From the April 8 issue of The New York Times: "We were aware of some of the things that changed for Phoebe, but we weren't aware of any bullying," Mr. Sayer said. "If she had said she was being bullied we would have acted on it immediately." [emphasis added]
That is bulls---. I'm not one to use vulgarity in a column, but I have never been so viscerally upset upon sitting down to write an article. Simply as a human being, but especially as a future teacher and as a former recipient of always malevolent and sometimes physically violent bullying, I was disgusted by this response.
Let me be clear: It is not in any way, shape or form Prince's fault that she was a victim of bullying. It was not her responsibility to explicitly spell out exactly what was happening to her. It was, however, the job of school officials and teachers to reach out to her in a meaningful way, and it is now the time for these people to own responsibility for allowing such acts of violence to culminate in a tragic suicide.
