The very word is ugly. Tormenting the weak, the defenceless, the vulnerable, the different, the new, the ‘strange’. Among our many unattractive human traits, bullying stands out as one of the most contemptible.
Phoebe Prince left Fanore in Co. Clare with her mother and sister in the autumn of 2009 for a new life in America. A few short months later, the pretty fifteen-year-old was dead, hounded by the remorseless bullying of a gang of ‘normal’ high-school teenagers into a pitch-dark place of despair. Phoebe almost made it home on January 14th, but not quite; her ‘baby’ sister, Lauren (12), arriving shortly after, found Phoebe’s lifeless body in the stairwell to their 2nd Floor apartment, hanging by the orange scarf that Lauren had given her for Christmas. Not that making it home would have made much difference to Phoebe – when the school-bell ended the opportunities for face-to-face torment, cyber bullying took over via torrents of jeering, sneering messages to her phone and Facebook. When the extent of the abuse became public, there was outrage, and indictments have now been brought against a group of her fellow students; the inaction of teachers and staff has also been heavily criticised though, as yet, no charges have been laid. One of the more shocking facts uncovered by the investigation was that, even after Phoebe died, abusive material continued to pour into her Facebook page.
Sadly, the world headlines engendered by Phoebe’s case aren’t because of its rarity – on any given day, there are many thousands of Phoebes in schools all around the world, young adolescents whose already complex lives are made a living hell by their peers and/or superiors. Many follow Phoebe’s path, unable to take any more; others manage to avoid this ultimate act but end up psychologically broken for life.
Who knows why some humans, who would vehemently deny that they are twisted sadists, turn so viciously on their own kind, victims who pose them no threat?
I found one very chilling (and enlightening) account in an award-winning piece written by John Burghoffer (10) of Eagle’s Nest School, Renvyle, Connemara, Co. Galway (see inset).
