Phoebe's mother lashes out at bullies

HADLEY, Mass. (WWLP) - 15 months after the suicide of South Hadley High School student Phoebe Prince, five of her classmates have now admitted they harassed her. A statutory rape charge was dropped against one defendant, Austin Renaud.

Phoebe Prince's mother, Anne O'Brien addressed each of the girls changing their pleas in Franklin Hampshire Juvenile Court in Hadley Thursday. She said Flannery Mullins put her daughter in fear.

"Yet with Flannery Mullins numerous threats to beat her up, school, for Phoebe, became intolerable," O'Brien said.

The three girls were among five of Phoebe's classmates accused of verbally berating Prince. The South Hadley High School freshman hanged herself on January 14th of last year.

Flannery Mullins, like her two co-defendants in Juvenile court, admitted she harassed Phoebe.

Tears ran down Sharon Chanon Velazquez face as O'Brien recounted how Sharon followed Phoebe around school that fateful day and screamed at her.

O'Brien struggled to maintain her composure as she said, "She terrified my daughter with her anger, and level of aggression. Any form of physical aggression terrified Phoebe... Phoebe tried to be strong. But sometimes people want nothing more than to break you."

O'Brien's tone turned softer when she addressed Ashley Longe, with whom she met Wednesday, and who had on several occasions, admitted her behavior to police, with no promise of a plea deal.

"So for Phoebe, I would like to ask if the court could help Ashley get herself organized in every sense of the word, and continue her education, and become the person I believe she's capable of being."

Phoebe's family had agreed to the pleas and sentences: community service with at-risk children; no contact with the victim's family, and to not profit from this situation during their probation.

Assistant Northwestern District Attorney Steven Gagne said, "We have achieved their primary goal: an acknowledgment of wrong-doing, and hope to obtain, at some future date, a genuine showing of remorse."

After the juvenile court hearings, Northwestern District Attorney David Sullivan said the prosecution has shattered the myth that bullying is just a part of growing up, "The era of turning a blind eye to bullying and harassment is over.

Sullivan said the most positive thing to come out of this situation, and the suicide of Springfield bullying victim Carl Walker Hoover, was Massachusetts' new anti-bullying law.

The D.A. also revealed that, with the family's support, and in the interests of justice, the state was dropping a charge of statutory rape against Austin Renaud.  Renaud had not been charged with bullying Phoebe as the others had been.

On Wednesday, in Hampshire County Superior Court, Sean Mulveyhill and Kayla Narey received similar probation sentences with special conditions after admitting they criminally harassed Phoebe Prince.