S. Hadley school officials take action against students in bullying case

By Martin Finucane, Globe Staff

The superintendent of the South Hadley schools says that school officials have taken disciplinary action against a small number of students involved in the bullying of Phoebe Prince and that those students will not be returning to the town's high school.

Gus Sayer wouldn't address today whether the students were expelled or not, saying: "We're not going to say what happened to each student because we never talk about the discipline that is given to students. That's part of their personal, private record."

But he said: "We've taken this very seriously. We've taken it to that highest level, and we can tell you that the students are no longer in school." In a statement released Monday, he also said the students "will not be returning."

Prince, 15, is thought to have committed suicide after allegedly enduring online and in-school abuse from her classmates at South Hadley High. The incident has sparked widespread discussion of the problem of bullying in schools.

An anti-bullying task force is slated to meet at 6:30 p.m. tonight at the high school.

Sayer said the task force, which is expected to include students, teachers, administrators, school board members, parents, and community members, will review "all practices and policies with respect to bullying and hopefully generate some ideas about what we might do in the future that would be more thorough."

"We do many things right now, but we're going to take a look at everything and there may be more that we can do," he said.