<p>^^well stated. maybe one of the changes we need to make is to stop calling it bullying. instead label the behaviors what they would be called in the real world, harassment, stalking, assault.</p>
<p>UNREAL, JUST UNREAL:</p>
<p>[School</a> big casts doubt on findings of probe - BostonHerald.com](<a href=“http://www.bostonherald.com/news/regional/view.bg?articleid=1243564]School”>http://www.bostonherald.com/news/regional/view.bg?articleid=1243564)</p>
<p>yes it is unreal… teen dating conflicts? not flagged as bullying? what is a teen dating conflict</p>
<p>the superintendent went on vacation?</p>
<p>Yes, parents should call it harrassment, stalking and assualt and the police should be called. Schools used to allow all manner of behavior, not to mention the fact that saying people will have to put up with this in life is equally as ridiculous as it once was for people to say nothing could be done about parent’s physically beating thier children, or teachers beating thier children, for that matter. Once things are criminalized, it is amazing how people are able to “control” uncontrollable behaviors. No?</p>
<p>But parents ought not to wait for schools to deal with it. They should go to the police. Police investigations do a remarkably good job of changing administrative policy…if nothing else, the school board understands the ground work for a lawsuit is being laid.</p>
<p>It sounds like no one took this bullying seriously, not even after the poor girl’s death. The superintendent went on vacation because he didn’t know the DA would prosecute or issue a statement? What about sticking around to deal with it himself? If a student kills herself because of persecution by other students, isn’t that a huge red flag, a PRIORITY for a superintendent??</p>
<p>more likely that’s why he went on vacation, to buy time to spin a response</p>
<p>^^^you’re probably right. I guess that’s more important than getting to the root of the problem.</p>
<p>when you are in a position of leadership as the superintendent is, even a vacation should not stop you from providing said leadership and a response. he won’t even make a phonecall or provide an alternate to offer a statement. imho, this means he is stalling…very sad state…</p>
<p>I’m sure the lawyers have told him not to talk to anyone at this point. They’re not on very good civil grounds, especially since there IS prosecution vis-a-vis the kids involved. Jonri probably knows more than I do about this, but I’d assume he’s been told not to speak to anyone about this. fwiw.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>First of all, the abuse heaped on this girl goes way beyond your regular garden variety high school bullying.</p>
<p>Second, there are all kinds of behaviors exhibited as children grow up which are “natural” yet nevertheless must be corrected. Lots of toddlers hit or bite-they must be taught that this is unacceptable. They won’t learn that unless the adults in their lives teach them this. Just because bullying is “natural” (and this is debatable) doesn’t mean that the administration must therefore look the other way. I know of no adult environment in which harassment, stalking, and physical abuse is tolerated, so I find it inconceivable that you state that teens should somehow learn to deal with this behavior in high school as preparation for more of the same in their adult lives.</p>
<p>This young lady didn’t succumb to “stress.” She endured a months-long campaign of terror and even physical abuse and learned first hand that the adults charged with seeing to her well being did absolutely nothing to help her.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>It sounds heartless because what the girl endured was far beyond “stress”. Some people would have reacted by blowing their tormentors’ heads off. I can’t say I’d have shed any tears for them if she had. Too bad she turned her terror inward instead. Now we are stuck dealing with the scum who live on. This case gives me Charles Bronson “Death Wish” fantasies like no other.</p>
<p>^^agreed. and her parents who reported the concerns to the administration were apparently not responded to. the helplessness and hopelessness which this 15 yr old girl must have felt upon seeing the lack of response and protection had to be intolerable.</p>
<p>I haven’t looked at his or her previous posts, but I highly doubt that zala1022 is a parent. Or really understands anything about what bullying can do to to children.</p>
<p>I’ve been reading more about the details that led up to Phoebe Prince’s death- ( which I had been shying away from- because it could have been me, in a different town) & I think the superintendent should resign.</p>
<p>What these kids did to her was horrific. But other kids had been assaulted and harassed as well. The adults in charge are culpable, because there seems to be a climate of " kids will be kids" and if you are attractive you can’t possibly be * bad*.</p>
<p>HIgh school students already have their own values & interests, but they depend on adults to help them strengthen the ones that will contribute to a working society and well formed individual & drag into the light those that will ultimately weaken both the community and the self, if allowed to hide away and grow.</p>
<p>It was a perfect storm of shameful behavior.
Young women who were pretty , popular and who were so fearful of losing it all, that they took their fear and turned it into rage, which was augmented when the boyfriends of two of the girls preyed upon the " new girl". I have seen this happen before, young men, who take advantage of their charm and looks, to gain favors from a much younger girl who doesn’t realize what they are doing. Later, they decide they want to regain their status with the " golden girls" as part of the schools power couple hierarchy, and it is only too easy to blame it on the girl whose sweet nature they abused.</p>
<p>If it is true, which I doubt- that the adults in charge knew nothing of the harassment and abuse that was being dealt than that is even more reason for them to be dismissed. They are in charge of the schools and the students in those schools, if they are not aware of student behavior- have not taken steps to prevent and deal with violence in word and deed in those schools- preemptively- and have not been monitoring the atmosphere- then they are incompetent and not capable of their positions.</p>
<p>I have not read all of the posts so forgive me if I am repeating some points.</p>
<ol>
<li> As a parent I would be suing the system. Sorry, but every school has a ZERO tolerance program these days in their school programs. Our friend’s DS got ISS because he was being bullied and hauled off by clocking the Bully. The Bully’s parent came in and demanded that this child get OSS. It became a huge issue at the school. In the end, the parent of the Bully’s defense was well BOYS WILL BE BOYS, HE NEVER HURT HIM.</li>
</ol>
<p>Unfortunately, there are many people who believe that the adage STICKS AND STONES is true. They have never been on the side of how WORDS do hurt as much as a STICK.</p>
<p>ZERO TOLERANCE should include Bullying. </p>
<ol>
<li> Educators should understand that even if they have the protection of a Union, we as taxpayers should have the right to override the UNION. We pay their salary, not the Union.</li>
</ol>
<p>Public education gets a bad rap, and mainly it is because of educators like this.</p>
<ol>
<li> I worked in the educational field for 5 yrs. I left out of frustration. Parents who say NOT MY CHILD! and administrators who say WHAT CAN WE DO? </li>
</ol>
<p>By leaving the Principal and administrators in place they are doing more harm. Teachers will not step up because they know there is no support from them.</p>
<p>It may sound odd, but teachers also live in fear of these Bullies too! Their hands are tied by the parents and the administration, yet many leave the school with keys in hand out of fear. Teachers in dangerous areas are well aware that they too are targets…slashed tires, keying the car is not rare.</p>
<ol>
<li> I hope that the parents of these Bullies get sued for wrongful death since the children were posting on Facebook and texting hurtful things that led to this. Parents need to be parents. I would be hiring an attorney right now to prove that this is not a 1 time thing, but a history and that the parents should have realized that their ignorance assisted in the problem. They may have not shot the bullet, but they knew that their child had the gun. YES, I KNOW IT WAS SUICIDE…that is my analogy.</li>
</ol>
<p>BTW the school’s defense that they only knew 1 week prior, is BS to me, because if they only knew 1 week, it could have still been stopped. They should have had ALL of the parents pulled in for a conference. There is no proof that they ever took any action!</p>
<p>With the no tolerance for near-anything in schools, I am shocked that bullying has been tolerated (or not dealt with).</p>
<p>Had the students been carrying a plastic knife in their lunchboxes or a tylenol to deal with monthly cramps, or worn the wrong attire to school dances, the hammer would have come down, no doubt.</p>
<p>The Superintendent tell us that the DA is wrong. Apparently the in-school investigation found a different fact pattern than the DA did:</p>
<p>[Phoebe</a> Prince bullying – Schools head defends response to bullying - The Boston Globe](<a href=“http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2010/04/01/schools_head_defends_response_to_bullying/]Phoebe”>http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2010/04/01/schools_head_defends_response_to_bullying/)</p>
<p>BP is right on the money about bullying. The widespread toleration of bullying unconscionable. We had one kid switch schools in large part due to bullying not being addressed by the adults at school #1 . . the incidents were always forwarded to the Principal for the inevitable extended discussions and “managification.” At school #2 the adults - teachers and other staff - stopped bullying directly whever they saw it. Big difference.</p>
<p>Kei</p>
<p>Isn’t that the truth.
I was in South Hadley yesterday with my family and we happened to drive past the high school. Looked like a normal high school, of course. So, so very sad to think of the evil within.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Well, apparently they knew because the parents had informed them and at least one incident was witnessed. But let’s say the parents had not informed them, etc. – then I would be far less likely to judge them. I don’t know about the northwest states, but in my state, there is just not enough adult supervision to catch everything that happens in a schoolyard. One of my kids attended the best public school in our city where there was very little bullying. At recess there were a few aides (read college students) covering a huge playground and 650 kids. No one caught the bullying my kid was enduring, even when a kid punched my kid in the throat. As soon as I brought it to someone’s attention, it was dealt with and dealt with well, but I never blamed the aides – I knew the kids were behaving badly when they were far from their gaze. Expecting adults to see everything happening on their watch is not realistic. Most parents who have just two or three kids of their own to supervise often miss a lot of what is happening right under their noses. Kids aren’t going to do something bad when an adult is right there usually. At our local high school, there is way too much going on and way too little adult supervision. It becomes a triage situation and a lot is missed. You’d have to have an adult for every few kids to make sure everything was getting caught. Kids have to be trained (and their parents) to speak to a person in authority when there is a problem. Expecting authorities to catch everything is like expecting the police to be able to catch every crime while it’s happening.</p>
<p>With the no tolerance for near-anything in schools, I am shocked that bullying has been tolerated (or not dealt with).</p>
<p>Kids are suspended for giving a friend Midol, even one local elementary boy was suspended when after an overnight it was discovered he had a 5" plastic squirt gun in his backpack.</p>
<p>Parents need to share information about behavior just as they do about drug/alcohol/sexual activity awareness. When someone talks about " Jared- the kid nobody likes", I wonder if the parents ignore signs, and instead sigh with relief that their kid is not one of the ostracized ones.</p>
<p>Just last night I was watching an older episode of * Bones* , one of my favorite shows, and at the end, the Seeley Booth character- who was one of " those boys" in high school, football star- good looking etc, finally disclosed an embarrassing high school story to his partner. When another of this his friends picked on a boy " that nobody liked", and even held him over a balcony while he cried & Booth didn’t intervene- he laughed.</p>
<p>Harassment still goes on in many workplaces-but if we can become more sensitive to behavior and treatment of others, we can change where we look the other way.</p>
<p>School and work ( and home) , should be safe places to be- think of how our productivity would go up if we eliminated hazing & harassment.</p>
<p>Even our school district- which is much larger than in MA., with larger schools ( and with a fairly bumbling to obtuse administration), suspended up to 30 middle school kids when they became fans of a facebook page that maligned a classmate.
[Dozens</a> of students suspended for Facebook cyberbullying | KING5.com | Seattle News and Video](<a href=“http://www.king5.com/news/More-than-20-students-suspended-for-FB-cyberbullying-81629692.html]Dozens”>http://www.king5.com/news/More-than-20-students-suspended-for-FB-cyberbullying-81629692.html)</p>
<p>However- they are cutting back and eliminating counselors at a time when kids are under more stress and putting the burden of their jobs onto teachers-
I think I know what I am going to testify about at the next school board meeting.</p>