Phoebe Nora Mary Prince (November 24, 1994 - January 14, 2010) was a British-Irish student at an American high school whose suicide led to the criminal prosecution of six teenagers for charges including civil rights violations,[1] as well as to the enactment of stricter anti-bullying legislation by the Massachusetts state legislature.

[6] Phoebe Nora Mary Prince was born on November 24, 1994, in Bedford, Bedfordshire, England,[7][8] and moved to the seaside community of Fanore[9] in County Clare, Ireland, when she was two.

[12] Having recently moved to the U.S. from Ireland, Prince was taunted and bullied for several weeks by at least two groups of students at South Hadley High School, following disputes with two girls in late December 2009.

Investigations later found that Prince was in fact one of four girls bullying a student in Ireland in a dispute over a relationship with a boy.

One of the accused allegedly followed Prince home from school in a friend's car, threw an empty energy drink can at her, and yelled an insult.

Massachusetts state lawmakers sped up efforts to pass anti-bullying legislation as a result of this incident,[21][22][23][24] and the measure was signed into law on May 3, 2010.

[28] On March 29, 2010, Northwestern District Attorney Elizabeth Scheibel announced at a press conference[29] that two male and four female teenagers from South Hadley High School were indicted as adults on felony charges by a Hampshire County grand jury.

Charges ranged from statutory rape for two male teenagers, to violation of civil rights, criminal harassment, disturbance of a school assembly, and stalking.

The investigation has revealed that certain faculty, staff and administrators of the high school were also alerted to the harassment of Phoebe Prince before her death.

A lack of understanding of harassment associated with teen dating relationships seems to have been prevalent at South Hadley High School.

In reviewing this investigation, we've considered whether or not the actions or omissions to act by faculty, staff and administrators of the South Hadley public schools individually, or collectively, amounted to criminal behavior.

Another three, minors under Massachusetts law (under age 17), pleaded not guilty to delinquency charges on April 8 in Franklin-Hampshire Juvenile Court in Hadley.