Parents: Schools failed to halt longstanding problem
By Frank Mortimer
An eighth-grade girl has been hospitalized since Sunday for emotional distress allegedly brought on by longstanding bullying at the Ahern Middle School.
The trauma peaked Friday when hostile calls to the girl at her birthday party left her in tears, her parents say.
They filed a complaint Tuesday with Foxboro police.
Carla Carey says her daughter has been the victim of a bully for months, and that despite the family's complaints to Foxboro school officials, the problem has continued.
Police say they're taking the case seriously.
"At this point we're looking at it as a criminal harassment investigation," said police Detective Timothy O'Leary, the department's youth officer.
O'Leary said the police department plans to subpoena phone records in an attempt to identify who placed the calls Friday night that the girl found so upsetting.
O'Leary said he met Tuesday with Ahern Principal Sue Abrams and Assistant Principal Trent Danella, and separately discussed the allegations with Assistant District Attorney Erin McIntyre, chief of the DA's juvenile unit.
Abrams voiced concern with the girl's continued distress, which Carey communicated to her and Superintendent Christopher Martes by e-mail Sunday night.
School leaders said a safety plan for the girl was put in place on Feb. 11 after separate meetings with the Careys and the parents of her alleged primary foe, a former friend.
Carey said she was not informed of the plan until Tuesday, and that she and her husband, Phillip Carey, left the Feb. 11 meeting "in disgust" after Ahern administrators "blamed the victim" by attributing the problem to her child's misinterpretation of events.
"We told her that was the plan we were going to initiate," Martes said.
Since that plan was put in place, no new instances of bullying of the student were reported by anyone, Abrams and Martes said.
While of concern to school officials, they said, the calls reportedly made to the girl at her home Friday night occurred away from school and out of the staff's immediate control.
"I feel we've been very comprehensive about it and haven't heard any complaints from February to Monday," Martes said of the school's response over recent months.
The response included keeping the girls apart in the cafeteria and assigning staff to watch for signs of hostile activity, Abrams said.
Carey said her daughter's party at home for her 14th birthday was interrupted Friday night by two threatening phone calls, which left the girl weeping in front on her guests.
On her mother's advice, she did not pick up a third call. The caller left a message labeling the girl a "whore," her mother said. The caller's number was blocked, she said.
Carey said her daughter, who was seeing a private counselor, was hospitalized as a precaution Sunday night after expressing "hopelessness" and saying "nobody will listen to me."
She said the hospital, which she preferred not to name, will not release her daughter until the school provides a new "safety plan."
Cary said Abrams got in touch with the hospital Tuesday after she and her husband went to the police.
After receiving Carey's e-mail Sunday night, Abrams said, she put out a notice asking all teachers if they've seen any hint of bullying of the girl in school, and the response was no.
Carey detailed her concerns about adult and child tolerance of bullying after reading a news report last week about the school department's plan for additional anti-bullying efforts involving students, parents and teachers.
She says Martes's plan appears to be in compliance with new state laws, but charged, however, that to date the school department has failed to adequately protect her daughter, and that school staff need to be better trained to spot and intervene when intimidation occurs.
She said students learn to hurt a peer not only in obvious ways but subtle ways that have damaging effects when continued over a long period of time.
In her daughter's case, Carey says student witnesses refused to speak up and the school's investigation concluded that no bullying occurred.
Carey said the bullying has continued, seriously impairing her daughter's health and ability to concentrate in school.
Responding to the suicide of a South Hadley high school student in January and proposed anti-bullying legislation on Beacon Hill, Foxboro school officials on April 5 discussed the need to better define bullying in student handbooks for all grades.
Martes said Foxboro's goal is to define bullying, educate the faculty more fully, communicate the message to parents, and help students to feel comfortable about reporting.
Carey says harassment of her daughter has been "subtle and sneaky," including obscene gestures behind the teacher's back.
The trauma peaked Friday when hostile calls to the girl at her birthday party left her in tears, her parents say.
They filed a complaint Tuesday with Foxboro police.
Carla Carey says her daughter has been the victim of a bully for months, and that despite the family's complaints to Foxboro school officials, the problem has continued.
Police say they're taking the case seriously.
"At this point we're looking at it as a criminal harassment investigation," said police Detective Timothy O'Leary, the department's youth officer.
O'Leary said the police department plans to subpoena phone records in an attempt to identify who placed the calls Friday night that the girl found so upsetting.
O'Leary said he met Tuesday with Ahern Principal Sue Abrams and Assistant Principal Trent Danella, and separately discussed the allegations with Assistant District Attorney Erin McIntyre, chief of the DA's juvenile unit.
Abrams voiced concern with the girl's continued distress, which Carey communicated to her and Superintendent Christopher Martes by e-mail Sunday night.
School leaders said a safety plan for the girl was put in place on Feb. 11 after separate meetings with the Careys and the parents of her alleged primary foe, a former friend.
Carey said she was not informed of the plan until Tuesday, and that she and her husband, Phillip Carey, left the Feb. 11 meeting "in disgust" after Ahern administrators "blamed the victim" by attributing the problem to her child's misinterpretation of events.
"We told her that was the plan we were going to initiate," Martes said.
Since that plan was put in place, no new instances of bullying of the student were reported by anyone, Abrams and Martes said.
While of concern to school officials, they said, the calls reportedly made to the girl at her home Friday night occurred away from school and out of the staff's immediate control.
"I feel we've been very comprehensive about it and haven't heard any complaints from February to Monday," Martes said of the school's response over recent months.
The response included keeping the girls apart in the cafeteria and assigning staff to watch for signs of hostile activity, Abrams said.
Carey said her daughter's party at home for her 14th birthday was interrupted Friday night by two threatening phone calls, which left the girl weeping in front on her guests.
On her mother's advice, she did not pick up a third call. The caller left a message labeling the girl a "whore," her mother said. The caller's number was blocked, she said.
Carey said her daughter, who was seeing a private counselor, was hospitalized as a precaution Sunday night after expressing "hopelessness" and saying "nobody will listen to me."
She said the hospital, which she preferred not to name, will not release her daughter until the school provides a new "safety plan."
Cary said Abrams got in touch with the hospital Tuesday after she and her husband went to the police.
After receiving Carey's e-mail Sunday night, Abrams said, she put out a notice asking all teachers if they've seen any hint of bullying of the girl in school, and the response was no.
Carey detailed her concerns about adult and child tolerance of bullying after reading a news report last week about the school department's plan for additional anti-bullying efforts involving students, parents and teachers.
She says Martes's plan appears to be in compliance with new state laws, but charged, however, that to date the school department has failed to adequately protect her daughter, and that school staff need to be better trained to spot and intervene when intimidation occurs.
She said students learn to hurt a peer not only in obvious ways but subtle ways that have damaging effects when continued over a long period of time.
In her daughter's case, Carey says student witnesses refused to speak up and the school's investigation concluded that no bullying occurred.
Carey said the bullying has continued, seriously impairing her daughter's health and ability to concentrate in school.
Responding to the suicide of a South Hadley high school student in January and proposed anti-bullying legislation on Beacon Hill, Foxboro school officials on April 5 discussed the need to better define bullying in student handbooks for all grades.
Martes said Foxboro's goal is to define bullying, educate the faculty more fully, communicate the message to parents, and help students to feel comfortable about reporting.
Carey says harassment of her daughter has been "subtle and sneaky," including obscene gestures behind the teacher's back.
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