On September 1, Phoebe Prince, who moved from Ireland to Massachusetts, walked into South Hadley High School. In the beginning of the year, Prince was pretty popular among her classmates. Prince had a boyfriend, Renaud, but they broke up in December. After they broke up, Renaud went back to his ex-girlfriend, Mullins. During this time, Mullins and her friends would bully Prince in different ways. In one situation, one of Mullins' friends, Velasquez, threatened Prince by saying that she'd "punch her in the face". In addition, they would call her names such as "whore" and "Irish slut". Even though Mullins and her friends bullied Prince, Prince didn't fight back. A witness stated, "She definitely didn't want to fight with the girls in the school. ....She wanted people to stop picking on her, to stop being bullied. She wanted people to leave her alone..." After a great amount of torture, Prince committed suicide.
Now, six of Prince's classmates are charged with felonies including violation of rights and stalking. Some of the classmates stated that they are innocent and have pleaded not guilty. Velasquez's lawyer said, "My client has been tried and convicted in the court of public opinion. I will remind you that we are dealing with a young adult, a child really, who is being swept up in circumstances that are beyond normal experiences."
This article reminded me that many students in the world are bullied daily for various reasons. Some bully individuals for their sexual orientation or for revenge. As I was researching information about this issue, I came across bullying statistics. These shocking statistics demonstrated that 1 in 4 kids is bullied and 1 in 5 kids admit to being a bully. In schools, teachers or students need to report bullying in order to prevent future student deaths.
6 comments:
It is incredible how much bullying can affect someone. Most of the time, the victim does not report it and the only way you find out that he/she was being bullied is when they commit suicide or something terrible happens to them. I agree with Yvonne, we should all be aware of potential bullies at our school and when we do know that someone is attacking others verbally or physically, we should report it immediately.
-Emily Niemann
This is a very very sad story =/. HOw could people be so dang mean... There is no reason to harrass and pick on someone so much taht they would even consider suicide. I think these kids deserve these charges. They were really the cause of this person's death.
Great article, shawt. This shows how mean bullying really is. Bullyign really hurts person and keeps that person's self esteem to a minimum. We should start an ANTI-bullying club at school to suppress those bullies.
This is such a sad post! Bullying is never a method to solve any problems. People bully or make fun of others simply because they hold grudges or are jealous of them for some very obvious reasons. But to such a degree, where they one being bullied has to commit suicide? That's a bit extreme and I am glad the law is intervening. And I hope that with their intervention, other bullies will be influenced on how not to act or what not to do to others.
I can't believe that Prince didn't tell people about it. I'm not blaming her, but she should have told someone at school or did something to try to stop it. It's sickening how far Mullins and her friends went just to bully this girl. Apparently people are unaware of how much bullying can hurt someone. Maybe if these bullies used their brains, they wouldn't be in "circumstances that are beyond normal experiences."
I think it's really good that Prince didn't fight back because it shows a lot of character about her. Bullying occurs every single day. I'm sure some other students here, hear it all day in passing and classes, yet most of us tend to just laugh it off, when we really don't know how our words are affecting someone else. It's terrible that Prince had to go through this, hopefully this story can teach others a lesson.
Post a Comment