Superintendent: Some students who bullied Phoebe Prince won't return to South Hadley High School
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SOUTH HADLEY - At least some of the students who bullied Phoebe Prince will not be returning to South Hadley High School, Superintendent of Schools Gus A. Sayer said in a press release issued Monday.
According to a recently completed investigation by high school Principal Daniel Smith, a small group of students - both boys and girls - were responsible for the repeated harassment of Prince in the week before she committed suicide Jan. 14, Sayer said. The 15-year-old first-year student had recently moved with her family to South Hadley from Ireland.
Those students were suspended pending formal hearings to determine if they would be expelled from school or given long-term suspensions, said Sayer.
"All the students who faced these hearings are no longer at South Hadley High School and will not be returning," he stated. School officials have declined to say how many students have been reprimanded for bullying.
Hearings were scheduled and "held as needed," Sayer said in an interview Monday. He declined to elaborate about what choices some of the other students made with regards to hearings and whether their decision to leave the school system was reached through some other means.
Smith's investigation found that a small number of girls, identified by fellow students, had bullied Prince and called her names during two incidents about a week before her death, Sayer said. Disciplinary action was taken after the incidents were brought to the attention of school officials, "which was effective in ending their participation in further acts of bullying," said Sayer.
It continued
Other girls from the same group, however, continued the harassment of Prince and others apparently joined in.
"Over the last week of her life Phoebe was subjected to name calling and taunting though Facebook, through text messaging and during several encounters with several students that occurred during school and after school," the press release states. Those incidents were not witnessed by or reported to school staff, Sayer said, but later revealed during Smith's investigation and resulted in the subsequent suspensions.
Still other students, Sayer stated, have been identified as harassing Prince via Internet sites and not on school grounds. He notes that law enforcement continues to investigate Prince's death, which "may lead to criminal charges."
"We are also concerned about bystanders, students who knew the bullying was taking place, did not participate in it, but also did not let any of our school staff know about it. The bullying task force that begins its work this week will, among other activities, review disciplinary policies at the high school and consider if and how students who do not directly participate in bullying can be encouraged to report dangerous activities to school officials," concluded Sayer.
The anti-bullying task force that Sayer mentioned will hold its first meeting Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. at the school. The task force is charged with developing constructive ways to address the problem of bullying.
Simultaneous to the task force meeting is a protest, held by parents and students who are unhappy with the way school officials have responded to the bullying case surrounding Prince's death. It will run from 6 to 10 p.m. at the Newton Street school.
