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Nothing funny about Phoebe Prince bullies‬, says Bill Cosby on CNN

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Comedian and activist Bill Cosby lashed out at the bullies who tormented tragic Phoebe Prince on a special anti-bullying segment on Larry King Live last night.

Cosby also told King that he could not believe that Prince's teachers in South Hadley High School, Massachusetts had failed to address what was happening to her.

'I don't know if shocked is the word as - as much as I just did not believe,' said Cosby. 'I don't believe that you can take a job as a teacher, as a superintendent, as a principal and - and not recognize, when you're being told by parents,' he added.

King reminded Cosby that all of Prince's teacher's and administrators said they had no idea the bullying was going on.

Bill Cosby

Cosby dismissed this idea and highlighted his own successful experience in dealing with school bullies in the past.

'You see, for instance, when our daughter Erica had a problem, she reported it to us. Mrs. Cosby then went to the school. The school immediately - and Erica is maybe seven, eight years old - immediately brought the parents in of the child who was doing the bullying. And it - it worked.'

The contrast between the Cosby families' experience and Prince's could not have been more stark.

Alongside Cosby to discuss bullying in Americas school's was Doctor Marilyn Irving, a professor at Howard University School of Education and CEO of Irving and Associates Character Education Services.

King began the discussion by referring to a survey that indicated one third of American kids have bullied or been bullied. Some 100,000 children skip school every day, fearing insults and worse, King said.

Responding to the figures, Cosby said they were a wake up call. 'I think that the adults - and there are supposed to be adults who have gone to college, studied psychology or something who are around these children - or should be around these children - they should be able to recognize it when they see it, as they're walking around the hallways, as the kids are sitting in the classrooms. They should be able to recognize it and play it for real."

'I'm really asking all of them to - to wake up, because, you know, for a child to hang him or herself, to me, that's a very, very violent, violent act - a way of taking yourself out because some people are practicing hatred toward you, whether they know what they're doing or not."

'People bully because of low self-esteem and problems that stem from home,' added Doctor Irving. 'Usually children who are bullied at home tend to bully in school.'
 

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