Posted on 03/31/2010 2:44:41 PM PDT by jerry557
The mother of one of the "Mean Girls" charged with bullying 15-year-old Phoebe Prince to death defended her daughter Tuesday, saying she never lifted a hand against the tormented girl but just "called her names."
Angeles Chanon admitted that her daughter, Sharon Chanon Velazquez, 16, had once been suspended from school for verbally abusing Phoebe - but blamed the bullied girl for starting it.
"(Sharon) exchanged a couple of words with her," Chanon told the Boston Herald. "Phoebe was calling her names. They're teenagers. They call names."
Chanon insisted her daughter never "physically assaulted" Phoebe, no matter what the District Attorney says.
"I know she knows better than that. I wouldn't accept that," she said.
Sharon was one of nine Massachusetts teenagers charged Monday with tormenting Phoebe "relentlessly" for three months, until the despairing recent immigrant from a small Ireland village hanged herself Jan. 14.
Sharon was charged with stalking and violation of civil rights resulting in bodily injury.
In Massachusetts, public anger was turning from the Mean Girls - so mean they left vicious comments on Phoebe's Facebook memorial page - to the teachers who repeatedly failed to protect Phoebe, but were not charged criminally.
District Attorney Elizabeth Scheibel said Phoebe's persecution was "common knowledge" at the school, and even witnessed by teachers, who said nothing.
Her mother had twice asked school officials to help put a stop to her daughter's misery, Schiebel said.
The day she killed herself, a teacher saw kids harassing Phoebe in the school library - but said nothing until after the suffering girl's body was found hanging in her home.
The district attorney called the failure of adults at the school to stop the harassment "troublesome," but not criminal.
"We sought the charges that we feel were most appropriate for these activities," Scheibel said.
(Excerpt) Read more at nydailynews.com ...
You are addressing why this irresponsibility exists, but that does not in anyway lessen the moral and social responsibility of the teachers and administrators involved. The DA should be addressing those in positions of responsibility as well as the actors involved IMHO
Although it’s the bullies who should be punished, I don’t understand why this girl’s family or school didn’t remove her from this awful situation.
It reminds me of incidents that happen in college dorms - if someone is not following the rules and making life miserable, the college’s solution is to offer to move the one who bothers to complain, rather than enforce the rules or move those who are breaking them.
“And abuse of civil rights? What civil rights? Do we have a right to not be insulted?”
Teachers can spot patters of consistent bullying and distinguish it from one-off interpersonal rivalry. School boards are famous for expelling students for bringing an aspirin tablet to school - why are they so reluctant to expel bullies?
Hopefully the police are building a case against the rapist.
That's really a myth about Columbine, one of many that have gone on over the years. Eric and Dylan weren't bullied. They weren't outcasts. They weren't part of a "trenchcoat mafia." In fact, they were quite normal. In the typical clique hierarchy, they were pretty much in the middle of the pecking order.
It is the inaction of responsible people that are ultimately at fault.
When you look at all the cases of school shootings, there are warning signs EVERYWHERE. No one wakes up one day and suddenly decides to shoot-up a school.
Same thing with the kid at Virginia Tech. He was posting hate videos on the internet and creating very violent literature for months before his rampage. Many people knew about it, and did nothing.
Of course you’re right, but the DA isn’t going to mess with the teacher’s union. Maybe someone will get a letter placed in his personnel file.
Look, the teachers and may be the administrators are members of the union. The union supports the Democrat party. The Democrat party says minorities are protected and only minorities can be victims. The deceased is an immigrant, not a protected minority. Therefore, she is not a victim. The union members will not be punished.
Parents listen to your children when they tell you they are being bullied it might save their life at school it happens more than you know..
Well, the shooters of the future will be glad to know this. No sense in doing the suicide thing afterward when someone else is "ultimately at fault," right?
Yeah all the government employee unions are dangerous entities. That’s why Reagan shut them out when the flight controllers tried to strike!
This “mother” is a product of the public school system. She is sef-centered and amoral, just like her thuggish daughter. This was inevitable when they started indoctrinating America’s children into becoming moral relativists. The kid should do jail time, but it won’t happen.
But if you home school, how will your child be “socialized” ? /sarc
Thats one of the biggest problems, the parents of the bullies can never except that their kid may be a little &hit and the schools find it more convienent to get rid of the victims instead of confronting the bullies and their parents.
I see this as the wussifying of America.
At most, the bullies should be suspended. Or the parents should call each other.
SEIU has pretty much destroyed California. Now they are trying to make their Butt Boy Brown the next governor to finish the job.
is school compulsory? If so these students should be able to file against the school and the kid just like harassment in any work situation.
Given the parents envolved, I can only imagine what they would call each other.
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