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"the investigation on Stephanie has not transpired because there was not enough evidence to pursue it"
clearly, you do not understand the nature of investigations. They are about GATHERING and EVALUATING evidence prior to presenting this evidence to a district attorney, who then evaluates if there is enough evidence to proceed with convening a grand jury. Who then decide if the evidence merits any charges. If the investigation is still open, obviously they are still GATHERING and EVALUATING evidence. That's like saying the police took statements and interviewed witnesses, but since no charges have been filed yet they clearly don't have a leg to stand on. Can someone lacking this much knowledge of civil and criminal investigations really be a lawyer?
and while I agree with you that Ms Viens SHOULD offer an olive branch to the Prince family, its hard to ignore the fact she HAS NOT with merely a year and change to do so. Nor does she seem capable of mentioning the young woman for whom the "Count Me In" group was ostensibly formed. You would think a woman so saddened by tragic events at her school that she took a public role in addressing those issues could at least act the part with the victim's family. My point earlier (which was deleted) was that Fred Contada seemed more saddened by the passing of Ms Viens' fashion blog than the passing of Phoebe Prince. seems a little odd . . .
the investigations against SHHS and the administration are still ongoing. Why so many felt so compelled to push for this inquiry seems to evade you.
so let me get this straight . . . a beautiful young child at South Hadley High School committed suicide after credible reports describe a day filled with torment by 2 groups of young adults, which was preceded by months of credible reported incidents of verbal and physical abuse and intimidation by these same groups. Members of those groups are currently on trial for their actions, which means a grand jury had to find the evidence of their actions credible enough to proceed. In their dire mourning of the child they sadly lost, the South Hadley High School administration allowed the young adults to attend a school dance, are under federal investigation for shredding documents and leaking privileged medical information to the press, and formed an "anti-bully" committee that has yet to publicly acknowledge SH even HAS a bullying issue, let alone reach out to the family of the victim and try to mend fences.
NOT ONE school administrator or teacher has shown even a modicum of sorrow for the victim and her family, instead treating them like they were an inconvenience to the otherwise perfect social pecking order of their school. Yet even after plastering words like RESPECT (sing it Miss Franklin!) on the school doors, a subsequent investigation is launched because of the treatment of a special needs child under their watch.
NOW the problem is how some members of the public (i.e. people OUTSIDE South Hadley) perceive these slights and demand some answers.
And there IS empirical evidence that Ms Viens has done wrong, but I agree that this would all be cleared up in a heartbeat if Gus Sayer and Ms Viens issued a public statement expressing their desire to clear the air with the Prince family and put to rest any misperceptions. ahhh . . . thump thump . . . the tell tale heart will expose the true evil in this scenario . . .
I love Fred Astaire so I am enjoying all this dancing by krymore and antirumor. You got 100 witnesses, well we got 1000! Showing no remorse is not a "crime". Burden of proof does not have to follow the evidence. Its ironic how people cry about the "perception" of South Hadley when the bully defenders do nothing but foster that stereotype. I almost think this is a deliberate conspiracy by the prosecution, because nothing turns the stomach of the public than reading the posts by krymore and antirumor. Keep up the good work, you will help secure convictions for many of those we are criticizing.
How has Veins done all this anti-bullying work and not said one public word of sympathy for Phoebe Prince or her family? How did she go to Washington and make that trip all about HERSELF and not the beautiful young woman who lost her life under SH's watch? WHY HAS SHE NOT PUBLICLY CONDEMNED THE ACTIONS OF THE SH6??? We know why, sweet Stephanie. And Sayer can't run interference for you forever.
EJ, I admire the heck out of you. To engage the deliberately obtuse is noble. Undoubtedly, they spend hours trying to pick apart any criticism with nit picking, distraction, misdirection, and false analogies. And when that fails, they fall back on drug-induced "what if" scenarios. Amd the evasion of the obvious . . . have Sayer, Viens, et al ever expressed one iota of public sympathy for Phoebe or her family? Nope. Its all about how THEY have been maligned. Not once have we heard Sayer, Boiselle, Smith, Evans, Viens, her 40 supporters or the ding-dong defenders say: "This is has been a horrible tragedy and our hearts go out to Phoebe's family. We are committed to working with them to ensure no such tragedy ever occurs in our school again, and we offer our deepest condolences to her family"
it amazes me, to this day, that what is obvious to the rest of the sane and rational world evades the cognitive dissonance known as South Hadley . . . you see Phoebe was "sick" with suicide and that might infect our other perfect little children! Certainly there is no causal relationship between relentless and unchecked bullying and a young woman who, Sayer says, "For some kids it's really a struggle to get through that period of time."
Libya was on the U.N.'s Human Rights Commission. The world is full of sick irony.
EJ has consistently been the voice of reason to counter Emily Bazelon's paid hit pieces on Phoebe. The man knows the real story, and he hasn't let anyone browbeat him from the truth. Phoebe was a victim, but I am beginning to see the SH6 were victims of crappy parents and an even worse administration that enabled instead of educated them. Had that trashy VP stepped up just once to do his job, Phoebe would still be alive and the SH6 might have actually learned something and had futures to look forward to.
the silence of the usual bully defenders is deafening. The chickens are coming home to roost.
tlkpls - I highly recommend the book "The Lucifer Effect" by Dr Phil Zimbardo to answer your questions. Some fascinating insights into social and situational ethics and psychology (Zimbardo orchestrated the famous "Stanford Prison Experiment" and goes into much detail of horrific abuses from genocide in the Congo to Abu Ghraib) . . . to answer your question simply, YES a teacher is responsible for the child who bullies another. So is the bus driver. So is the principal, the school board, the administration . . . every damn person who cashes a paycheck at that school is responsible for ensuring a safe and healthy learning environment for EVERY student. Not just the "chosen" ones. Being a passive observer (or worse in the case of South Hadley, willing participants) in the harassment and bullying of a smaller, younger, single female student by at least 2 adult males and 4 adult females is unacceptable. Yes the kids should be held accountable for the CRIMES they committed on school grounds, but the behavior won't change until the institution that creates the environment of abuse changes as well. And the institution won't change until good people in the community step forward and demand that change.
Kopec's comments seem very naive and irresponsible, which is to say if you gang up on a kid and push her to the edge of the cliff, and make her feel she has no options but to jump, then as long as your hands aren't pushing her over the edge you aren't liable for her death. Bull.