THREE more of the six teenagers charged in connection with the suicide of Irish student Phoebe Prince in the US were sentenced yesterday.
Both Sharon Velazquez (17), and Ashley Longe (17) admitted to a criminal harassment charge while Flannery Mullins (18), admitted to a civil rights violation and a disturbing of an assembly charge. All three women will remain on probation until their next birthdays.
Prince, a teenager whose family had immigrated to the US from Co Clare, killed herself in January 2010 at her family’s home in South Hadley, Massachusetts. Having been bullied by other students at the town’s high school, her death made international headlines, sparking a national debate in the US on school bullying.
Prosecutors said that in early January 2010 Velazquez had approached Prince in the school corridor and loudly called her a disparaging term. Later in the day, in the canteen, she ordered Prince to “stay away from Flannery Mullins’s boyfriend”.
The court heard that Mullins was said to have been overheard on several occasions disparaging Prince in front of other students, with remarks that were at times vulgar.
In an emotional address to the court, Prince’s mother Anne O’Brien said: “Phoebe soldiered on, struggling to get through the day, hoping the next one to be better. Phoebe tried to be strong, but sometimes all people want to do is break you.”
In a victim impact statement, Ms O’Brien described her daughter as “a sensitive and gentle girl”, who “feared any form of aggression”. She said Velazquez “terrified my daughter with her anger. She asked her to leave her alone, but she would not.”
She said she hoped Velazquez would reflect on her actions but expressed doubt that she would.
The sentencing comes the day after teenagers Kayla Narey and Sean Mulveyhill were also sentenced in connection with the case. Both were sentenced to a year’s probation and 100 hours of community service at the Franklin-Hampshire Juvenile Court, 160km west of Boston.
Narey (18) had shed tears as she apologised to Prince’s family, saying her jealousy over 15-year-old Prince’s affair with her boyfriend blinded her. Narey taunted Prince in the library and on the grounds of South Hadley High and posted insults on her Facebook page.
The verdicts are the result of a plea bargain negotiated by Prince’s family and the defendants to spare all a painful trial.
A sixth teenager, Austin Renaud (19), due to appear in court in July, has not been charged with bullying but has pleaded not guilty to a charge of statutory rape.