She was described as smart, charming, and as someone who enjoyed life with an energy that only the young possess. Her name was Phoebe Prince.
In the fall of 2009, Phoebe moved from Ireland to western Massachusetts – to a new town, a new high school, a new country, and a new culture. Her parents moved to Massachusetts because they wanted Phoebe to “experience America.” However, America was unwelcoming and unkind to her.
She was 15, an age when all that matters is fitting in, wearing the right clothes and being accepted. It was the fall of her freshman year of high school and she had a brief fling with a senior football player. For this, she became the target of the “Mean Girls.”
The Mean Girls followed Phoebe at school and on the Internet, calling her a whore or even worse, an Irish slut. Phoebe faced unmerciful bullying on the social-networking sites Facebook and Twitter as well as on Craigslist and Formspring. Threatening text messages were sent to her cell phone day after day after day.
Several faculty, staff members and administrators at South Hadley High School were aware of the bullying, some even witnessed physical abuse, but did nothing.
The name-calling, the stalking, the intimidation were relentless.
On January 14th 2010, Phoebe was walking home from school and one of the Mean Girls drove by in a car, insulted her and threw a soda can at her head. Phoebe kept walking, trying to ignore the abuse, but it had become unbearable. When Phoebe arrived home, she decided to take her life and hanged herself in the stairwell leading to the second floor of her family’s apartment.
For the Mean Girls, there was no remorse. They went on Facebook and mocked her death. Her tormentors wrote “accomplished” on her Facebook wall.
Phoebe’s family decided to bury her in Ireland. They wanted an ocean between her and the people who had caused her death. Her family mourned the loss of Phoebe, the loss of an “incandescent enthusiasm of a life blossoming.”
On March 30, 2010, nine teenagers, including the Mean Girls, were indicted and charged with subjecting Phoebe to statutory rape, civil rights violations, criminal harassment, stalking, and assault. Phoebe’s suicide has raised awareness about the prevalence of bullying, especially cyberbullying, across the country. The Massachusetts legislature passed a law to introduce an anti-bullying curriculum in the state’s public schools.
Make a difference in your community by raising awareness of bullying and violence in school. Help kids who have been targeted or are potential targets of cyberbullying so as to prevent what happened to Phoebe from happening again.
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