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Bullying Expert: Mass. School Didn't Use Advice
Filed under: In The News, Bullying
Credit: Morning Rush/Good Morning America
BOSTON (AP) - An anti-bullying consultant says school officials in western Massachusetts didn't follow all the advice she gave them months before a harassed freshman girl committed suicide.
Barbara Coloroso told CBS' "The Early Show" on Tuesday that schools need procedures to protect victims and punish perpetrators, and programs to prevent further problems. She says South Hadley schools "had policies, but the procedures need to be toughened up."
Coloroso said she consulted with parents and administrators months before 15-year-old Phoebe Prince hanged herself in January. Authorities say she endured months of verbal assaults and threats, mostly in school and in person, although some of the bullying occurred on Facebook and in other electronic forms.
"This is a wake-up call, and I think it will happen," Coloroso said.
Nine fellow students face charges in connection with her death, including two teen boys charged with statutory rape and a clique of girls charged with stalking, criminal harassment and violating Phoebe's civil rights. School officials won't be charged, even though authorities say they knew about the bullying.
School officials have not returned messages left by The Associated Press.
Northwestern District Attorney Elizabeth Scheibel, who announced the charges Monday, said the events that occurred between September and Phoebe's death Jan. 14 were "the culmination of a nearly three-month campaign of verbally assaultive behavior and threats of physical harm."
Scheibel said the case is still under investigation and that one other person could be charged. It's unknown whether the teens who have been charged have attorneys.
Schiebel refused to discuss the circumstances of the rape charges.
No school officials are being charged because they had "a lack of understanding of harassment associated with teen dating relationships," and the school's code of conduct was interpreted and enforced in an "inconsistent" way, Scheibel said.
"Nevertheless, the actions - or inactions - of some adults at the school are troublesome," she said.
Phoebe was born in Bedford, England and moved to County Clare, Ireland, when she was 2. She moved last summer to South Hadley, home to Mount Holyoke College, because the family had relatives there.
Her family has since moved away and could not immediately be located for comment.
Copyright 2010 The Associated Press. The information contained in the AP news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press. All active hyperlinks have been inserted by AOL.This article was written by Denise Lavoie, Associated Press Writer.
Related: The signs of teen depression.
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ReaderComments (Page 1 of 1)
4-14-2010 @ 8:20AM
teacher30 said...We as a public we need to demand that schools stadn up and do something about the issues that are affecting our kids and our schools. there is a program out there that takes a very different aproach to these issues. Make My School Safe .com is a program that would give parents and kids the power to do the right thing without the fear of being made fun of and being bullied further. If we as a public continue to stand on the sidelines and do nothing then nothing will ever change.
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