February 17, 2011
By Staff Reporter
“It appears that Phoebe’s death on January 14 followed a torturous day for her, in which she was subjected to verbal harassment and threatened physical abuse,” said Northwestern District Attorney Elizabeth Scheibel at a press conference Monday following completion of her ten week probe into allegations that Prince was bullied for months by a group of students at South Hadley High School in western Massachusetts.
“The investigation revealed relentless activities directed toward Phoebe to make it impossible for her to stay at school,” Scheibel said. “The bullying for her was intolerable.”
Scheibel also revealed that some of the bullying had occurred in front of school staff, who did virtually nothing to stop it. She said that Prince’s mother had spoken to at least two staff members about the bullying, to no avail.
Although she concluded that the inactions of the staff did not rise to the level of criminal conduct, Scheibel called their behavior “troublesome.”
Three of the accused teens are unnamed because of their age. The six who are named include Sean Mulveyhill and Kayla Narey, who are charged with violation of civil rights with bodily injury resulting, criminal harassment, and disturbance of a school assembly. Mulveyhill and another boy, Austin Renaud, are also charged with statutory rape, the circumstances of which Scheibel declined to discuss.
Ashley Longe, Flannery Mullins, and Sharon Chanon Velazquez are charged with violation of civil rights with bodily injury resulting. Mullins and Velasquez are also charged with stalking. The accused teens will be summoned into court at a later date.
Phoebe Prince, originally from County Clare, had moved to western Massachusetts with her mother last year.
The Boston Herald, in a report, stated that “the emotionally shaken small town of South Hadley” was anxiously hoping for justice for Phoebe Prince, this before the district attorney announced the charges.
“There needs to be some punishment for those kids. They need to be held accountable. If nothing is done, nothing will change.” Jeannine O’Brien, a South Hadley mom told the daily.
Prince faced not only physical bullying but also, according to reports, psychological and emotional bullying on Facebook.