Bullycide: A brief history of the Phoebe Prince phenomenon

(Image credit: Corbis)

last updated 8 January 2015

The suicide of Phoebe Prince has familiarized Americans with the term "bullycide," but unfortunately, the phenomenon of adolescent suicide linked to bullying is not new. By many accounts, it's getting worse, as social networking and text-messaging have expanded the bully's toolkit: Studies show that between 33 percent and 42 percent of kids say they've been attacked or humiliated online. The Week looks back at some key incidents in the sad history of "bullycide":

Jared High

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Halligan, 13, hanged himself after years of bullying. According to his father, John Halligan, Ryan had been able to stave off physical assaults after learning Taebo kick-boxing techniques, but was eventually overwhelmed by psychological harassment at his Essex Junction, VT, middle school. After Ryan's suicide, John discovered instant-message archives revealing that one so-called "friend" had spread a rumor that Ryan was gay; a female schoolmate had flirted with Ryan to gather embarrassing secrets, only to broadcast them. John Halligan became an early proponent of anti-cyber-bullying legislation. (Wikipedia, RyanPatrickHalligan.com)

In the first high-profile case of cyber-bullying, Missouri teenager Megan Meier hanged herself weeks before her 14th birthday, after she was cruelly "dumped" by a fictitious boy, "Josh Evans," with whom she'd corresponded via MySpace and IM. In his final message, "Josh" wrote: "You are a bad person and everybody hates you. Have a shitty rest of your life. The world would be a better place without you." Josh, it turned out, had been created by a friend's mom, Lori Drew, reportedly to "mess with" Megan for slighting her daughter. Vilified by the media, Drew was convicted, then acquitted, of federal misdemeanor charges related to Megan's suicide. The case has prompted several cyber-bullying laws. (Fox News, Wikipedia)

Mohat, 17, was the third student at Ohio's Mentor High School to kill himself in his school year. His suicide followed years of taunting — provoked, it seems, by his odd physique (at 6'1" and 112 pounds, he was nicknamed "Twiggy") and his defiant tendencies to wear pink and attend school with a stuffed lemur "velcro'ed" to his arm. A classmate reportedly told him: "Why don't you go home and shoot yourself? It's not like anybody would care." Eric's parents sued the school district, alleging that it had been aware of the bullying but failed to take action — and that its existing policies (based on the Olweus Anti-Bullying Program) were ineffective. (CBS News, Daily Beast)

The Long Island, NY, 17-year-old teenager killed herself after receiving vicious, anonymous attacks via the social networking site FormSpring.me. In a dark, new twist to the bullycide phenomenon, Alexis is still being taunted after her death by anonymous posts on a memorial Facebook page set up in her honor. Police are currently investigating what role cyber-bullying may have played in her suicide. (CBS News, Wayland Student Press)