Phoebe Prince’s dad says no healing in anger or revenge

In his only TV interview since his daughters death, Phoebe Prince's father has spoken about his struggle to forgive those involved. He was interviewed on RTE, Ireland’s main television station.

His daughter Phoebe committed suicide after being bullied at South Hadley School in Massachusetts earlier this year. The family had moved from Clare in Ireland.

"There is no healing in anger, and there's no healing in revenge The only real healing long-term can come from finding the ability to forgive," he said.
He adds: "That right there has been my focus from the start. And believe me, it's bloody hard."
"It's hard enough to believe it's happened," Jeremy Prince, said in a new Irish documentary, “The Trials of Phoebe Prince”. "You keep waking up and thinking it's a dream."

"I mean, to go from the last time I'd seen Phoebe, and getting a great big hug before I left and a 'Daddy, I love you,' to seeing her riding in a coffin," the 66-year-old added.

The documentary, which was broadcast on RTE television, charts the harassment and death of the 15-year-old South Hadley High School freshman.

Originally from Co. Claire, the teenager committed suicide on January 14th last, following what investigators have described as months of bullying by fellow students.

Six South Hadley High School students now face charges in connection to the bullying and harassment.

Mr Prince spoke of fond memories of his daughter, while he looked at family photos, including a family photo from last Christmas, just weeks before Phoebe took her own life.

"She loved writing. She loved the seaside. She loved talking, nonstop and very often," he said.

After Phoebe experienced bullying in boarding school in Ireland, the family moved to America. In hindsight her father says it was the wrong decision.

"It was an experiment, but of course it went hideously wrong," Prince says now.

Speaking about the teenagers who now face criminal charges relating to his daughters death, Mr Prince said they have "already in some ways been punished," an outlook he says, that didn’t come easily.