Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
THE MOTHER OF Phoebe Prince, the 15-year-old Irish girl who killed herself after being bullied at her Massachusetts school, spoke to Piers Morgan about what her daughter went through.
Anne O’Brien appeared on the Piers Morgan show on CNN earlier this week and said it was time to “take her back, to reclaim her as ours and put an end to some of the stories that were around… give Phoebe some of her dignity back”.
She said the family were taken back by the worldwide attention that the case received.
When asked how she felt when she discovered that Phoebe was dead, she said:
It was stunning ‘cos I knew she was under stress, and I was worried for her safety and I had told her the night before I had called the school the week before and spoke again to the adjustment counsellor for the third time since November.
She said she was shocked and stunned:
You don’t expect to come home and ah… and find that your amazing kid has been pushed to such a limit.
She also said she had booked her daughter a ticket to return to Ireland to take a break, and that she was due to go away there two weeks after she died.
O’Brien said she was at a loss to explain to anyone exactly how intense the bullying was, as she said she hadn’t been told by the school, South Hadley High School.
Describing her daughter as “this bright, beautiful girl”, she said she underwent systematic abuse from her bullies, one of whom wrote “she got what she deserved” about the dead teen.
She said that she realised that as a parent that “no matter what I did, now matter how many times I called the school…”that she “didn’t stand a chance there”.
Six teenagers were charged in connection with her bullying and five were convicted.
O’Brien said the family never asked for prison sentences for the teens.
When asked if she blamed the school, she said that as a teacher she “absolutely” did.
As a mother, she said:
I think that had school intervened the way they should have intervened; if they had followed up the way they should have followed up, that Phoebe would still be here, absolutely.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
Bullies are the scum of the earth. There is no justification for making someone else’s life hell, even if they’re being bullied themselves.
I was bullied before the days if anti bully policies it can toughen you up or break you
The bullys will live the rest of their lives with everyone knowing who they are and what they did. They’ll be haunted by that poor girls face. And when they grow up and have their own children they’ll have to explain why mammy or daddy drove a young girl to take her own life. I hope they suffer all the bad luck life can throw at them for the rest of their rotten lives.
well said Joe. I hope Phoebe is at peace now
Poor kid was a target to a shower of scum I believe in karma
While I totally agree with all the threads here, bullying is endemic and nothing new, you can bring in all the anti bullying legislation you like but it sadly will not change human nature! Women are particularly bad at bitching about other women.
I am speaking from experience (not me, one of my ‘kids’) whose whole self esteem, despite being 24, will never ever recover from a systematic effort to make shit of him, because he was not (and will never be thank god) a jock! Gone on to do really well academically, but still lacks self esteem, no matter what anyone says. Fuck the bullies.
Poor kid was a target to a shower of scum I’m a true believer of karma
Very sad for the Prince family!
This form of bullying is shocking with such evil evil comments even after she died.
The bullies should be in a mental institution not on community service!!
have your say