9 charged with bullying Mass. teen who killed self

[distantearlywarning]

"NORTHAMPTON, Mass. – 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."
SNIP

"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."

Full Story Here: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100329/ap_on_re_us/us_school_bullying


Looks like Phoebe Prince might be getting some justice after all.

[Echo In Light]

1. "She said school officials knew about the bullying, but none will face criminal charges"

Of course not

[Beaverhausen]

2. I'm glad they will have to face up to what they did

[Warpy]

8. They aren't as yet

Stories tell of hateful messages left on Price's memorial page on Facebook.

Suspension won't cut it. They all need to be expelled permanently. Their parents can either give up an income and homeschool, they can study for that GED at a community college, or Mom and Dad can fork out for a homeshooling tutor.

As for that bunch running the school, they all need some training over this summer on how to recognize bullying and deal with it immediately. While the cyberbullying is out of their control, it's abundantly clear they knew what that clique of nasty little girls was up to in the classrooms and corridors and did nothing.

While it takes a great deal of courage for an underpaid teacher to stand up to the overpaid bully parent of a bully student, it can and should be done. Laws need to have adequate teeth in them to back the teachers up and let bully parents know reprisal isn't worth it.

Unless we want more dead kids through suicide and desperate school shootups, we need to start taking this stuff very seriously.

[JoeyT]

12. The teacher doesn't have to be the one to do it.

That's what administrators are there for. The people that enable this stuff shouldn't be sent to training camps. They should be sent to jail. Make some consequences for the people that are supposed to stop this sort of thing when they know about it and refuse to stop it and it will stop.

Standing up to the overpaid parent will become "Sorry lady, if I don't expel your idiot hellspawn I might go to prison if they manage to drive someone to suicide. Enjoy homeschooling."

[roguevalley]

14. put the fuckers in jail. what the hell is wrong with jail for crimes? I

think killing someone, and they did, is murder. fuck them all.

[caty]

3. I read of a student

who was suspended for giving a friend a Tylenol once because there is a "zero tolerance" for having even over the counter drugs in schools. And yet, there is no such rule for bullying a student in school. I have to wonder what makes students so mean spirited these days.

[Echo In Light]

4. A country controlled via illusion/propaganda splintering & fraying at the seams

[Forkboy]

5. "I have to wonder what makes students so mean spirited these days."

It's not these days. Bullying was rampant when I went to school 25 years ago. The only difference is that the internet and cell phones and such make harassing people a 24 hour thing now, where before it was pretty much confined to school time and school grounds.

[JBoy]

10. Internet and texting adds a layer of anonymity, making it easier rationalize

that what you're doing isn't wrong.

[RKP5637]

7. When I look around at what this county has become I do wonder why they are not

more mean. Violence and outrageousness have become a cornerstone of American life today, and few accept responsibility.

[benEzra]

13. That's because sharing Tylenol is evil, and physical and psychological assault aren't.

At least in the tiny brick-walled minds of some idiot school administrators.

The ironic thing is, if a victim stops submitting to the bullies and fights back, the administration seems much more likely to get involved---often on the side of the bullies.

[meegbear]

6. This has been local news for me and this is the first time I heard about 'rape' ...

OMG!

[patrice]

9. I would like to know the names of their churches. Why do we tolerate such incompetence

amongst those who claim their moral authority justifys 0 taxes?

[RKP5637]

11. Excellent question, those that claim moral authority and 0 taxes. It is a sham,

criminal, but so many in the US give unlimited authority to those professing to be ever so holier than thou and self righteous under the cloak of religion, many IMO being nothing short of cults.

[Initech]

15. Excellent, throw the fucking book at 'em.