South Hadley High School - Bullying Incident

Bullying Incident

South Hadley High School came to the attention of the national and international news media as the result of the suicide of freshman student Phoebe Prince on January 14, 2010. A recent immigrant from Ireland, Phoebe had been taunted and bullied for several months by at least two separate groups of students at the school reportedly because of disputes with other girls over her brief relationships with a senior high school football player and a second male student. After an entire day of harassment and taunting, followed by a final incident where a student threw a can at her from a passing car as she walked home from school, Phoebe committed suicide by hanging herself in the stairwell of the family apartment. Her body was discovered by her 12-year-old sister. Following her death, many crude comments about her were posted on her Facebook memorial page, most of which were removed. Her parents chose to have Phoebe buried in Ireland.

A meeting held at the school to discuss the problem of bullying at the school brought parents who stated that bullying of their children had been completely ignored by the school administration. Massachusetts state lawmakers have sped up efforts to pass anti-bullying legislation as a result of this incident.

On March 29, 2010, Northwestern District Attorney Elizabeth Scheibel announced that six teenagers from South Hadley High School had been indicted on felony charges in connection with the death of Phoebe Prince. Four of the six indicted teenagers were reportedly still attending South Hadley High School at the time of the indictments.

The case of Phoebe Prince has ignited a firestorm of controversy over the perceived lack of responsibility and oversight from South Hadley school officials, in particular Principal Daniel Smith, Superintendent Gus Sayer, and School Committee Chairman Edward Boiselle. Comments from parents of students at the school have revealed both past and ongoing failures of oversight by school administrators and staff. The case has spotlighted the need to raise awareness among school administrators of the potential for bullying in an era of increasing permissiveness.