Phoebe Prince school union says media is real villain

Posted on Tuesday, April 13, 2010 at 11:22 AM

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A friend of the Phoebe Prince family has slammed school officials for trying to make themselves media martyrs.

“The kids have had the book thrown at them,” Darby O’Brien says. "What about the people in charge of the school?”

Good point, Darby.

Why are South Hadley school officials still more focused on defending themselves?

Pheobe Prince was just 15 when she took her own life on Jan. 14. Is anything more important than that?

Apparently not for the teachers' union which is still focused on defending itself.

Bill O’Neil, head of the South Hadley Education Association and a teacher at the high school penned a letter to Boston media saying many teachers were “shocked” to learn of the extent of the teen’s alleged abuse.

“Some in the media have painted a picture of South Hadley High School as a school out of control - a place where everyone knew of the bullying and no one did anything about it,” Bill O’Neil, wrote. “That image is just plain wrong.”

O'Neil says it's all the media's fault. He blames the media’s “nasty tone” for the war of words which broke out over the bullying and counter-threats to the accused bullies.

Oh give us a break Bill.

There would be no story here if Phoebe Prince hadn't been bullied to death.

As Darby O'Brien says, there has been an alarming lack of urgency in the school's response to Phoebe's tragic death.

Why hasn't the school committee held emergency meetings over the D.A.'s findings that teh bullying was common knowledge?

“Why hasn’t anyone done that," stormed O'Brien. Are they clueless?”

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joelle148 | Apr 27, 2010, 02:43 PM EDT

Blaming the media won't help these adults failed at protecting a student in THEIR structure..I hope they will pay for that, a beautiful child is dead

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ABBYGIRL | Apr 16, 2010, 05:14 PM EDT

The spotlight is now on the school and the bullies. Before this, they blamed Phoebe for the suicide and justified, minimized, trivilized, and denied accountability for their malicious, cowardly, cruel and heartless behaviors. My thoughts on this...the bullies sought attention through various ways, slander, cursing Phoebe publicly, harassing her publicly...now they have ALL the attention they could ever want.

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ABBYGIRL | Apr 16, 2010, 05:09 PM EDT

Pheobe Prince was just 15 when she took her own life on Jan. 14. Is anything more important than that? No , nothing is, a precious life is gone.

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rpmschevy | Apr 14, 2010, 03:33 PM EDT

Monsoonman you have that right. And the Unions in Detroit, MI helped destroy that city. From a shining example to a place where only 1 in 4 children graduate High School.

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Searlit | Apr 14, 2010, 11:23 AM EDT

I think the media is doing a great service to the public. Cases where children die when they could have been saved, if someone with authority who had knowledge of behaviors that crosssed the line between child's play and criminal violations had taken action to stop it. Let's worry about protecting children rather than school officials pensions.

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redbeard1776 | Apr 14, 2010, 09:11 AM EDT

I agree. The school has an obligation to make it a safe place to learn for everyone. I would think over the past decade we would have learned the our lesson on the dangers of bullying.

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mollymguire | Apr 14, 2010, 09:07 AM EDT

Its alway the media! Even the Pope has jumped on the "blame the media" bandwagon! Thank GOD we have a media that can expose school personnel who IGNORE AGRESSIVE AND BULLYING BEHAVIOR and I hope the JUDICIAL SYSTEM holds them accountable. I just bet those fat-cats with their fat-cat retiremnet packages are scratching with worry that they might lose them for neglect of duty. I feel quite sure the reporters who are holding their feet to the fire don't have nearly the same cush program to enjoy.

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McNabb1966 | Apr 14, 2010, 02:51 AM EDT

Me thinks they doth protest too much. It's still CYA time for the teachers and administration at South Hadley who stood by and let it happen. The real reason they're pointing fingers at the media is because if not for the media shining a light on all this Phoebe's torment would have been swept under the rug.

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Monsoonman | Apr 13, 2010, 11:42 AM EDT

Outlaw teachers unions. Their main goals are to amass political power through their PACS, promote & protect incompetency and wipe out competition and choice....and that is jst in the political arena. Do you ever recall a time when their interests were for the true betterment and education of our children? Didn't think so.

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