It’s always daunting to move to another country, particularly as a teenager. In 2009, 15-year-old Phoebe Prince moved from Ireland to South Hadley, Massachusetts, with her mother and four siblings. Within mere months, Phoebe would hang herself to death with a scarf in her bedroom.
Almost as soon as Phoebe arrived at South Hadley High, she received attention from the male students. She was beautiful and would go “to great lengths just to make someone else happy.” As her classmates began to notice the attention she was attracting, they started to call her cruel names, such as “Irish whore” among other petty taunts. This abuse further exacerbated when Phoebe caught the attention of the football captain, Sean Mulveyhill. The couple dated for just a few weeks and when it was all over, Phoebe came to discover that Sean was embedded with the clique of the pretty and popular girls of South Hadley High and they intended to make her life living hell.
The abuse became more disturbing as the weeks passed by. It soon turned to physical violence when Phoebe was shoved into lockers and encouraged on Facebook to commit suicide. Phoebe was so terrified that she refused to walk anywhere alone out of fear she would be attacked. Phoebe couldn’t go one day without something being thrown at her in the hallway or receiving threatening text messages. An investigation uncovered that several teacher had witnessed the abuse perpetrated against Phoebe but didn’t act accordingly. They would “discipline” the bullies but by the following day, they would be back at it again. On the 14th of January, 2010, the persistent taunting and harassment became too much. Three of the accused bullies followed Phoebe home and shouted abuse in her direction before throwing a tin of red bull at her. Phoebe went home and hanged herself; she would be discovered by her 12-year-old sister.
Two male and four female students, including Sean, were indicted as adults on felony charges. Included in the charges was statutory rape, criminal harassment, and stalking. South Hadley High School attempted to deny that they had been aware of the bullying but these claims were contradicted by numerous other students. The six students accepted a plea agreement and pleaded guilty to lesser charges. They were placed on probation and sentenced to community service.
Ironically, months before bullying somebody to suicide, Sean Mulveyhill read an anti-bullying campaign out in front of the entire school.
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