Consultant to Mass. school where 9 are charged in bullying didn’t use all her advice

Bullying expert: Mass. school didn’t use advice

BOSTON — An anti-bullying consultant says school officials in western Massachusetts didn’t follow all the advice she gave them months before a harassed freshman girl committed suicide.

Barbara Coloroso told CBS’ “The Early Show” on Tuesday that schools need procedures to protect victims and punish perpetrators, and programs to prevent further problems. She says South Hadley schools “had policies, but the procedures need to be toughened up.”

Coloroso said she consulted with parents and administrators months before 15-year-old Phoebe Prince hanged herself in January. Authorities say she endured months of verbal assaults and threats, mostly in school and in person, although some of the bullying occurred on Facebook and in other electronic forms.

“This is a wake-up call, and I think it will happen,” Coloroso said.

Nine fellow students face charges in connection with her death, including two teen boys charged with statutory rape and a clique of girls charged with stalking, criminal harassment and violating Phoebe’s civil rights. School officials won’t be charged, even though authorities say they knew about the bullying.

School officials have not returned messages left by The Associated Press.

Northwestern District Attorney Elizabeth Scheibel, who announced the charges Monday, said the events that occurred between September and Phoebe’s death Jan. 14 were “the culmination of a nearly three-month campaign of verbally assaultive behavior and threats of physical harm.”

Scheibel said the case is still under investigation and that one other person could be charged. It’s unknown whether the teens who have been charged have attorneys.

Schiebel refused to discuss the circumstances of the rape charges.

No school officials are being charged because they had “a lack of understanding of harassment associated with teen dating relationships,” and the school’s code of conduct was interpreted and enforced in an “inconsistent” way, Scheibel said.

“Nevertheless, the actions — or inactions — of some adults at the school are troublesome,” she said.

Phoebe was born in Bedford, England and moved to County Clare, Ireland, when she was 2. She moved last summer to South Hadley because the family had relatives there.

Her family has since moved away and could not immediately be located for comment.