by Tom Lickona
Phoebe Prince, 15, moved to the U.S. from Ireland in summer, 2009. At her high school that fall, some students called her an “Irish slut” after she had a brief relationship with a popular senior boy. They would knock books out of her hands, attack her on Facebook, and send her threatening text messages, day after day. On January 14, 2010, students harassed her in the library, lunchroom, and hallways, and threw a canned drink at her as she walked home. That afternoon, her sister found her hanging from a stairwell in their home. Six students, two boys and four girls, were charged with felonies including statutory rape, harassment, and violation of civil rights. Carl Walker-Hoover had always enjoyed sports, Scouts, and school. In 6th-grade, however, he began acting out in class. He eventually told his mother that some other kids had been picking on him, saying he acted "like a girl." She complained to the school, but he wouldn't tell on his classmates. The harassment continued. On April 6, 2009, his mother found Carl hanging from a rafter. It took a rash of “bullycides” like these to finally galvanize society's resolve to deal proactively with school bullying.Nearly every state now has some form of bullying prevention legislation. New Jersey’s 2010 law is one of the toughest. School personnel must report bullying incidents to the principal on the same day they learn about it. An investigation must begin within one school day and be completed within 10 school days, after which a solution must be carried out. The law applies to all school-related functions, and to bullying off school grounds (such as cyberbullying) "whose effects carry into school.” Finally, there must be “year-round anti-bullying instruction appropriate to each grade."
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