South Hadley High School is a secondary school in South Hadley, Massachusetts, United States, for students in grades 9–12. The school has a student population of just over 500. The school's name is frequently referred to as "SHHS".
Having moved in 2009 to South Hadley from Ireland, Phoebe Prince was taunted and bullied for several weeks by at least two groups of students at South Hadley High School, following disputes with two girls in late December 2009.[4] On January 14, 2010, three students engaged in persistent taunting and harassment of Prince. Prince subsequently died by suicide by hanging herself in the family apartment. After her death, many crude comments about her were posted on her Facebook memorial page, most of which were removed.[5][6][7][8]
Other parents subsequently stated that bullying of their children had been completely ignored by the school administration. Massachusetts state lawmakers sped up efforts to pass anti-bullying legislation as a result.[9][10][11][12]
On March 29, 2010, two male and four female teenagers from South Hadley High School were indicted as adults on felony charges stemming from the incident, ranging from statutory rape, criminal harassment, stalking, juvenile delinquency, to assault with a deadly weapon.[13][14][15][16][17][18][19]
The district attorney directly contradicted claims by the school superintendent that school officials had been unaware of the bullying:
Contrary to previously published reports, Phoebe's harassment was common knowledge to most of the South Hadley High School student body. The investigation has revealed that certain faculty, staff and administrators of the high school also were alerted to the harassment of Phoebe Prince before her death. Prior to Phoebe's death, her mother spoke with at least two school staff members about the harassment Phoebe had reported to her ... the actions or inactions of some adults at the school are troublesome.[20][21]
In May 2011, the case was resolved, after agreements to plead guilty to lesser charges. Five of the defendants were placed on probation, with several also sentenced to community service.[22] The charges against a male student were dropped at the request of the Prince family.[23] Prince's mother settled with the town of South Hadley in October 2010, in which she agreed not to sue or reveal details of the settlement.[24]
^Nate Walsh, Court documents detail bullying of Phoebe Prince"Court documents detail bullying of Phoebe Prince". Archived from the original on 2010-07-26. Retrieved 2010-04-11. Note: additional information appears in the video posted on this news webpage, with glimpses of the actual court documents. The audio commentary for this video is incorrect about Longe throwing a bottle, as the video shot of the court document clearly shows it saying this was an empty can of "Monster Drink"
^Cullen, Kevin (January 24, 2010). "The untouchable Mean Girls". The Boston Globe. Boston.com. Archived from the original on April 14, 2010. Retrieved March 30, 2010.
^Campbell, Matthew. "Teens Charged in Bullying Still At School". CBS 3 Springfield - News and Weather for Western Massachusetts | Local News. CBS 3 Springfield. Archived from the original on April 5, 2010. Retrieved March 30, 2010.
