Justice for Phoebe
In 7th grade I was bullied relentlessly, and the abuse didn’t end until I graduated from elementary school and went to an all boys prep school in the city. The experience left me with an instinctive and vicious hatred of bullies – whether they are kids or adults – and became the crucible that forged my identity. One reason I support human rights is because I don’t like to see anyone – American, Chinese or Burmese, bullied by those in authority. I fought offshoring because I saw IT workers being bullied by their bosses and an economic system that drove down the cost of labor. I have given hell to my son’s school administrators and teachers over any whiff of bullying occurring in his schools. I even support Israel partly because no ethnic group has been bullied by so many for so long.
So when I read the story of Phoebe Prince, a beautiful girl from Ireland who committed suicide after being bullied by rejects from a Lord of the Flies sequel, my blood goes cold and my heart breaks. All the hallmarks were there making her a target, and the school did nothing. She was new to the school district and had no connections to anyone. She spoke with an accent. She was different and also of the age when girls become the most vicious towards each other. Had she arrived two year earlier or later she would have most likely avoided the hazing and survived, but Phoebe had the unfortunate luck to arrive at South Hadley High School at just the right moment. Add in the fact that the school’s teachers and administrators didn’t give a damn – and worse, ignored the advice of an anti-bullying consultant hired to advise them – and the likelihood of Phoebe ending up dead became a near-certainty.
Now the teachers and administrators of South Hadley High School are scrambling like roaches under the intense glare of the national media, and of course, the inevitable lawsuit. Some parents of the bullies are already using the “bitch deserved it” defense for their little psychopathic darlings as their little ones’ dreams are threatened with jail time. Of course even the most sadistic prison experiences that lay ahead for these animals will not bring Phoebe back to life nor surpass the horror she experienced the last five months of her life.
Her teachers and school administrators aren’t being charged, which is a shame. But if my kid was in that school I would not rest until each and every one of them had lost their teaching certificates and their abilities to hold a job involving children ever again. They know they are guilty, and they know that we know they are guilty, and those in the community should never forget their failure to bear the responsibility they chose to carry by being teachers at South Hadley High School.
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