Phoebe Prince, the 15-year-old teenager who took her life after undergoing bullying by her classmates, apparently sought help from the school administration prior to her suicide. According to court documents, Phoebe spoke to a school administrator one week prior to her death about a threat of physical violence.
The documents were filed in connection with charges against six South Hadley High School students, the Massachusetts high school that Phoebe attended. The documents raise new questions about school officials’ knowledge of the extent of bullying that Phoebe endured. Specifically, the documents reveal that on January 7, Phoebe went to a school administrator after learning that one of the students currently charged planned to beat her up. A witness interviewed by investigators testified that Phoebe had gone to administrators because she was scared and wanted to leave school to go home. However, the school administrator ordered Phoebe to return to class and that no action would be taken because Phoebe “was still going to get beat up”. Nevertheless, the District Attorney Elizabeth Scheibel recently stated that while the inaction of the school officials was worrisome, it was not criminal.
According to prosecutors, Phoebe hung herself at her home on January 14 as a result of enduring months of verbal assaults and threats after she briefly dated a “popular” boy at school. While she was harassed mainly at school, she also endured bullying via Facebook and through other electronic media.
