Proof: Many Administrators and Teachers don’t give a crap.

SOUTH HADLEY, Mass. (AP) — Phoebe Prince, the Massachusetts high school freshman who took her own life after what prosecutors called relentless bullying by classmates, spoke to a school administrator one week before her death about a threat of physical violence, court documents reveal.

The documents, filed in connection with charges against six South Hadley High School students, raise new questions about how much school officials knew about the bullying. They also provide a glimpse into the final, tortured hours of Prince's life shortly before the 15-year-old hanged herself at home Jan. 14.

On Jan. 7, according to the documents, Prince went to a school administrator after learning that one of the defendants, Flannery Mullins, had told fellow students that she was going to "beat Phoebe up" and that she "needed to watch out at break after second block."

The documents do not reveal the official to whom Prince spoke or provide details of the conversation.

A witness who was interviewed by investigators said Prince had gone to administrators because she was "scared and wanted to go home." After the meeting, the witness said Prince returned to class, and said that no action was going to be taken and that "she was still going to get beat up."

In a recent interview, Superintendent Gus Sayer said school administrators were not aware of the bullying until Jan. 7, a week before Prince committed suicide. On that day, two teachers reported separate bullying incidents to the principal, Sayer said.

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2010/04/09/documents-bullied-teen-sought-help-school/?test=latestnews

Stick it out or retire.

Some people aren't cut out for living in a less than ideal environment.

I was tormented until I learned to fight back against the things I could and ignore the things I couldn't. Some kids got it FAR worse than me.

Messes some of them up.

Superintendent Gus A. Sayer has said school officials first learned of the bullying Jan. 7, a week before she died, when a student walked into a classroom and called Prince a “slut” in front of teacher. The student, he said, was punished. “She bore a lot of this stuff herself,” Sayer said of Phoebe.

Yet three days before Prince’s death, a student told a staffer about an obscene picture someone had scrawled over Prince in a class photo at school, according to the student’s mother. The staffer took the photo down, but it’s unclear whether she reported it.

Sayer, who cut short his vacation after the bombshell indictments were announced Monday, said yesterday he was unaware of the obscene drawing over Prince’s image. He added the staffer had not been interviewed in the school’s probe.

Sayer, however, defended a staff member who was allegedly present when Prince was attacked while studying in the library during lunch - hours before she went home and hanged herself.

In that incident, a group of students ganged up on Prince, calling her names in front of a staff member as one of them blocked the door, the student’s mother said.

In announcing criminal charges Monday, Northeastern District Attorney Elizabeth Scheibel said the faculty member did not report the incident to administrators until after Prince died.

Sayer disputes that account. “I don’t believe (the staffer) witnessed it,” he said. “There was a staff member present, but that person did not overhear those conversations.”

Prince pleaded for help at school
But prosecutors say officials sent her back to class

Phoebe Prince, desperate in the face of relentless bullying, turned to school administrators for help a week before she took her own life, prosecutors said yesterday, once pleading with them that she was “scared and wanted to go home’’ to avoid being beaten up by a vengeful classmate.

Prince was sent back to class, where she told a witness that school officials had no plans to intervene and that “she was still going to get beat up,’’ prosecutors said.

The stunning disclosure that Prince herself notified administrators at South Hadley High School about the bullying, an encounter previously unknown even to her family, was made public for the first time yesterday in court documents filed as three of her former schoolmates pleaded not guilty to charges that they tormented the 15-year-old freshman for months.

Prosecutors said Prince was taunted, heckled, threatened, and driven to tears by two groups of teenagers angry about her dating decisions. She was once confronted while waiting for her Latin class to begin, an exchange that left her weeping in her seat in front of a high school instructor. She feared walking down the hallways, prosecutors said, and was even followed into bathrooms by girls who had vowed to beat her up.

On the day before her death, prosecutors said, she told a confidante that school “has been close to intolerable lately’’ and that insults had escalated into threats of physical harm.

School officials, under heavy criticism for failing to protect Prince against an alleged three-month campaign of slurs and intimidation, have insisted that Prince never told them about the bullying and that they only learned about her troubles a week before her death. A subsequent school investigation revealed no previous incidents, officials said.

Prosecutors, in contrast, found that Prince endured months of harassment and physical threats before she hanged herself Jan. 14 after what they have called a “torturous day’’ of bullying.

Yesterday, they asserted that Prince spoke directly with a school administrator about being threatened with violence Jan. 7.

South Hadley Superintendent Gus Sayer could not be reached for comment. He has previously defended the school’s handling of the situation, saying officials were unaware of the extent of the harassment.

Northwestern District Attorney Elizabeth Scheibel has countered that Prince’s mother had spoken with school administrators about her concerns before her daughter’s death and that the bullying of Prince was “common knowledge’’ among students.

Prince’s death and the recent criminal charges brought against six teenagers for allegedly tormenting her have drawn international attention and spurred widespread outrage against the defendants and school officials.

According to prosecutors, Prince, a new student who moved to South Hadley from Ireland, was targeted after she had a brief relationship with a popular senior athlete, Sean Mulveyhill, who is one of those charged with harassing her. Mulveyhill then resumed dating his girlfriend, Kayla Narey, a junior who faces similar charges.

The new court documents also lay out, in painful detail, the final day of her life.

Prince was in the library with friends at the same time as Narey, Mulveyhill, and one of their friends, Ashley Longe, who has also been charged in the case.

Longe began yelling, “I hate stupid sluts,’’ and other, cruder sexual slurs at Prince. She later called her an “Irish whore’’ and wrote similar descriptions on the library sign-in sheets.

At the end of the school day, Longe again yelled degrading sexual comments at Prince in the school auditorium. Mulveyhill, who was charged with statutory rape, encouraged Longe’s behavior and also called Prince a whore. Narey, sitting nearby, was laughing, prosecutors said.

Minutes later, Longe threw an empty drink can from a car at Prince, who was walking home. Longe laughed and called her a whore. Prince, according to the witness, was crying.

Darby O’Brien, a friend of the Prince family, said the family was unaware that Phoebe had made a personal appeal to administrators, but said the disclosure reinforces the family’s contention that officials had sufficient warning to act more vigorously on Prince’s behalf.

“She must have been desperate to make that move,’’ he said. “It [the bullying] couldn’t have gotten much worse, but it did.’’

An unidentified witness told prosecutors about Prince’s mental status after months of verbal assaults. “She definitely didn’t want to fight with the girls in school,’’ the witness was quoted as saying. “She just wanted to keep to herself and keep things the way they were. She wanted people to stop picking on her, to stop being bullied.’’

Michael Cahillane, an assistant district attorney, said prosecutors would not discuss details included in the new filing.

Attorneys for Flannery Mullins, Sharon Chanon Velazquez, and Longe, all 16 and from South Hadley, appeared in Hampshire-Franklin Juvenile Court in Hadley yesterday, where pleas of not delinquent were entered on behalf of their clients. They are being charged both as adults and as youthful offenders with civil rights violations and stalking.

The three others charged with playing roles in Prince’s alleged torment and suicide were arraigned Tuesday in Hampshire Superior Court, with their attorneys entering pleas of not guilty pleas on their behalf. Through their lawyers, Mulveyhill, 17, of South Hadley, and Austin Renaud, 18, of Springfield, pleaded not guilty to statutory rape, and Mulveyhill and Narey, 17, of South Hadley, pleaded not guilty to violation of civil rights, criminal harassment, and disturbance of a school assembly.

The new court documents also lay out, in painful detail, the final day of her life.

Prince was in the library with friends at the same time as Narey, Mulveyhill, and one of their friends, Ashley Longe, who has also been charged in the case.

Longe began yelling, “I hate stupid sluts,’’ and other, cruder sexual slurs at Prince. She later called her an “Irish whore’’ and wrote similar descriptions on the library sign-in sheets.
At the end of the school day, Longe again yelled degrading sexual comments at Prince in the school auditorium. Mulveyhill, who was charged with statutory rape, encouraged Longe’s behavior and also called Prince a whore. Narey, sitting nearby, was laughing, prosecutors said.