The Conservative Cave
Current Events => General Discussion => Topic started by: Ptarmigan on August 17, 2010, 07:25:37 PM
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Was Phoebe Prince Once a Bully?
Slate
By Emily Bazelon
Updated Tuesday, Aug. 17, 2010, at 7:37 AM ET
In January, 15-year-old Phoebe Prince killed herself after being bullied at South Hadley High School in Massachusetts. Six students have been criminally charged in connection with her death; their cases go to court in September. Last month, I wrote a long article explaining why the story of Phoebe's death is more complicated than the narrative that had taken hold in the media—that Phoebe had been tortured for months by a pack of mean girls. I argued that the serious and unusual felony charges brought against the six teens represent prosecutorial overreach, given that Phoebe had mental health troubles before the bullying began, that she was caught up in conflicts that other South Hadley kids saw as "normal girl drama," and that the bullying, while wrong, was not the "relentless" three-month campaign the district attorney described.
Before Phoebe moved to South Hadley last fall, she lived with her family in Ireland. After my story was published, I heard from parents in Ireland whose kids attended seventh and eighth grade with Phoebe at a private school called Villiers. They helped me fill in the chapter of Phoebe's life that preceded her move to the United States with her mother and sister. The Irish parents talked to me because they saw a connection between the problems Phoebe had in South Hadley and ones she had at Villiers. They feel that Phoebe didn't get the help she needed from adults at that school—help that might have made a difference for her. It's a feeling Phoebe's parents have said they share.
But Phoebe played a different role at Villiers than the one she played at South Hadley High. In seventh grade in Ireland, she acted like a bully, not a victim. This doesn't change the fact that Phoebe was later bullied herself, or that this bullying was wrong. But it does add yet another layer of complexity to her story, one that speaks to the universality and fluidity of kids' bad behavior. At the wrong moment, a generally well-meaning kid can slip into treating another child badly.
Slate-Was Phoebe Prince Once a Bully? (http://www.slate.com/id/2263470/)
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Emily Bazelon is at it again. This is akin to saying Osama bin Laden got sick of perceived "Islamphobia" or Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold getting sick of being bullied and they decided to lash out violently.
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Sad to say but comes goes around comes around
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Sad to say but comes goes around comes around
She did not bully in Massachusetts. Even true, there is no excuse for what the scumbags did. Yes, karma will get those lowlives.
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Even if Phoebe was a bully, it does not excuse what the other kids did to her.
I remember my teenage years and I thought the bullies were bad then. Can you even imagine what it's like for kids today?
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Even if Phoebe was a bully, it does not excuse what the other kids did to her.
I remember my teenage years and I thought the bullies were bad then. Can you even imagine what it's like for kids today?
Hell when I was a kid, we were told, to get over it when we got bullied.
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Hell when I was a kid, we were told, to get over it when we got bullied.
What these kids did was beyond bullying. I think of bullying coming and going, not persistent like in Phoebe's case. The thugs as I will call them are more like terrorists, like those Islamists who attacked America on September 11, 2001. I don't want to offend anyone with that comparison, especially with the 9/11 anniversary looming, but they are no different from terrorists.
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Slate editor disses grandpa’s legacy
By Jessica Heslam / Media Biz
Thursday, August 19, 2010 - Added 21 hours ago
Boston Herald
A foundation dedicated to protecting the privacy of people suffering from mental illness was named after the grandfather of the Slate editor under fire for revealing the previous suicide attempt and medications taken by Phoebe Prince, the South Hadley High student who killed herself following relentless bullying.
Emily Bazelon, an attorney and editor for the online magazine, has been blasted by Prince’s family and friends for exposing the 15-year-old’s mental health history and portraying her as a self-mutilating teen who was intent on killing herself. Earlier this week, Bazelon reported that Prince was a 12-year-old bully while attending a private school in Ireland.
Bazelon’s reporting is at odds with the mission of the Washington, D.C., organization that bears the name of her late grandfather - the Judge David L. Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law, which vehemently fights to protect the rights of mentally ill children and adults.
Boston Herald-Slate editor disses grandpa’s legacy (http://www.bostonherald.com/business/media/view.bg?articleid=1275751&srvc=rss)
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Who reads Slate? Anyways, Emily Bazelon's grandfather founded an organization that protects the mentally ill.
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Hell when I was a kid, we were told, to get over it when we got bullied.
When I was growing up, I was told to fight back or suffer the consequences.
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When I was growing up, I was told to fight back or suffer the consequences.
I see bullies like Islamists, they only understand force.
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When I was growing up, I was told to fight back or suffer the consequences.
The opposite here, I was told not to fight back as it would just make matters worse for me.
Kids and allot of adults just don't know when to hold or when to fold.
Now to the question of just how responsible are kids and adults for the actions of others we interact with day to day.
These 6 bully's had their reasons for being verbally mean to the little girl. Same as an Adult boss who bully's their workers. Parents that bully their children or kids that bully their parents, men that bully woman and woman that bully their men.
A fact of life bullying to get something what one may want or need.
There are the Passive bully's that find a way to bully by with holding their love or companionship, tears and a sad story, manipulation of others. There is a good reason why people cave in when given the silent treatment--passive bullying.
So how on earth were these 6 kids to know they were bullying a very unstable class mate.?
The School it seems had no way to know this child was unstable to this point and the child's mother had not made any move to get her troubled child into counseling or therapy. The mother had not gone to social services to complain about verbal assaults on her child, nor had the child complained to a favorite teacher for help.
This suicide was a tremendous shock to family, the school, and the mother. The 6 class mates must have gone into shock as well especially when the law stepped in. The parents of the bully's I imagine are confused and bewildered at how their lives have been messed up by a child that called another child names and are said to have caused the death of that child.
I would think the 6 bully's have mental issuers of their own. We come full cycle 7 teenagers with mental problems and one comits suicide.
The worse bullying my boys ever got was in military boot camp. Some of the kids could not take it and had to come home, others found a way to excel.