Phoebe Prince case news in National Child Abuse Prevention Month

The month of April brings April showers, spring flowers, and tax time.
April is also National Child Abuse Prevention Month. Perhaps the recent news of Phoebe Prince, now the poster girl re: bullying, will help keep child abuse prevention on the public radar, if not its conscience and everyday awareness. This case is a "Call For Action."
In case anyone has not been following the case, it has all the makings of a fairy tale from the dark side.
Phoebe Prince, 15, native of Ireland, was the new girl at South Hadley High School in Hadley, MA. She was pretty and personable enough to start dating a popular senior football player
in her first freshman weeks. Little did she know, by dating this guy, she was incurring the wrath of his on and off again sophomore girlfriend and her equally mean friends.
The American welcome Phoebe's parents had wished for her would never be realized.
The American experience forced on Phoebe was beyond mere bullying. It was criminal.
Her American welcome did not materialize. Instead, she was
singled out by a group of extreme "Mean Girls" (and ultimately two "Tough Guys") for uber-harassment. But unfortunately, the actions of these lovelorn, misguided teenagers were met with inaction from "numerous faculty members, staff members, and administrators" who "were aware or witnessed physical abuse", according to criminal complaints filed in Juvenile Court by case prosecutor Elizabeth Dunphy Farris.
After months of complaints that the bullies involved were not being punished, the charges are sweeping including "statutory rape, violation of civil rights with bodily injury, criminal harassment and stalking." For more disturbing details, go to http://www.masslive.com/.
Other elements in the case are also particularly disheartening. There are two male students involved and charged, so much for positive peer intervention. Sometimes an opinion from the other gender can be a sounding board of reason.
The torment of Phoebe lasted three months before she sadly chose suicide on January 14.
The tormentors had not missed a beat: text messages, used online social networks, etc. (enough to impress any marketing firm), including Craiglist, Facebook, Twitter. Of course, the "traditional" methods of bullying were also in their arsenal, with unrelenting verbal attacks, stalking their prey.
The accused mean girls declared (in writing) their mission "accomplished" after
learning of Phoebe's death. The entire school it would seem is desensitized- only recently holding a candlelight vigil, after the tragedy became national news.
Accounts of the unrelenting verbal attacks, even in the school library and cafeteria, on her walk home- attest there was no peace for Phoebe.