Shock claim that Phoebe Prince was a bully in Ireland

Did her school in Ireland fail to pick up on telltale warning signs?

Larger Text

Print

E-mail

8 Comments

Phoebe Prince

Tweet

New reports from Ireland reveal that Phoebe Prince was a bully in Ireland just months before she took her own life after relentless bullying from students in South Hadley High School, Massachusetts.

In January Phoebe Prince committed suicide after months of cruel bullying at the hands of six South Hadley High School students. The accused are now standing trial and Phoebe's medical records have been requested as evidence. It emerged that Phoebe had previously taken medication for depression and was suspected to have also attempted suicide.

It has now emerged that Phoebe was one in a group of five girls who bullied a fellow student in Ireland between about March 2008 and June 2008. This is according to interviews carried out by Emily Bazelon, of Slate magazine.

Bazelon was contacted by the victim and her parent after a previous article she wrote claimed that that there was more to the case of Phoebe Prince.

The Irish victim told Bazelon, "I'd come to school and they'd all be there, making up horrid songs about me, going around singing them to everyone. It just never stopped. They all kind of like followed each other."

"Phoebe and Heather [not her real name] made up most of the stuff, laughing about it, making jokes. One time, we were in English class and we had to write an essay. Phoebe wrote about a girl and called her a slut who stole her boyfriend. She said in front of the whole class that it was me. I hadn't even kissed a boy yet," said the victim.

The victim's mother provided Bazelon with printouts from the social networking website Bebo, which showed the mocking comments left on her daughter's page. One from Prince called the victim a "paki whore" in reference to the fact that the victim's father is from a Middle Eastern country.

According to the parents of the children, with who Phoebe spent seventh and eighth grade, Phoebe did not receive the help that she needed while in school in Ireland. They believe that had she been helped while in Ireland it might have made a difference to what happened in South Hadley at the beginning of this year.

Print

E-mail

Tweet