Immigrant Teen Taunted by Cybebullies Hangs Herself

Source: ABC

Even in death, Phoebe Prince was bullied. On a memorial page dedicated to the Massachusetts teen who had recently committed suicide, Facebook members left taunting comments that had to be removed.

The 15-year-old -- a recent immigrant from Ireland with a pretty face and a soft brogue -- was found dead in her South Hadley home Jan. 14, according to police.

Afterward, her fellow students came forward to tell school officials that Prince had been teased incessantly, taunted by text messages and harassed on social networking sites like Facebook.

"It's heart-wrenching," said South Hadley Police Chief David LaBrie. "She had only moved here last summer."



Read more: http://abcnews.go.com/Health/cyber-bullying-factor-suicide-teenage-irish-immigrant/story?id=9660938

Although at 15, the empathy sections of their brains should be more developed. Makes me think that things like text messaging and facebook may not be good things.

what ABC doesn't say is that the "perps" are apparently from the Boston Globe story a bunch of privileged princesses that have no remorse and in fact went and bragged about their acomplishment on FaceBook after this girl killed herself and have as of yet to face any kind of reprcussion and have also bragged about that

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=7567610&mesg_id=7567610

which gives far more detail than ABC it seems that the town not to mention the school is far more concerned with protecting the perps and hushing this up than they are about the victim, the perps have also bragged about being less than honest with the police and in one case punched another kid for admitting that there was a bullying problem
I am glad this has made national news

I remember in a PTA meeting a teacher from Mexico was teaching spanish at the elementary school, some parents were just ignoring her thinking she was not capable of teaching spanish but never bother asking for her credentials, she had a phd in linguistics, then the kids were saying that their spanish teacher was dumb because she had a wear accent. Mimicking the parents behavior.

Michelle Malkins.

based on your own flawed perception of reality. feels great :)

Fraternity and Sorority Members and Alcohol and Other Drug Use

http://www.higheredcenter.org/services/publications/fraternity-and-sorority-members-and-alcohol-and-other-drug-use

But wait when we say gangs we are talking about minorities, right?

"But wait when we say gangs we are talking..." I think when people refer to gangs, we are for the most part referring to criminal organizations or affiliations rather than a group of three or more people who share a common trait of human construction.

Unless of course you refer to the Gangster Disciples or the Latin Kings as Sororities for the sake of consistency within your position.

:shrug:

Seen em in action, pal. Button-down goons, making sure pledges were as degenerate as they were.

Indicative or aberration? I imagine we can all come up with anecdotal evidence to better support our own positions...

So that it can't be completely isolated. Where I was, TKE was the thuggiest. PKE made pledges furnish their own paddles, but they did'nt do some of the other degenerate crap.

yes, gangs are fraternities. you win.

and yes, most "gang members" are minorties. aside from the mafia, the kkk, and the hells angels, i am unaware of any majority-white gangs.

"The 1998 National Youth Gang Survey (2000) revealed a considerable increase in Hispanic gangs: by the late 1990s, 46 percent of gangs were predominantly Hispanic, 34 percent were African American, 12 percent were white, and 6 percent were Asian."

http://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/ojjdp/183109.pdf

See, this is not speculation or opinion or stereotyping. This is called "citing data."

and if they become members of such organization it won't clean their conscience.

If they did, they would not have engaged in this behavior.




Tansy Gold, who is far too old to have recent experience with sororities but when she did it was not pleasant

i am of course talking about you posting as if frat and sorority members are some sort of victims.

i dislike it when people make blanket statements about entire groups of people. while stereotypes often contain some element of truth, it is unfair to label someone just because they belong to a certain race, gender, or in this case, organization.

do you think its right to paint everyone with the same broad brush?

bullies were on their way to becoming like those 3 people.

these bullies are apparently destined to become fraternity & sorority members

they already have the "weak deserve to suffer and die" mentality

Some people who are assholes as teenagers grow out of it. But if this girl's death didn't shock them out of their attitudes, they'll never mature. If they'd shown real remorse, mercy would be an option.

But as it is, it'll send a good message -- "If you bully someone so badly that they kill themselves, YOU WILL DIE TOO."

She was the sweetest kid, but was gullible as hell and thought everyone was her friend. It almost killed her when she found out that the clique of princesses from the "cool kids" were backstabbing her and lying about her to her friends. They couldn't stand that she was so popular and all the guys liked her--in a let's go play basketball kind of way. The other girls were so insecure and jealous that they did shit like invite all of her friends to parties but not her. They'd stand around in groups and whisper about her and walk away when she approached them to say hi.

Kids can be relentlessly cruel. Especially when their parents ignore the behavior or support the bullies.

of anything that doesn't look like them or bows down to them as if they're royalty.

I was bullied and taunted because of my disability (I was the first deaf child in my state to attend mainstream school). The kids were openly encouraged by their parents, who hated the fact that a deaf child was in public school, to bully me (My mum actually witnessed one telling her son to hit me). I had to seek therapy in my 20s because my past caught up with me and I felt like I had a black cloud hanging over me (I lost nearly 60 lbs, never ate, by the time I finished my first year of uni ended I weighed 90lbs).

I'm better now and I feel that there should have been measures in place to prevent it. People have no idea how badly bullying can affect children in the long term. One of my friends, who was severely bullied in school (was shot at with a BB gun and has BBs embedded in his body), now has severe depression and usually keeps to himself now. When I do talk to him in person, it doesn't seem like he's all there.

I think it's mainly with the societal pressures children go through plus the way the parents raise them.

wishes for your friend too.

I think some people do know how hurtful bullying can be. I don't think everyone knows what to do about it, though.

When I was young, the conventional wisdom was "Don't give them the satisfaction of reacting. That is what they are after and will only encourage them If you simply ignore them, and they'll soon stop."

It simply was not true.

the local story in the link up thread has more detail...

This didn't have to happen. Her parents should have intervened, she should have turned off the computer.... Those who bullied her will never forget this, I hope.

unfortunately I doubt bullies regret their bullying. I too was a victim of bullying growing up...but I survived just fine.

I don't know what happened to the kids who tortured me, but I have kids now who endure(d) bullying and have watched some of the worst offenders grow up to be... sort of normal kids. I do believe that some of those who are cruel as youngsters don't understand the horror of what they're doing, but eventually they will. Not all of them, of course. Some people are natural born dangerous assholes.

...and another vulnerable young girl killed herself, I remember all the message boards alive with the question: "Where were the parents? Where were the parents?" When I read the details of that particular case, it turned out the parents had spent years trying to help their daughter, through counseling and other means.

I really can't stomach it when people respond to a tragic news story with the invocation of a movie (Heathers, in this case) or any and all variations on the Monday morning quarterback position. Her family and friends must feel horrible right now, and unfortunately scenes like this are repeated throughout the world. I don't know that it helps anybody now to say, "Where were the parents?"

Nor am I blaming the parents but as a parent I wonder how helpful they were or were not.

So sorry to turn your stomach!

This is so sad, and as an elementary school teacher, I have to say that this is an issue (bullying) that I work on in our classroom, and in our school. We do have an anti-bullying program here, and things have improved, but it does still happen. We are constantly evaluating our program and making changes where they are needed. We have family nights too, where families and community members are invited in and the topic is bullying. We have age-appropriate books and articles for the children, as well as activities to take part in (like role playing). We have morning meetings, and there have been many times where the topic is bullying (we don't single anyone out - we focus on the problem when we're in a group setting). We follow through and keep communication open with families. I personally leave my cell phone (and school phone) for parents to contact me if they have a concern or a question, whether it's bullying or any other issue. In 21 years, I have never had a problem (Prior to cell phones, I gave my home phone). I try to do everything I can to stop this cruel abuse that happens so often in our schools. Thankfully, I have a relatively small classroom, so I can deal with most problems immediately and individually, as needed. In a larger classroom, I am pretty sure some kids would fall through the cracks, and that would break my heart.

Too many "educators" are enablers - still trying to toady up to the "popular kids" (tres' sad), or blinded by "spirit" and jockstrap fumes.
Keep up the good fight - we need more like you.

All I can do is try my best. I hope something is done for this girl's family and for the students of this school, and for this community.

Sure there were cliques, but only cliques clashed with cliques. Never did a group team up against an individual - I guess my highschool was just educated too well or parents raised us all right for that kind of BS to take place.

The internet isn't the cause of this trend - it's all part of a bigger cultural shift.

you see it everywhere in the media.

by my abusers that I never divulged it to my parents. The way my teenaged brain reasoned it: any "retribution" I sought, would be visited tenfold on me by the bullies once the adults' backs were turned.

I hope you have been able to heal considerably.

I live a normal, happy life. I have unpleasant memories, to be sure, but I am not often haunted by them, as some bullying victims are. I feel fortunate in that regard.

Having said that, I cannot say that I have truly forgiven my abusers. I would feel very uncomfortable, or even frightened to be around them again, even if they were to say they were sorry.
It never ceases to amaze me how things that happen to us in our youth can have such a profound impact. I'm talking about events that happened over 20 years ago.

Thanks again.

:hug:

..at school, in the locker room, at the park. Constant "cyber-bullying" would most likely involve a computer in the home, along with publically accessible websites (Myspace, facebook, etc)

:cry: