Advertisement

We need your help now

Support from readers like you keeps The Journal open.

You are visiting us because we have something you value. Independent, unbiased news that tells the truth. Advertising revenue goes some way to support our mission, but this year it has not been enough.

If you've seen value in our reporting, please contribute what you can, so we can continue to produce accurate and meaningful journalism. For everyone who needs it.

In this Jan. 15, 2010 photo, flowers are attached to a fence outside the home in South Hadley, Mass., where Phoebe Prince, 15, originally from Ireland, had killed herself the previous day. AP Photo/The Republican, Dave Roback
Phoebe Prince

Friends denounce Phoebe Prince article

Family friend suggests controversial article will influence jury.

FAMILY FRIENDS OF Irish schoolgirl Phoebe Prince, who committed suicide in January, have reacted angrily to a piece posted online yesterday by Slate magazine.

The piece, entitled “Was Phoebe Prince Once a Bully?”, suggested that Price had bullied girls in the school she attended in Ireland before moving to the US with her family.

The article says:

In seventh grade in Ireland, she acted like a bully, not a victim. This doesn’t change the fact that Phoebe was later bullied herself, or that this bullying was wrong. But it does add yet another layer of complexity to her story, one that speaks to the universality and fluidity of kids’ bad behaviour.

Six high school students from the Massachusetts school Prince, 15, was attending have been arrested in connection with her death.

Family friend Darby O’Brien said he doesn’t see what Ireland has to do with the situation in South Hadley.

He suggested that the article is part of a ploy to poison potential jurors against the prosecution in the case against the students charged in the US.

A second friend told the Boston Herald that the Slate article’s author had crossed a line in her portrayal of the troubled teen:

This is just tabloid blogging. She’s doing it for her own fame and glory.

A pre-trial hearing for three of the teens charged in connection with Prince’s death is scheduled for 15 September.