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9 MA Cyberbullies Indicted For Causing Suicide

Posted by Soulskill on from the this-is-why-you-don't-listen-to-the-internet dept.

Raul654 writes "Massachusetts teenager Phoebe Prince committed suicide on January 14. After her death, it was revealed that she had been the target of cyberbullying for months (and that her teachers were aware of it and did nothing). Today, nine of her classmates were indicted on charges including harassment, stalking, civil rights violations, and statutory rape. Prince's suicide echoes the earlier case of Megan Meier, who committed suicide after being cyberbullied by a classmate's mother."

35 of 709 comments (clear)

  1. Your rights OFFLINE! by LostCluster · · Score: 4, Insightful

    This has nothing to do with Facebook, Flicker, FourSquare, Twitter, or any other Web 2.0 website. This happened at school, during school hours, and with the school having knowledge that that something was going on. This is a first round of charges, there could be more including some of the adults who could have taken action. Dating a senior football player and being the "new girl" led to her being teased and hated... leading to violence, leading to a situation where she saw no way out. This should have been cut off with detentions and suspensions long before it got this far.

    I'm pretty sure the lawyers in this case are going to pull all the Web 2.0 content created by the students involved. If they go down this path and find something that can be treated as a confession, then it's "News for nerds." or "Stuff that matters." Until we see that, it's more like the 6pm news here in the Boston area.

    1. Re:Your rights OFFLINE! by sg_oneill · · Score: 5, Insightful

      It does highlight something that really worries me about this case. As a kid I copped a bit of bullying myself, at least till I got big enough to fight back, but I came to the conclusion that kids are, well, shitheads, and that most hopefully grow out of it.

      Whats disturbing, is that the adults did nothing to protect this poor girl when it should have been immediately obvious she was being victimized. Sometimes when your being bullied, simply having an older kid or adult take your side can be immensely comforting.

      When I was around 25 I used to catch a public bus to work, and every morning this scruffy young kid would be on the bus being teased and taunted till I decided to intervene, picked up one of his tormentors and physically launched him off the bus then let the kid sit next to me from that point on. I told the bullies that I would hunt down and beat senselessly any kid that bullied my new little mate, and within a couple of weeks the kid stopped being bullied. I gave the kid a bit of friendship and kind of explained how to work on his goofy demeanor, and within a year he was a reasonably popular kid himself.

      All it takes is someone to care about these kids. To give a damn about them. Show some genuine concern for these kids, and they'll shine. They always do

      --
      Excuse the Unicode crap in my posts. That's an apostrophe, and slashdot is busted.
    2. Re:Your rights OFFLINE! by JustShootMe · · Score: 5, Insightful

      What surprises me is that you weren't arrested for assault.

      --
      For linux tips: http://www.linuxtipsblog.com
    3. Re:Your rights OFFLINE! by donaggie03 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Try that now and you're more likely to get arrested for assault or child abuse... or shot.

      --
      Three days from now?? Thats tomorrow!! ~Peter Griffin
    4. Re:Your rights OFFLINE! by Derekloffin · · Score: 5, Insightful

      One the prime reasons that cyber bullying is of particular focus now is that you simply can't escape it. The old style 'give me your lunch money' bully had very little presence at home. If said bully did try to take it home, it was generally in ways that annoyed the parents just as much as the kid (crank calls and the like), which often lead to more action on their part. Now, cyber bullying allows them to hit you even at home, and in ways that can often go unnoticed by the parents, not only of the victim, but of the bully's parents. Not sure what we can do about it, but I wouldn't equate this to a typical school yard bullying situation.

    5. Re:Your rights OFFLINE! by einhverfr · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Whats disturbing, is that the adults did nothing to protect this poor girl when it should have been immediately obvious she was being victimized. Sometimes when your being bullied, simply having an older kid or adult take your side can be immensely comforting.

      When I was a kid, nothing disillusioned me about authority figures more than the misguided attempts of school administrators to interfere when I was being bullied. Keep in mind that I went to great lengths to avoid being bullied (sometimes by groups of kids) and sometimes this meant breaking school rules (like going through a hole in the fence around the school during lunch when I was being chased). The school administrators came out against me all too often. Once one principle even brought out boxing gloves and told us we had better fight it out with gloves on.

      Looking back at it, I can see where the administrators were coming from but that doesn't make them any less wrong. I don't even really appreciate the attempts by some teachers to bribe one of the worst of the bullies with candy bars (so that he wouldn't bully me).

      The further sad fact is that nobody can address bullying effectively when it happens, say, when the kid is walking home from school. So what are you gonna do? I did well because I had parents who were willing to discuss the matter with me and provide proper role models. But generally they didn't go to the teachers or administrators about the problems, which was a good thing given how bad of a mess the school officials generally made of things when they got involved.

      The solution here is parenting. And while I find the lack of action by school officials disturbing, I wonder if they would have made things worse by getting involved. In reality they probably should have gotten in touch with the girl's parents proactively and discussed the situation.

      --

      LedgerSMB: Open source Accounting/ERP
    6. Re:Your rights OFFLINE! by Asclepius99 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I can understand what you're trying to say, but the teachers saw kids hit the girl in the hallways. It doesn't matter if it's constant bullying or a one time incident, how does that go on without any sort of reprimand?

    7. Re:Your rights OFFLINE! by Anachragnome · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Sometimes you have to take risks to do what is right.

    8. Re:Your rights OFFLINE! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      True, and that is probably the reason many people do not intervene these days. If you do the right thing and step in then you have to be careful you don't open yourself to some legal liability. It happens all the time in our school system and so all we are left with is apathetic teachers and officials who will not take the appropriate actions.

    9. Re:Your rights OFFLINE! by moogied · · Score: 5, Insightful
      Or people with balls. When I was in high schools(5 years ago, i'm 23) there was a fight in the exit area of a building and within 15 seconds the football coach was there and slugged the football player who hit the much smaller freshman. What did he get? Nothing. Nothing at all. Why? Because the cameras clearly showed a *CRIME* being committed and a BYSTANDER stepping in to stop it.

      So go tell your teacher friend to go fuck herself, she is just as responsible as every other jerk who walks by someone in trouble and doesn't do crap. Job, no job, she is a bad bad person. Its a frigen CHILD beating hit by another child. Who the hell lets that happen?

      --
      So basically, -1 troll/offtopic is really slashdots way of saying "I hate that you thought of something before me."
    10. Re:Your rights OFFLINE! by OrangeCatholic · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I understand your Darwinian point, and there's certainly an element of truth to it. The question is, how much do you value human life? You could, for example, send all your kids off to war, and indeed you will have "survival of the fittest." But you will also lose a lot of perfectly good future husbands and office workers, not to mention a lot of senseless, random deaths.

      Kids do need to learn how to stick up for themselves, but in this case you had a 15-year-old who didn't know how. That's a failure of education. Nobody took her aside to explain that there was a legitimate (i.e. non-suicidal) way out.

      There is also an element of gang assault here that is criminal. And it's completely inappropriate that 17-18 year olds were involved in this kind of immaturity.

    11. Re:Your rights OFFLINE! by Kral_Blbec · · Score: 3, Insightful

      basic social standards of courtesy and respect

      Where I come from, those include defending those that aren't able to defend themselves.

    12. Re:Your rights OFFLINE! by tftp · · Score: 5, Insightful

      If I say to you "let's see if we can get Bill to say bad and inaccurate things about someone", am I guilty of conspiracy to libel?

      I think as soon as Bill agrees to do what you suggest, you have a textbook conspiracy on your hands.

      As sad as her death is, she's the one who chose to take that path

      Then it follows that an arsonist is not guilty of murder because people had to jump from the top floor of a tall building. Right?

      In real life, though, there are only so many paths to take. Even if she chose a wrong path, bullies are still responsible because they forced the choice onto the victim. See the concept of "felony murder". Also consider that children are not in control of their life; they can't quit school, they can't sue bullies, they can't leave town... and people who may do something simply ignored the problem. Your objections would be far more valid if an adult is involved.

    13. Re:Your rights OFFLINE! by muridae · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Harassment is a crime in some jurisdictions.

      Sure, but what's that got to do with the price of egss?

      Because that may be what was happening here. Not a case I am following, so don't rightly know. You said, in the post I replied to, that they were "arresting people for saying mean things" and that the "nanny state" was overstepping it's bounds. I am pointing out that there exist laws, to charge people with crimes, for behavior that you may just define as "being mean" or "saying mean things".

      If you do not care for those laws, I suggest you take it up with various local, state, and federal authorities, to get the law changed, instead of making up new crimes on slashdot.

      So is contributing to the delinquency of a minor.

      Equally irrelevant, but even more so when the "suspects" are themselves minors.

      They will likely get charged as adults for the other crimes, that may well follow for this one as well.

      Stalking.

      Not an issue here.

      Really, says who? I don't know all the facts of the case, but if the girl tried to get away from them, say blocking them on her pages or what not, and they found ways around them, that is stalking.

      Hell, if the kids said to each other, online or otherwise, "lets try to get her to kill herself" then you can bump up to conspiracy to commit murder.

      How so? If I say to you "let's see if we can get Bill to say bad and inaccurate things about someone", am I guilty of conspiracy to libel?

      Conspiracy to commit libel is not a crime.
      I know you, and half of slashdot and the internet at large, what this to be a vast conspiracy to criminalize free speech. Maybe the way the DA is going about this case will do so, I don't know. But there are plenty of ways to apply current law, laws that have been upheld by the SCOTUS.

      If someone sent you 100 postal letters per day, or organized friends to stand outside your house yelling at you, this would get the attention of law enforcement.

      Once again, that's not the issue here. This isn't a case of one person constantly sending her harassing messages - it's a case of many people exercising their free-speech rights. Some of their other actions are certainly illegal, and should be prosecuted, but let's not invent new "crimes" to charge them with.

      I agree there should not be new crimes invented. That's why I was pointing out the laws that already exist, for crimes that have been tested already in other case, that could be applied to this case. As I said, conspiracy to commit murder is a crime, there are laws against it. Your straw-man of conspiracy to commit libel is just that, a made up "new crime" that you are using to justify other "new crimes" you think are being created here.

    14. Re:Your rights OFFLINE! by cayenne8 · · Score: 4, Insightful
      Hell, back in my day...if an adult saw you pulling shit like this (teacher or one of the other parents in the neighborhood, they'd likely whack you themselves, then call your parents...and they'd whack you when you got home again.

      Sure, we had some bullying back in my day, but it never got further than name calling, etc...no one was heard to commit suicide over being teased or bullied...?

      --
      Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
    15. Re:Your rights OFFLINE! by Bigjeff5 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      And you're exactly the reason so many bullies get away with this shit. The best way to treat a bully is with a dose of his own medicine. They won't "get it" that it's not ok to hurt someone smaller than them unless someone bigger still shows them how small they are in the scheme of things.

      Had I been there I'd damn well have called the police - adults hitting children is not OK unless it's a case of self-defense.

      He didn't hit the kid, he picked him up and tossed him. That usually won't hurt a child unless he trips or slips when he lands, and even if he had accidentally hurt the kid, kids heal fast. As long as the intention was an overwhelming display of power, and not an actual intention to cause harm, I'm a-ok with it. A safer response would have been to simply pick the kid up, hold him at eye level, and explain exactly what will happen the next time.

      Bully's respond to overwhelming force, not bullshit "you be nice now" sissy crap. They are counting on that, because they know nobody will do anything to stop them. If someone does actually do something, the quit real quick, because being a bully isn't about taking risks.

      Rather than being an adult and handling it right he simply beat up a child.

      Part of being an adult is knowing when to talk and when to act. Bullies don't respond to talk, they never have, and they never will. A verbal reprimand without any physical force behind it is just letting them off the hook, and they damn well know it. For the most part, the GP did the right thing. A touch excessive, perhaps, and definitely put himself in a position where a sissy like you could have gotten him into serious trouble with the law, but it was better he do that than let that poor kid be victimized on his way to school every day, and potentially end up killing himself like the girl in TFA.

      --
      Security is mostly a superstition... Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. - Helen Keller
    16. Re:Your rights OFFLINE! by nog_lorp · · Score: 4, Insightful

      You are viewing this in a much more practical way than a teenage girl or boy does.

      If I read online that some girl is an "Irish whore", I'm going to jump thoughts of hot redheads with loose morals - a complement!

      In reality, no one cares what someone says on the internet. But to a teen being bullied it is the difference between being beaten up in an alley
      and being picked on in the high school quad in front of a jeering crowd.

    17. Re:Your rights OFFLINE! by victorhooi · · Score: 3, Insightful
      heya,

      I'm going to have to agree with the parent. We used to share our school bus with different high school. I went to James Ruse, basically a selective school, where kids sit an entrance test to get in - think nerdy kids, essentially the top of their state (I was the exception *grins*, I was just lucky). Then the other school on the bus was Gilroy, a local independent Catholic school.

      So we'd get tools on the bus, year 7 Gilroy kids who did stupid things like trip other people over, steal their wallets, spit, annoy the driver, that sort of thing. There was one bunch who kept bugging my friends and I because hey, we went to Ruse. One day, one of the Prefects from Gilroy picked up one of their kids, dragged him by the shirt back to us, and said "Apologise." I said, seriously, it's ok, but the prefect didn't relent. The kid grinned like an idiot, till he realised the prefect was serious. To this day, I'm grateful to that guy, for actually being responsible, because all the stupidity toned down after that.

      Moral of the story, kids will be kids, they do stupid things. And a bit of jostling around isn't going to kill them. Sometimes you just need to show them you're not going to bend over every time.

      And a few years later, those idiotic year 7's decided to put their bags down the middle of the bus, so people would trip over them walking in to the bus. So I walked over, grabbed all the bags, and threw them about 15m out the front door. The bus driver certainly didn't try to stop me. They were being complete tools to him as well.

      Like it or not, for small things, you just have to teach your kids to be less of a wimp. I mean, there is a line - and I think here, what happened was serious enough that somebody should have stepped in. But if some kid flicks a rubber-band at another kid, that's not a reason to call in a teacher - you walk over to the kid, and tell him to stop it, and if he doesn't or says make me, say you'll rain nine kinds of s*it down on him if he doesn't. Bullies look for soft targets, they're not going to risk having their nose bloodied just so they can flick rubberbands or stuff grass down somebody's shirt.

      Cheers, Victor

  2. Cyberbullies? by Skyshadow · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Reading the article, you can't really pigeonhole this as a cyberbullying incident -- it seems way more accurate to call this an instance of *comprehensive* asshole behavior. I mean, when I was a kid the bullies knew how to operate the phone, but nobody called that telebullying.

    Don't get me wrong, this is distressing stuff, but reading between the lines it seems awfully simplistic to try and just pass this entire affair off as being a simple result of these kids using the internets in order to torment this girl into killing herself. Really, the most disturbing thing to me in the article is the lack of remorse these girls displayed after the fact. I understand that high school is messed up, but who the hell makes jerk comments on a memorial page? That seems pretty damn sociopathic even by the standards of high school.

    --
    Every year during my review, I just pray the words "slashdot.org" aren't mentioned.
    1. Re:Cyberbullies? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      The two guys, 17 and 18, were charged with statutory rape.

      Not to split hairs, but that's a pretty significant difference -- you go to any high school in America and you'll find people having sex with folks two years older than they are. Assuming the sex was otherwise consensual, it sucks that these guys are getting charged with such a serious crime in what amounts to a prosecutorial attempt to close the barn door after the cows are out.

    2. Re:Cyberbullies? by Chirs · · Score: 3, Insightful

      It's been scientifically shown that teenagers have poor impulse control. Their brains aren't yet fully developed.

      There's a difference between sleeping with someone to hurt them, and doing something wrong on the spur of the moment.

      In addition...maybe they didn't know she was under age. Can *you* tell the difference between a 15 year old and a 16 year old?

    3. Re:Cyberbullies? by einhverfr · · Score: 3, Insightful

      It wouldn't surprise me if the guys involved fucked her and then had nothing else to do with her and weren't involved in the bullying. That's not the nicest thing to do, but it's hardly strange behaviour for teenage guys.

      I actually agree with you. Too bad you were modded down. But then I was modded down for another comment.

      The idea that we prosecute 17 year olds for having sex with 15 year olds strikes me as a very perverse approach to our age of consent rules. This is nothing more than "let's make it look like we are doing something to make sure no teenage girl ever commits suicide again!"

      It's like the sexting case in PA: Let's prosecute children and sentence them to some time in jail plus being designated as a sex offender for life in order to keep them safe! Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. It;s a good thing I am not from that county or I would give the DA's office an earfull.

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      LedgerSMB: Open source Accounting/ERP
    4. Re:Cyberbullies? by LordLucless · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Having sex is a barbaric action?

      --
      Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean there isn't an invisible demon about to eat your face
    5. Re:Cyberbullies? by UnknowingFool · · Score: 4, Insightful

      It might be leverage. From what I read, there seems to be a major lack of remorse/guilt by the group of students who are alleged to be behind this incident. They apparently were still disparaging her after her death. If the rape charges are true, then it's not something that the males can easily avoid. The prosecutor has discretion to charge the males and she has.

      --
      Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
  3. Throw the book at them and the school. by Calibax · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The daughter of a neighbor experienced a similar problem some time ago. Fortunately a vice-principal at the school did not ignore the reports from teachers and took disciplinary action against the people involved.

    The harassment was vicious, nasty and designed to humiliate and hurt. I understand that the bullies were unrepentant - they felt they had a "right" to hurt someone who didn't kowtow to them.

    I am thankful that these sorts of issues were pretty much unknown when I went to school. I think I'll home-school my kids....

  4. Her teachers were aware of it and did nothing... by gestalt_n_pepper · · Score: 5, Insightful

    This has been the teacher and administrator MO since I was in school in the 60s. Actually it's worse than that. The teacher/administrator just wants the problem to go away so they tend to persecute and isolate the *victim* rather than the perpetrator (Johny gets bullied by a group of 5 kids on the playground so we'll keep *Johny* inside while all the kids go out to play). This usually ostracizes the victim further by pointing him/her out as the weak odd kid.

    In my experience, the most culpable individuals are spineless teachers followed by spineless administrators. Children can't really be blamed. They know no better. Adults do, or should.

    --
    Please do not read this sig. Thank you.
  5. Statutory rape? by wisnoskij · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Since when has statutory rape been part of cyber bullying?

    It sounds like cyber bullying was the least of her problems.

    --
    Troll is not a replacement for I disagree.
  6. Prosecute the school administrators, too by papa_lizard · · Score: 5, Insightful

    "For months, community anger simmered that no punishment had befallen Phoebe's bullies. Petitions were signed and town hall meetings held." Not only do these students need to be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, but so should the school administrators for gross negligence of their duties. How on earth can you let school bullying get to the point of requiring town hall meetings and still sit back and do nothing about it?

  7. Re:Her teachers were aware of it and did nothing.. by TheDarkMaster · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Some victims, seeing that nobody will bother to help them, take up weapons and go to school to kill as many as possible (the source of their suffering) until being killed by the police or committing suicide. It would be so easy to avoid this by exemplary punish the bullies, but I see that the culture of schools is to encourage the bullies ...

    How many victims will be necessary before a bullie be punished for harming someone?

    --
    Religion: The greatest weapon of mass destruction of all time
  8. Re:This sends a terrible message to victims by TooMuchToDo · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The authorities have made it plain by their actions that there's no way to get justice and stay alive. This is just going to make suicide look like a more attractive option to targets of bullying.

    Suicide *or* Columbine-style retaliation.

  9. Re:bullying not entirely enigmatic by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Reads like some special kind of bullshit to me. 'we should put up with assholes because.....'

    Look. life is an unfair bitch. everyone has problems. MOST of us dont take it out on other people.

  10. Re:Now we will see by einhverfr · · Score: 4, Insightful

    It is far worse when you transfer from another location and have no friends.

    That was me. I was also raised as a Quaker (which meant I was expected by my parents to respond nonviolently).

    But years later, the father of the worst of the bullies was indicted for sexually abusing a minor. Looking back on things this many years later, there is a realization that although I had it rough, I am willing to bet that I had it easy compared to those who were bullying me.

    --

    LedgerSMB: Open source Accounting/ERP
  11. Re:Her teachers were aware of it and did nothing.. by twidarkling · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Let me say it again: Suicide Is Irrational. Without extreme methods, you simply can't drive a mentally healthy person to suicide.

    I ask this honestly, not to flame or troll, but seriously. Were you bullied in school? Like, serious, concerted bullying efforts? Because let me tell you, that qualifies. It's a systematic alienation of a human being, and destruction of their self-image. It's the causing of a mentally healthy person to become unhealthy. When I was in school, I actually saw some of my friends wither and change due to bullying. They were absolutely not the same people they were at the end of the school year as at the start. In fact, one of my friends who ended up dead (not suicide, but a lifestyle next best thing to it) probably could have traced his problems back to bullying. Unfortunately, his biggest bully was his stepfather, making it not a directly analogous case.

    --
    Canada: The US's more awesome sibling.
  12. Re:Her teachers were aware of it and did nothing.. by okooolo · · Score: 5, Insightful

    that coin has two sides.. I was raised in eastern Europe and I have to say, kids here are spoiled brats with entitlement issues. Teachers are not respected, many parents blame the school for their children's poor academic records and don't bother to actually lend a hand. Back home, bullying was never as bad as it seems to be here.Why? because over there children were taught that they depended on each other. You did not pick your classes. You did not pick you peers. In high school you had all the same classes with the same people, and most of you were friends by the fourth year. As a matter of fact classes had rivalries going on if I a student from a different class tried to bully you, your classmates would defend you no matter how popular you were. I'm astonished every time I hear about bullying in North America. In different cultures it's much less common. Could it be the culture here?

  13. Would it be legal to do this to an adult? by RexDevious · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It seems to me that a lot of activities which are described as "bullying" when done to high school kids, would be legally defined as "assault" if it were done to an adult. I understand the idea of granting minors some leniency in punishment, but I don't understand the downgrading the action simply because of the age of the victim. If those kids threw a full soda can at some 93 year old women, or pushed her down, or knocked her purse out of her hands - wouldn't that be assault, complete with arrest and pressing charges and all that?