Last night I watched a painful, difficult, yet very important interview with Piers Morgan and Anne O'Brien, the mother of the late Phoebe Prince, whom you might recall, took her own life after being relentlessly bullied at her South Hadley, Massachusetts school in January of last year. Phoebe was just 15-years-old at the time of her death, and last night, her mother gave her first interview about the loss of her daughter, the school system that failed her, and the role that social media played in her daughter's tragedy.
I have to tell you, over the course of my life, I have watched hundreds of media interviews and have always felt the grief of the mourning families come across my television screen and move right into my heart. I have cried, been angered, and often times, simply shook my head at the senselessness of whatever tragic story was told. But last night's interview was so raw, so fresh, so painful to watch, that I found myself physicially shielding my eyes because I simply could not take in the unspeakable grief and sorrow that came across as Ms. O'Brien calmly, tearfully, and sorrowfully told the story of the last months of her daughter's life. Her pain, her unanswered questions, and her still-utter disbelief that she was actually telling the story about how her own daughter ended her life, was so palpable, that I could hear and feel my heart beating in my chest with every word Ms. O'Brien bravely uttered.
Phoebe, her sister, and her mother relocated to Massachusetts in 2009, after leaving Ireland the year before Phoebe's suicide. Once in the U.S., Ms. O'Brien reached out to Phoebe's school counselors to let them know that Phoebe was vulnerable to being bullied and that she was the kind of child to internalize her feelings. She took this proactive measure, she said, to alert school officials to any potential problems. Later, when other teen girls started to bully Phoebe, Ms. O'Brien met repeatedly with school officials and the school's guidance counselor, urging them to intervene. According to Ms. O'Brien, most of the bullying occurred in the high school's hallways, and so she believed the school would assist her in bringing the bullying to a halt. Sadly, this never occurred.
To add insult to injury, after Phoebe's death, one of the bullies who tormented Phoebe took to the Web and posted "Done" on her Facebook page, as if Phoebe's suicide was the triumphant conclusiong to a well-hatched plan. To watch Ms. O'Brien talk about reading that post was excruciating.
Several of the girls whose relentlessly tortured Phoebe were charged with a variety of offenses--some pleaded guilty and one girl's charges were eventually dropped. Nonetheless, the senseless bullying and tragic suicide of Phoebe Prince sent shock waves across the county--and the world--and has led to demands for stricter anti-bullying policies at schools.
If you'd like to see Ms. O'Brien's devastating interview, you can watch it here.
To learn more about what you can do to stop bullying, help your child, or the specific anti-bullying laws in your state, visit: http://www.stopbullying.gov/
Until Next Time,
Jodi
