The Untouchable Mean Girls
I despise bullies.
Like a lot of kids her age, Phoebe Prince was a swan, always beautiful and sometimes awkward.
Last fall, she moved from Ireland into western Massachusetts, a new town, a new high school, a new country, a new culture. She was 15, when all that matters is being liked and wearing the right clothes and just fitting in.
She was a freshman and she had a brief fling with a senior, a football player, and for this she became the target of the Mean Girls, who decided then and there that Phoebe didn’t know her place and that Phoebe would pay.
Kids can be mean, but the Mean Girls took it to another level, according to students and parents. They followed Phoebe around, calling her a slut. When they wanted to be more specific, they called her an Irish slut.
The name-calling, the stalking, the intimidation was relentless.
Ten days ago, Phoebe was walking home from school when one of the Mean Girls drove by in a car. An insult and an energy drink can came flying out the car window in Phoebe’s direction.
Phoebe kept walking, past the abuse, past the can, past the white picket fence, into her house. Then she walked into a closet and hanged herself. Her 12-year-old sister found her.
You would think this would give the bullies who hounded Phoebe some pause. Instead, they went on Facebook and mocked her in death.
They told State Police detectives they did nothing wrong, had nothing to do with Phoebe killing herself.
And then they went right back to school and started badmouthing Phoebe.
They had a dance, a cotillion, at the Log Cabin in Holyoke two days after Phoebe’s sister found her in the closet, and some who were there say one of the Mean Girls bragged about how she played dumb with the detectives who questioned her.
Last week, one of the Springfield TV stations sent a crew to South Hadley High to talk to the kids.
One girl was interviewed on camera, and she said what was common knowledge: that bullies were stalking the corridors of South Hadley High.
As soon as the TV crew was out of sight, one of the Mean Girls came up and slammed the girl who had been interviewed against a locker and punched her in the head.
The Mean Girls are pretty, and popular, and play sports.
So far, they appear to be untouchable, too.
January 27th, 2010 at 5:23 pm
What a bunch of fucking ******. I hope they rot in hell for this. I know if one of those girls was my daughter I would be going to jail for manslaughter on a minor.
January 27th, 2010 at 9:23 pm
Oh the stories I could tell having 3 daughters! End game was when one of my girls was in the hospital, one of the mean girls showed up as one of her nurses, her first week on the job. We asked her to leave and asked she not have anything to do with my daughters care, or have access to her records. Mean girl got moved to another floor transporting patients.
Sage Reply:
January 28th, 2010 at 12:09 am
I am of the belief that the only way to deal with bullies is to stand up to them. I’m not a violent person but I don’t put up with bullying.
January 28th, 2010 at 7:26 am
will the can thrower be able to live with herself? Will it even face her? (Yes. Standing up to bullies usually shuts them down).
skyagunsta Reply:
January 28th, 2010 at 7:33 am
@skyagunsta, the application won’t let me edit the comment … but i meant to say, “will the can thrower be able to live with herself?Will it even FAZE her [that the 12 year old hung herself as a result of all the bullying insults?) amd Yes. I do belive that standing up to bullies usually shuts their bullying down.
AliSilver Reply:
January 28th, 2010 at 9:25 am
@skyagunsta, I just gotta think that she hung herself for more than the bullying. It’s probably more like the bullying was the final straw. Could a perfectly happy, emotionally stable , thriving young person with a good and supportive family be driven to suicide by bullying alone? I guess that is the question. I don’t know the answer.
Sage Reply:
January 28th, 2010 at 2:13 pm
Sorry about the lack of edit capabilities, but the plugin that allowed it was gunking up the works.
January 28th, 2010 at 9:23 am
I have a sorta cool story. My son was sort of bullied when he was in grade school. Not a lot I don’t think . I think he was picked on but not necessarily a target of a group o f bullies. Just boys and their nonsense. Never did it get rough, etc. He just felt like an outsider. Well, now he is in 10th grade, HUGELY popular, especially with the ladies and 6′2” and 235 lbs, lean and broad. His teachers and friends all love him. Now he is the defender of the little guy. I LOVE IT. He would never bully because of his past and he knows how it feels. There is a particularly slight kid who was on the football team with him last year. This kid got picked on a lot. He’s about 5 foot and 100 pounds and my son protected him ONCE and that was the last it ever happened. As soonas the bully boy knew the little guy had a GIANT in his corner, his bullying days were over. I was super proud of him. He’s had about 3 incidents in school where I got called because he got into a fight over the last 3 or so years. Each time the principal said my son DID not start it and was stepping up to help a smaller kid who was essentially being victimized. My son did get into trouble becaue school policy says ‘anyone fighting, whether or not they start it’. I told the principal my son will ALWAYS step up for the little guy and its BullS*** that he should get detention for it and the school shoudl be the ones STEPPING IN to help the little guy. Principal agreed with me. But still he got punished with detention, but we didn’t care . I did make sure the record SHOWED the cause of the fighting, so that if ever it needed to be referred to it would show he didn’t go around starting fights for fun.
With the girl above ….
I wonder if her parents knew how much torment she was getting at school or if she was too embarassed to tell them?
January 28th, 2010 at 12:17 pm
Dang, Ali… big kid for 10th grade! Is he going to be in the next NFL draft?
January 29th, 2010 at 5:29 pm
Hey Red,,, He was injured at the beginning of the last 2 football seasons and got very little time in to practice or play. So I am not sure if he’s going to play next year. It’s a big school and the lost time will cost him dearly in a school with 3 varsity teams. Actually yesterday we went for his learner’s permit and he is officially 6′3” now
We live in a very rural area, well WAS rural,but growing all the time. There are 9 small towns that all use one high school, so the elementary schools are small and the high school is big .
February 2nd, 2010 at 12:11 pm
A field hockey teammate of two of the alleged bullies/harassers/stalkers was quoted in a gazettenet article:
“I have trouble focusing on school work with all the media attention,” said Emily. “As a student dealing with this every single day, all we want is for the bullies to be held accountable for what they did.”
Boo hoo, Emily.
As for the can thrower, that is a person who should be charged with assault with a deadly weapon and propulsion of missiles from a moving vehicle. What are the police doing down in South Hadley?