalking" and this Country hasnt yet figured out how deep and vicious it is. It might help you to understand why this girl would take her life and end all the "blame the victim" nonsense, not many can take this kind of "psychological assault" and the key is "relentless", it doesnt end until the goal is accomplished and suicide is one of those goals, which is why they allegedly posted on her account "Mission Accomplished". Dont be too sure that all those people who said they were "friends" really were, either. This is the work of sociopaths in my opinion and they play it as a game. I know, hard to believe this happens isn't it? The sooner people clue in to this, the sooner it can be addressed as a society, but it has to be recognized for what it is.

• Moongrim said: You know, if I as an adult harassed a kid young enough to be in school...the constabulary would be one me in microseconds. And rightly so. But if it's a fellow student doing it- no problem. This I agree with you on this.

• Emland said: My nephew was harrassed and bullied in school and his mother complained constantly and she is an educator in the same school system! Nothing ever happened to the bullies and he became the "crybaby" of the school. Parental intervention seemed to make it worse. The administration simply does not want to admit that the behavior is happening. My nephew is now in the US Army and doing well but my sister was concerned her daughter (now in middle school) would encounter the same problem. Her solution was to enroll herself and my neice into a martial arts program (TKD). The program develops discipline and self esteem, and in the worst case my neice will be able to knock the shit out of some mean-girl that desperately needs it. She has a wicked roundhouse. I'm seriously considering this for my daughter, too. She is only in 3rd grade but gets picked on because she is a bit geeky (she has mild Asperger's). After the reports of the girl getting raped in the school restroom and suicides from bullying, I'm really getting concerned on my child surviving school. What is the answer to school bullying? I wish I had the exact answer for you. I'm still finding the answer after being bullied from the time I was seven years old until high school and it was always for some little minor thing that could have been resolved right away but the bullies always made minor things the biggest deal. All I was told was somebody will take care of the problem but either it was never taken care of and if it was either it got worse a few weeks later or it made the bullies angry. I was told to stand up for myself and not overreact to things. Even now I was harassed for a few months on yelp before I finally closed the account. I made my complaints especially to the Better Business Bureau and nobody did anything. My parents wanted me to take Karate when I was in third grade but the thing was I didn't want to, but maybe if I had maybe things would have been different. I really won't know that for sure. And the thing is it has to take fights, suspensions and suicide for anybody to do anything about the situation but why does it have to get really bad before anything is done? I wrote on another message board and the thing is that schools take action on little things but when it comes to bullying they just look the other way or they just sit there until there is a fight. And you wonder about the parents. Parents know about the bullying but they are powerless to stop it. And the thing is the victims are always the ones that have to go to counseling while the bullies are never expected to go to counseling. Then psychologists wonder why people like the victims get so depressed. This is why?

• This is a war for happiness.. the people who are choosing to be cruel in nature..to get what they want are abusing those those just want to be happy. obviously the happy people are loosing their lives..because they dont mean harm to anyone yet .. all humans cause harm at one point or another. this has been increasing for the last 20 years.. and it will only get worse.. so i propose a solution.. take care of your friends and family.. however they seem to be if they are not against you they will fight with you.

• Talk about jealousy run amok. Jealousy is very self consuming and dangerous. I don't like calling them bullies, but thugs and terrorists. People who make excuses for bullies are no better than the bullies. They are enablers and part of the problem.

• :(

• We need to clarify some terms for this case to be better understood by the public. The so called bullying crossed the line into harassment. The DA charged them with harassment, bodily injury, and stalking. The biggie is violation of civil rights. This is not bullying. As more details become public it is obvious that it was all sexual in nature and was sexual harassment. Girls can sexually harass another female. The young men are accused of statutory rape and with the age difference of the accused and victim suggests predatory tendencies. This is much more serious than the press and many people realize.

• loving the comments in here, and the thoughts behind them. why didn't the mean girls get mean with their boyfriends who were whoring around? while i'm asking, why would they want the guys back and then blame, phoebe? not only are they mean, they're stupid too. and, i call b.s. on the school personell. do they honestly expect the public/courts to believe that these "popular" kids were carrying on like this and they didn't know about it? c'mon, this was "the soap opera" at their particular school. this was a girl from outside their little microscopic world. this was life ended way to soon.

• One other thing that makes me sick to my stomach that I had read in another report on was that on her facebook page after she committed suicide some of the tormentors actually had the nerve to post "Accomplished." I hope to god these bullies get what's coming to them. Because of a little bit of jealousy, a life was lost. So sad and she will be missed, God Bless to the family.

• You know, if I as an adult harassed a kid young enough to be in school...the constabulary would be one me in microseconds. And rightly so. But if it's a fellow student doing it- no problem.

• Can anyone imagine a blog in a major state newspaper with the title, "Bullying is Bad But is it a Crime?" This is in one of Georgia's largest newpapers. IMHO,it is this kind of thing that causes people to find excuses for certain types of unacceptable behavior from our students and others.

• My nephew was harrassed and bullied in school and his mother complained constantly and she is an educator in the same school system! Nothing ever happened to the bullies and he became the "crybaby" of the school. Parental intervention seemed to make it worse. The administration simply does not want to admit that the behavior is happening. My nephew is now in the US Army and doing well but my sister was concerned her daughter (now in middle school) would encounter the same problem. Her solution was to enroll herself and my neice into a martial arts program (TKD). The program develops discipline and self esteem, and in the worst case my neice will be able to knock the shit out of some mean-girl that desperately needs it. She has a wicked roundhouse. I'm seriously considering this for my daughter, too. She is only in 3rd grade but gets picked on because she is a bit geeky (she has mild Asperger's). After the reports of the girl getting raped in the school restroom and suicides from bullying, I'm really getting concerned on my child surviving school. What is the answer to school bullying?

• Andrew, so many people respond to these types of situations by pointing to what the parents should be doing and the truth is that these parents lack the skills themselves. If the parents had these skills there kids would also have them before they ever set foot in a school. As far as coming down on "bullying" the truth is there is no one size fits all answer and more often than not it is the parents of the "good kids" who tie the hands of the school by being the first ones in line to criticize how the school handles things when the approach does not match their (personal) picture of how things should take place. A picture that is often made up of incomplete information that leaves a lot of blanks, blanks that then are filled in by their own perspectives. People need to empower schools to take the information that they have and fallow up on it as they see fit. Trust me, even when the media does its little investigative work and makes there incomplete facts known to the public there is always information and facts that never reach the main public. First empower the decision makers and trust that the years of experience they have in working with all kids not just your "good" ones and "bad" ones will pay off. You may just be surprised.

• They really need to come down on "bullying" in school. I know this has always been an issue, but really... kids can be so heartless. Parent's need to step up and teach their kids to behave and especially show some manners. What are we, Neanderthals?

• If MooMoo is going where I think he's going with the pictures, I wanna see em too.

• I am sad to think that this little girl thought that was her only option.

• So true that IS what they always say.

• "School officials are still denying they knew of the campaign against Phoebe." That's what they always say.

• I want to see the pictures of the school officials.

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