After a column in the Boston Globe blamed "mean girls" and bullying for Prince's suicide, and some South Hadley residents accused the school district of shirking its responsibility to help Prince and later to investigate the circumstances leading up to her death, the district attorney's office in Western Massachusetts brought an array of charges against six teenagers. (A sixth teen was not accused of bullying Phoebe but was charged with statutory rape, for allegedly having sex with her when she was 15 and he was 18.) District Attorney David Sullivan said prosecutors decided to drop the charge against Renaud at the request of Prince's family and "in the interests of justice." Prosecutors agreed to drop the most serious charges against them.
– Five teens accused of bullying teenage classmate Phoebe Prince into suicide accepted plea deals today and yesterday and will get probation and community service but no jail time. Charges have been dropped against a sixth teen accused of statutory rape, notes AP. Phoebe's mother once again publicly addressed her daughter's tormentors today with an emotional statement, reports the Boston Globe. “Phoebe tried to be strong, but sometimes all people want to do is break you,” said Anne O'Brien. Referring to one of the accused teens at today's hearing, she said the girl had "terrified my daughter with her anger." Afterward, the teen "began to gently cry, continuing for 20 seconds or so in a still courtroom," writes Peter Schworm of the Globe. Phoebe, a 15-year-old Irish immigrant, hanged herself in January. Click to read an account of the case by Emily Bazelon at Slate, who has written extensively on cyberbullying.