This article was suggested to me as an alternative view of the South Hadley bullying that resulted in Phoebe Prince committing suicide last January. It's Emily Bazelon writing in Salon, and she posted it about a month ago. There's lots of comments in the blogosphere. My thoughts:
-- it does sound like the criminal charges are overkill. I have heard anecdotally that the South Hadley schools have turned a blind eye to appalling bullying for years, however, so maybe this will at least get their attention.
-- I don’t know much about the D.A., Elizabeth Scheibel, but she doesn’t come off very well here. Pottygate? Really? C'mon.
However:
-- Despite her protestations to the contrary, Bazelon sure sounds like she’s blaming the victim. Of course someone who commits suicide is unstable! That doesn’t mean she wasn’t bullied. And why all this stuff about how she was chasing all these seniors? They allowed themselves to be chased, they responded, why do they get a pass — he was having a bad break-up, he had had a hard year — and she gets blamed? I think the age difference is significant, that and her newness to town, and her being from a different country, as well. A freshman isn’t equal to a senior.
-- I don't know, but it sounds like Bazelon doesn’t have children. I have felt this way in the past when I read her writing; it’s cold and lawyerly, and there’s very little empathy or humor. I don’t get the sense that she’s ever taught or had responsibility on a smaller scale than Yale. It’s all so intellectual. She says it’s complicated, but she really has no idea.
-- I don’t know much about the D.A., Elizabeth Scheibel, but she doesn’t come off very well here. Pottygate? Really? C'mon.
However:
-- Despite her protestations to the contrary, Bazelon sure sounds like she’s blaming the victim. Of course someone who commits suicide is unstable! That doesn’t mean she wasn’t bullied. And why all this stuff about how she was chasing all these seniors? They allowed themselves to be chased, they responded, why do they get a pass — he was having a bad break-up, he had had a hard year — and she gets blamed? I think the age difference is significant, that and her newness to town, and her being from a different country, as well. A freshman isn’t equal to a senior.
-- I don't know, but it sounds like Bazelon doesn’t have children. I have felt this way in the past when I read her writing; it’s cold and lawyerly, and there’s very little empathy or humor. I don’t get the sense that she’s ever taught or had responsibility on a smaller scale than Yale. It’s all so intellectual. She says it’s complicated, but she really has no idea.
Bazelon does a great job reminding us how complicated this story is, and how little most of know about what actually happened. It's a good reminder for me not to sit in judgment of anyone in this story -- well, anyone, period -- until I've walked in their shoes for a time.
When reading your paragraph starting
ReplyDelete"-- I don't know, but it sounds like Bazelon doesn’t have children" I was so glad to sum up exactly what I was thinking about Bazelon. I did find an article online, written in 2009, stating she has a 9yr old. Having a young child is not the same as a teenager with middle school/high school issues. It would be different if her article was pure fact, salt and peppered with some not so favorable information about the child that took her own life due to bullying. Instead it was filled with an air of self righteous opinion.
Link to article--
http://www.doublex.com/blog/xxfactor/disappearance-annie-le-makes-letting-my-kids-walk-alone-harder
thanks for this. I appreciate it a lot. and of course, agreed.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with you, there are many different opinions about it, but I share your point.
ReplyDelete>>>>>"Despite her protestations to the contrary, Bazelon sure sounds like she’s blaming the victim. Of course someone who commits suicide is unstable! That doesn’t mean she wasn’t bullied."
ReplyDeleteI've never heard Bazelon claim that Prince wasn't bullied. She's brought up issues of Prince's instability because it absolutely matters to the criminal case if she was unstable. The defendants are being charged with causing her death by bullying her. If there were other factors that could have just as easily caused her suicide, it's important that they be known.
I understand people feeling uncomfortable with personal information about Phoebe Prince being revealed after her death. But if the defendants are going to be charged with causing her death - and they are being charged with that, as of now - then justice requires that the whole story be known. If Phoebe Prince had other, perhaps more deeply-seated, reasons why she wanted to kill herself, a jury needs to know that.
Bazelon does have children, and from what she's written about them she sounds like an appalling parent. In one article she wrote about how she tried to crush the dreams of her young son to become an astronomer because she thinks only people oriented issues are worthy of serious studies. In another she talked about how she wrecked her sons' birthday party by foisting an unwanted book exchange on them in lieu of presents, not backing down even though they cried. She defended herself by saying they couldn't articulate a "logical" argument against the book exchange. All in all, she comes across as a smug, controlling parent with zero insight into children.
ReplyDeleteAt the same time, much of her defense of Phoebe Prince's bullies came across as the reasoning of a thirteen year old girl: "Well, Phoebe was like, you know, going after a guy that Flannery really liked?" Apparently, it's okay to criminally harass someone if she catches your boyfriend's roving eye.
Justice takes place in the courtroom and does not require that a Slate journalist reveal personal medical information about a child who has killed herself due to relentless bullying. "People feeling uncomfortable with personal information about Phoebe Prince being revealed after her death" is one thing, that pesky federal law known as HIPPA is another. Shame, shame, shame on Bazelon for her blatantly self-serving conduct.
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