100 South Hadley parents demand action on bullying after Phoebe Prince suicide

Group wants strong measure to be taken to avoid similar tragedies

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An expert in bullying, Barbara Coloroso, was brought into South Hadley to speak to the students following Prince’s death.

Coloroso, who also advised students at Columbine High School after two boys who were bullied shot 13 others in 1999, told the Boston Globe that the students of South Hadley “wanted to know what could have been done to prevent Phoebe’s death. It appeared to them that nothing was being done.”

Coloroso also visited the school in September 2009 and said South Hadley High has not implemented the measures she suggested then.

“They said they had a warning and suspension policy in place,” she said. “But it was nebulous. And the policy didn’t include cyber bullying.’’

She added, “There’s got to be a procedure in place to determine how they handle the bully, how they protect the target, and what they are going to do with any bystander who may have contributed to this mess and protect them if they are a witness. They don’t have that yet.”

Last week two students were suspended from South Hadley in connection with their role in an assault days after Phoebe’s death. It is believed these are the same students who taunted Phoebe at school and in cyberspace through websites like Facebook and through text messages on her cell phone. Their punishment has not been disclosed.

State Representative John Scibak, a South Hadley Democrat and former selectman, is seeking answers from Sayer.

“You have a community looking for answers, and they should get them,” Scibak said.

“It’s reasonable for parents to ask what they’re doing and what they intend to do to address this particular incident.”

A spokesperson for the Northwestern district attorney’s office investigating the role of bullying in Phoebe’s suicide told the Irish Voice on Tuesday that the case is still open and an investigation is still continuing.

An anti-bullying legislation bill, which was already in the works since a hearing before the Joint Committee on Education last November, is to be released into the Massachusetts House and Senate later this month. The bill plans to crack down on cyber bullies.

Phoebe, who was born in Bedford, England but moved to Co. Clare when she was two, spent most of her life there.

Last summer Phoebe relocated to South Hadley with her mother, Anne O’Brien-Prince, and sisters Lauren, Tessa and Bridget and brother Simon, so she could, according to her family, “experience America and be near her family in Massachusetts.”

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