On March 30th, 2010, the New York Times published an article about high school bullying. When fifteen-year-old Phoebe Prince moved from Ireland to western Massachusetts, she soon found her self stuck in an extremely hostile environment. Unable to cope with the relentless bullies at her school, Phoebe chose to end her own life one day after school. Now, many people hold the bullies directly responsible for Phoebe’s suicide.
The article, located in the U.S. News section, strives to be an impartial overview of the case, but invariably, the authors’ opinions creep in. Katie Zezima Erik Eckholm co-wrote the article. The opening sentence states that it is unknown what the students who bullied Phoebe, and who have subsequently been charged with several federal indictments, meant to instigate with their bullying. Certainly, the authors’ reason, the bullies did not wish for Phoebe to commit suicide. With this assertion, the article seemingly sticks up for the charged bullies. However, by giving the reader the harsh image of a fifteen-year old girl hanging herself in the stairwell, the article immediately solicits sympathy and anger from the reader.
None of the charged bullies or members of Phoebe’s family are quoted from in the two-page article. The district attorney defending Phoebe Prince is heavily quoted, as are a few experts in the legal field. The authors’ are trying to sort out a complicated and emotional case without going directly to the source. A sixteen-year-old female sophomore from Phoebe’s high school is the only student interviewed. She admits to not knowing Phoebe before proceeding to theorize on why the bullies targeted Phoebe. Without speaking to any of the charged bullies or to the family of the victim, the authors attempt to make factual and logical conclusions regarding the case. A lot of the facts are shrouded and not made available, but the article tries to appear knowledgeable.
The article brings up examples from other cases that dealt with victims of bullies. Legal experts explained that bullying has always been a gray area in the law, and can be difficult to define. The article ends with a New York case that was settled last year, where a New York school district paid a bullied boy $50,000 and increased training about bullies for staff. Through citing an example where a victim was successful in the court, the article gives hope to the family of Phoebe.
In writing an article about bullying, these authors are not tacking anything new. Bullies in school have been around since the beginning of schools. Grandparents, parents, single thirty-somethings, teenagers, and anyone else who scans the article will be able to conjure up memories and images associated with bullies. Bullying manifests itself in many different forms. As the article mentions, bullying is a tricky subject to take on because it is so hard to find and punish bullies. Most bullying happens away from teachers and authority figures, and therefore most bullying charges rest on allegations.
At the end of the article, the reader does not necessarily walk away having learned something. They see that bullying still persists in schools, that in one uncommon instance, a girl tragically resorted to suicide. But, the article is not reporting a scenario where in a groundbreaking trial Phoebe’s family manage to change the law in Massachusetts regarding bullying. The reader is really only seeing a small slice of the picture, in the direct aftermath of the suicide, where the family is suing nine bullies. However, the way the article flows along, one walks away feeling that they have learned something about bullying in schools today.
Works Cited
Eckholm, Erik, and Katie Zezima. "9 Teenagers Are Charged After Classmate's Suicide." The New Times 30 Mar 2010: A14. Online.
