Discussion List for campus-based and allied personnel working to end gender-based violence on campus.

 “SUICIDE BY BULLYING” IS PREVENTABLE

By Wendy J. Murphy
(copyright 2010)

After South Hadley high school student Phoebe Prince took her own 
life,Massachusetts lawmakers scrambled to explain why they haven’t yetpassed 
a meaningful anti-bullying law.  They should be ashamed ofthemselves, but 
their foot-dragging should not distract us frompointing the primary finger of 
blame at South Hadley school officials. They knew the vicious behavior that 
pushed Phoebe Prince to commitsuicide involved relentless verbal assaults 
from students who calledthe girl a “slut, “Irish slut" and other derogatory 
names based ongender.  It was obviously bullying, but it was also severe, 
pervasiveand gender-specific verbal torture, which is sexual harassment, thus 
aviolation of Title IX – the federal anti-discrimination law that 
hasforbidden sexual harassment in schools since its enactment in the 
early1970s.

Some forms of bullying don’t rise to the level of harassment, and eventhe 
most hateful comments cannot be prohibited in the real worldbecause speech is 
constitutionally protected.  But schools are specialplaces where speech CAN 
be regulated in certain circumstances, as whenit amounts to targeted 
harassment based on race, religion, ethnicity,gender, etc.  As one federal 
appeals court recently ruled,“intimidation by name calling” is not protected 
speech on campus andschools are “expected to prevent it” because “there is 
noconstitutional right to be a bully”.

When Title IX applies, federal law mandates that schools take “promptand 
effective” steps to stop sexual harassment.  Yet South Hadleyschool officials 
did nothing “effective” to protect Phoebe because theytreated the situation 
as simple bullying - which is not prohibited byfederal law and does not 
obligate schools to intervene.

Phoebe and her family could have insisted that the school handle thesituation 
as a Title IX matter, but the public doesn't understand therelationship 
between Title IX and gender-specific bullying.  We’ve allbeen misled to 
believe the primary goal of Title IX is to ensure thatgirls and boys have the 
same number of basketballs.

Sports equity is important, but the more compelling purpose of Title IXis the 
prevention of gender discrimination, including sexualharassment, sexual 
violence and bullying “based on” gender.

Schools rarely acknowledge speech-based sexual harassment when they seeit, 
and even when they do, they try to avoid getting involved when anyof the 
conduct occurs off-campus.  Officials typically claim they haveauthority only 
for harassment that occurs “on campus” or in connectionwith a 
school-sponsored activity.  

Nonsense.

Title IX applies so long as there is a “nexus” between the harassmentand the 
school environment.  Thus, even if the harmful conduct occursin a cyber-venue 
such as Facebook, school officials have to step in. The test is not where did 
the speech originate but rather, where didthe harmful effects land?  If one 
student’s off-campus harassmentinterferes with another student’s on-campus 
education, schools have theright and the DUTY to do something “effective” 
about it.  

Doing something ”effective” includes punishing the harassers/bullies. But the 
failure of schools to inform all students that bullying CAN bea violation of 
Title IX will make punishment in South Hadley difficultbecause the bullies 
will claim they didn’t know what they were doingwas illegal.  Schools can't 
punish students for doing something wrongunless the students were on notice 
that it was against the rules.  Thisfact alone is a strong argument in favor 
of better education effortsaround the relationship between Title IX and 
bullying.

The best way to stop bullies of all kinds is to make sure every 
schooldisciplinary code connects the dots between bullying and federal 
lawsagainst targeted harassment.  Since schools have had decades to getthis 
done, and have failed, a lawsuit against South Hadley on thetheory that 
school officials caused the death of Phoebe Prince byviolating her rights 
under Title IX will help put the dots togetherreal fast.

Suing a public school is unpopular, but the needless death of a younggirl is 
reason enough to do it in this case.  Financial pain willchange school 
culture better and more quickly than hand-wringing, newanti-bullying laws, 
revised training programs and even a ton of badpress.

A high profile lawsuit explaining why Phoebe Prince did not have to diewill 
expose the truth about what happened in South Hadley and willincentivize all 
schools to adopt more effective policies against allforms of harassment and 
bullying.  A lawsuit will also help to educateparents and children about 
their rights.  It won't bring Phoebe back,but it will mean she did not die in 
vain.