In a bizarre twist to the Phoebe Prince bullying suicide case, four of the girls charged with abusing the Irish teenager are now the subjects of an online abuse campaign.
Several fake websites bearing the alleged bullies names of Kayla Narey, Ashley Long, Sharon Chanon Velazquez and Flannery Mullins have been registered in California.
The x-rated anonymous comments on these sites mock, threaten and insult the four girls, and the abusive content has heightened tension in South Hadley.
“It’s scary because you don’t want to underestimate a threat,” said South Hadley Police Chief David J. LaBrie. “You don’t know what emotions might come to the surface. You prepare for the worst.”
Labrie explained that one lady and her family were harassed after being mistakenly identified as one of the accused families.
Local parents fear that those outraged at what happened to Phoebe Prince have crossed the line.
“We don’t want to see these kids go down the same path Phoebe did,” said local parent Paris Harley, whose son is a freshman at South Hadley. “This is very disgusting.”
Donna Tower, whose grandmother is a friend of one of the teenagers accused, feels that the situation is spiraling out of control
“People have lost respect for themselves and each other,” she said. “People, don’t you get it?
Meanwhile, lawyers for three of the accused teenagers (Mullins, Velazquez and Long) entered a not guilty plea at a short arraignment hearing on Thursday morning at Franklin-Hampshire juvenile court.
The teenagers were not present in court, but their representatives agreed that their clients would not go near the Prince family and adhere to booking procedures on Wednesday to comply with their conditions of release.
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