Hadley High's Mean Girls | Phoebe Prince | The Taliban

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Updated July 22, 2010: We are reviewing the new assertions in the Phoebe Prince case — that Phoebe was depressed and involved in self-multiliation. 

However, the essential point of this article remains the same. There is no dispute nationally in America that texting and ‘slut bullying’ is a massive problem for young women. And other young women — the “mean girls” are the force behind it.

Slate’s Emily Bazelon, who has worked extensively on a cyberbullying isn’t disputing the problem. She believes that the Phoebe Prince case is much more complex than originally alleged. (Follow link to Bazelon’s analysis.)

Emily Bazelon on Today Show

 

We will update our position later today. Anne

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Original article Jan. 28, 2010

This recent Boston Globe column about Phoebe Prince reminds me of why I launched Love and Peace on New Year’s Day. 

Yes, I am connecting the Taliban and American girls’ text messages. This chilling narrative goes far beyond the trite saying ‘girls will be girls.’

Phoebe Prince moved to western Massachusetts from Ireland last year. She was 15 and a freshman at South Hadley High. Phoebe had a brief fling with a senior, making her a target of the Mean Girls, who decided that Phoebe would pay for her sins.

The current facts of this story are beyond shocking, and they read as being completely factual.

Phoebe Prince is now dead. She hanged herself in the closet. Phoebe’s briefly-adopted town is in denial. The reality of the Mean Girls is public and can be traced through Facebook pages.

I am so stunned by this story and how it dovetails with my original post in Love and Peace this New Year’s Day, that we will follow this story to its conclusion.

My instincts tell me that stories like this one are happening every day in America.  You must read this narrative from Kevin Cullen: The untouchable Mean Girls. Anne