Police charge 9 in death of Phoebe Prince

In an interesting turn of events, nine youths have been charged in the suicide death of Phoebe Prince, the South Hadley, MA young woman who took her own life in February after being relentlessly bullied in school.

Phoebe Prince

According to an article presented in The Boston Globe, six teenagers and three juvenile students were charged on March 29, 2010 with several felony counts, including statutory rape, violation of civil rights, criminal harassment, and disturbing a school assembly. It seems that the District Attorney of Northwestern, MA  plans to make this bullying case a precedent case to try to change the bullying laws and punish the kids who conducted the bullying as criminals.

When this story first surfaced, the Superintendent of the South Hadley school had said that no one in the school system was aware of the bullying troubles that Prince was facing. But, with these charges, District Attorney Elizabeth Scheibel was quoted as saying:

“The investigation has revealed that certain faculty, staff and administrators of the high school also were alerted to the harassment of Phoebe Prince before her death.” Also according to Scheibel, “prior to Phoebe’s death, her mother spoke with at least two school staff members about the harassment Phoebe had reported to her.”

Scheibel released further information about the bullying and harassment that Ms. Prince suffered on the days following up to her suicide. Scheibel was quoted as saying:

“From information known to investigators thus far, it appears that Phoebe’s death on January 14th followed a tortuous day for her, in which she was subjected to verbal harassment and threatened physical abuse. . . The harassment reported to have occurred that day in the school library, appears to have been conducted in the presence of a faculty member and several students, but went unreported to school administrators until after Phoebe’s death”

I will continue to follow this case as the court case is put together. If convicted, these young men and women and this case will represent a new precedent in punishment for youth’s that bully and harass another youth. It will certainly be an interesting case to watch and see the outcome. What’s most interesting is that these charges are brought, even though it is a suicide case. Much like the guns on school grounds laws that have been passed over recent years, there seems to be developing a zero tolerance for bullying on school grounds which is trickling over to true legal ramifications.

Click here to watch the Press Conference with the DA

What’s Wrong in Deerfield Beach, FL?

In November of 2009, I wrote about the tragic story of a boy in Deerfield Beach, FL who was doused with Alcohol and lit on fire by a bunch of other boys. You would think that, after this happened, both the town and schools would be making changes to their bullying policies.

Josie Lou Ratley

But just last week, it happened again with another bullying beating incident in Deerfield Beach, FL. This time a 15-year-old girl, Josie Lou Ratley,  was beaten severely by a boy, because of a texting conversation they had on her phone. The boy, wearing steel-toed boots, beat and kicked the young girl into a coma and to the point where she had to be airlifted out by helicopter in critical condition.

The story released by the press is that the 15-year-old male suspect, Wayne Treacy,  has been dating a 13-year-old girl who does not own a cell phone. The 13-year-old borrows others phones to text and talk to the suspect. She borrowed the victims phone and the victim then started to correspond with the male suspect with messages objecting to the relationship between the 15-year-old male and the 13-year-old female.

Then the male, angry, asked his girlfriend to show him the victim. When she did, he went on the school grounds and started to beat her and kick her, until a teacher pulled him off.

Josie after the Attack

The story and victim was featured on the TODAY show this morning. The pictures of her showed how severe the beating was. The Defense Attorney for the boy claims the boy is suffering because his brother committed suicide and that plays a part in what he did. I don’t think that should be grounds for almost killing an innocent 15-year-old girl.

Further, how is Deefield Beach going to explain two severe incidents in the same school year? What is going on or not going on in that area that allows this type of violent bullying to continue? It’s best summed up by the grandmother of the boy who was burned in November. She issued a statement about this latest beating saying:

My heart goes out to the parents of both of these children. This is another tap on the shoulder that says ‘wake up.’ We need to start paying attention. How many more children are going to be hurt before we start tackling this problem head on?

Hopefully she and others can get Deefield Beach, FL and it’s middle school to start taking the obvious problem they have at that particular location more seriously.

Study Shows Drop in Bullying in America

A new study funded by the U.S. Department of Justice has found that there is a drop int he percentage of American children being bullied or beaten up. The author of the study, Professor David Finkelhor, attributes this decline to the acceptance and use of anti-bullying programs throughout schools and communities.

The national study shows that under 15 percent of children have reported being physically bullied in 2008 vs. 22 percent of children who said they were bullied in year 2003. During the same time frame, the percentage of youths who said they had been assaulted either by other youths or by siblings went from 45 percent in 2003 to 38.4 percent in 2008.

Professor Finkelhor is quoted that the results are encouraging. He believes that this trend, if it continues, will show a benefits in the future as these children will have lower rates of crime and spousal assault. He correlates that bullying is the foundation for which future aggressive behavior is built.

The study was based on two national surveys of children ages 2 to 17 that were conducted five years apart. The final report and findings are published in the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine.

But experts, such as Marlene Snyder of Clemson University’s Institute on Family and Neighborhood Life, cautions that,while the survey is positive, we cannot be complacent.

“The decline is not happening everywhere,” she said. “It’s in schools where adults really understand how detrimental this conduct can be and have made a conscious effort to bring these numbers down.”

These results also match a survey that shows a drop in overall child abuse. Experts agree that when dollars and resources are focused on an issue, the results should be a sharp decrease in victims. They believe that these results show the effectiveness of the anti-bullying programs being implemented in schools and our communities and that the trend will continue as long as funding and focus are in place. And that can only be a good thing for the victims of bullying.

Bullying & Gender Non-Conformity

Michael J. Higdon, a professor at The University of Tennessee has written an interesting paper with cited studies and additional information that some may find useful in the battle against bullying.

His paper titled, “To Lynch a Child: Bullying and Gender Non-Conformity in Our Nation’s Schools” discusses many issues around bullying with a focus on some of the more non-traditional thinking. In his abstract, he describes his paper in the following way:

I look at the growing problem of school bullying in America today. Now, almost all children are teased and most will even face at least some form of bullying during their childhood. However, studies reveal that some children will unfortunately become chronic victims of school bullying. Chief among that group are those children whose gender expression is at odds with what society considers “appropriate.” As my article explores, the gender stereotypes that exist within our society are frequently to blame for the more extreme levels of bullying currently being carried out in our nation’s schools. And the impact this bullying has on its victims is staggering. Earlier I mentioned three children who took their own lives as a result of bullying. These are but three examples of those who have lost their lives to gender-based bullying. However, there are countless other victims who, although not paying with their lives, are nonetheless paying dearly in other ways. Specifically, the psychological literature on the emotional impacts that befall these chronic victims of bullying reveals a whole host of resulting problems – debilitating consequences that can last a lifetime.

To read the paper in it’s entirely, click here to open and download the PDF.

The Importance of a Mentor

As promised in my previous post, I wanted to share a very positive teacher story with you. I have told you the negative story of the Art Teacher in my 7th grade year at Jonas Clarke Junior High School. I have also written about the terrible time I had with bullies that year and how my friend Ryan turned on me.

But, I haven’t shared how important one particular teacher was in keeping me as positive as possible. A person who very well might have kept me from skipping school and failing that year. He was my Social Studies teacher. He was a young and new teacher at this time. He was very nice and cool. We did fun things in his class, like draw a giant mural of the world on his wall that took forever to do. We had a blast doing it as well.

He made us feel important. He treated a bunch of 12 and 13 year olds with maturity and had an uncanny ability to make us all enjoy learning. At least that’s the way I felt. More than that he did some very interesting things that very few teachers would ever do. The most important thing to me was that he invited us all to his wedding. Boy did we feel special. Now we didn’t go to the reception as I recall, but how cool it was to go to our teachers wedding.

We were also in his class when the first space shuttle was launched and I remember all of us, including him, watching in amazement. For me, talking to him took my mind away from the horrors of bullying that I experienced that year. It all culminated for me in what he wrote in my yearbook. He wrote:

“This has been a great year for me, Alan, and believe it or not, you are one of the reasons. Not often does a teacher and student relationship progress to one of freindship. I guess that’s how I feel ours has gone. I think you are a super guy. You’ve made some difficult moments enjoyable because of your personality. God bless you.”

Now I have no idea if he knew anything about what I was going through, but these words really helped me at that time. I still look back on them today to remind me that all was not bad during those years. To say such positive things and make a 13-year-old feel like he made a difference was big for me. I believe if there were more teachers like him to help mentor those of us who need that during these rough times, the world and our lives would be better. I know mine was and in many ways, I think he kept me going to school during this year.

As I prepared to write this blog, I decided to search for him. I found him and it seems he is now a Principal at a school. It doesn’t surprise me to find that he has become the head person at a school and I’m sure they are the better for it. I say thank you to this teacher, and I certainly hope that others are lucky enough to have mentors and teachers that help them through their younger years. They do make a big difference!

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US DOJ Guide to Bullying

I thought I’d share this document I found on the Department of Justice website. It’s called “Bullying in Schools” by Rana Sampson and has some good information in it.

It is written to help support both police and school programs to assist schools in dealing with and solving bullying issues.

For more information on the Department of Justice’s Office of Community Oriented Policing Services program, click here.

Bully Incident #21: The Art Teacher (1980)

I still think it’s quite funny and ironic how our minds work. I have noticed as I continue to write this blog that stories I didn’t even recall start coming back to the top of my conscious memory from my sub-conscious memory. As I wrote my story yesterday of the teacher that my 11th grade class bullied, I started to recall one of the last bullying incidents I had in 7th grade in Lexington, MA. What brought the memory back was that it was also the story of a teacher, but in this case it was a teacher the chose to do the bullying.

If you have read my past bullying experience stories, then you might recall that 7th grade was the culmination of years of bullying that I experienced in Lexington, MA. As this story came bubbling back to the surface of my mind, it also reminded me of maybe why this incident even happened. I still think that there might be things I did to cause the bullying. One thing I know that happened to me is that I went from being a very outgoing and maybe even vocal 7-year-old when we moved to Lexington, to being a withdrawn and timid 13-year-old who worried and felt threatened all the time.

As I look back at pictures of myself during those years, I see a smiling young boy at 7 and then a serious and disheveled 13-year-old with dark circles under eyes and a tired look. Certainly puberty and other factors play a part, but I can honestly say that I think environment had much to do with it also. I did not look healthy at 13. I did not look like a kid that a teacher would be happy to have in their class. I won’t go into some of the more negative details of who I was at 13. I’m not proud of some things about that year and chalk it up to trying to cope with bullying and fears that I had.

I’m telling all this, because I wonder how much it was a factor when I walked into my Art class in 7th grade. My teacher was a gentleman in his late 50′s, early 60′s. To me, Art class was always a break from the stressful work. As a creative person, I always enjoyed it. Even in my career today, art plays a factor, even though I don’t consider myself any type of artist. Early on in Art class, I noticed that this teacher took a great disliking to me. He was very critical of my work and would say it aloud to me in front of other students. He gave me terrible grades and many times ignored me if I had my hand raised for a question. There is little doubt in my mind that he was picking on me. Given my sensitivity at the time, it’s possible I was hyper-aware of this and maybe more judgmental than I would be otherwise, but he definitely treated me different.

I should say that I rarely missed school. I was always in his class and got my projects in his class done. It was Art class, so I feel that art is subjective. How can the Art teacher give a negative grade to artwork I did if it was what was asked. But this teacher would give me C’s and D’s, and all my friends would get A’s or B’s. A few times I would confront him to see why I got a bad grade and he wouldn’t even respond to me. It finally came to a head when he gave me a bad grade on my report card and my parents were upset. At that point I explained what I perceived as what was going on. I told my mother that he would not tell me why he was giving me bad grades. She scheduled a meeting with him.

I recall her going to the meeting and coming back pretty mad. She also didn’t like what he had to say about the grade and me. She was not that upset with me, but upset with him. I pretty much hated going to Art that whole year and he certainly helped make that one of the worst years of school for me. He continued to single me out with criticism and bad grades. I recall on the last day of the year, my mom picked me up from school and took me to a restaurant for ice cream. When we got there, there was the Art teacher, sitting in a booth right across from us and eating. I recall him staring at me and my mother. We stared back. It was very eerie, like each one was waiting for the other to make some aggressive move. Nothing happened, of course, and we moved to Virginia about a month later.

What was it he didn’t like about me, I still don’t know. I know that I was in a very dark place that year. I think it was outwardly obvious to him and possibly anyone else. But I wasn’t a mean kid. I wasn’t a delinquent. I was just having a rough time. Ironically, this same year, I had a teacher that took me under his wing and made me feel great every time I went to his class. He was my Social Studies teacher and I will share his story with you in my next article.

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