absolutely. she would still be here. >> phoebe prince's mother and an exclusive. this is "piers morgan tonight." phoebe prince's suicide after being bullied by her school classmates drew worldwide attention to the deadly dangers of bullying. join meganow, anna o'brien, phoebe prince's mother in her first and only television interview. thank you very much for agreeing to do this interview. why are you doing it? >> well, i think a lot of mistruths have been written about phoebe, and i think that it was time to take her back, to reclaim her as ours and to put an end to some of the stories that have been going around. give phoebe her dignity back. >> there's been so much speculation about what happened to phoebe. were you taken aback by the kind of worldwide attention? >> very much so. i didn't expect it at all. but the media got involved pretty much the evening of phoebe's death when the superintendent released her name. and it started a whirlwind of intrusion and interest. and the following week the principal and i believe the superintendent with him sent a letter out to all the parents and they posted it on the school website. and they called phoebe complicated and that she had been seeing an adjustment counselor. even though she'd only seen this woman once or twice. >> basically -- i'm going to come more to this later. but basically saying, hey, it was her fault for encouraging people to treat her in this way. >> oh, that was clear right from -- from the week of phoebe's death. >> is that what's angered you the most? when you look back on the whole thing, is it the fact that there's been so much buck passing, so much blaing other people? so much trying to say she almost brought it on herself? is that what's really got to you? >> oh, it was devastating. to blame phoebe. and it was extraordinarily difficult as a teacher. i'm a teacher. and every teacher knows that the students in your classroom, you have a duty of care to them. it's sort of the hidden curriculum to teaching. and then to have, after phoebe's death, to see how the school behaved towards phoebe, after her death and even before, was shocking. absolutely shocking. and to -- to feel that there was nobody there that was really trying to protect her. and the couple of teachers who did try and help her, i believe one has left the school voluntarily and one was fired. for ill health reasons. and we invited phoebe's latin teacher to her funeral. and i specifically requested that she be invited. and i was told she was sick. and two weeks later we got a call from this latin teacher very distraught because she had wanted to be at phoebe's funeral, and she was told by the principal that he had decided not to invite her because it was not about her. >> so before, during and after, phoebe was just constantly let down by people who should have been there to protect her, really. >> yeah. when i enrolled phoebe in august -- >> august 2009? >> yes. >> let's just go back to the start here, anne. let's get this in chronological order. i think it's important to do that. i want to know how you feel about every step of the way here. you bring a family from ireland to america in the summer of 2009. why did you do that? what was the motivation? >> i was taking a career break. and teaching -- i was going -- well, i did, teach in the states. and i thought the girls would get a taste of america. it could be a fantastic year for them. >> describe the area in ireland that you were living before. very rural. very quiet. >> oh, north claire. halfway between dublin and -- >> a tiny, little, rural area. very, very quiet. very different, i imagine, than the place you arrived to in america? >> yes. south hadley is, you know, larger. it's dominated by mt. holy oak. phoebe and i used to joke about, it looks like it's something off the harry potter set. and north claire is beautiful, but rural and strong community. but not highly populated. you know, it's not a city. >> were you worried about how your children would react when you came to america? how they would adapt? >> no. not really. they were both excited about it. i think lauren -- lauren struggled a bit more than phoebe. phoebe fit right in at the beginning of the school year. >> what kind of girl was she, phoebe? >> oh, extraordinarily intelligent and vivacious and a great sense of humor. and a foodie. she loved her food. constantly was eating and not putting on any weight. it really wasn't fair. >> was she a confident girl? >> in ways, she was. and in other ways, she wasn't. and i don't think she -- she wouldn't have been outgoing in some ways, and then in other ways she would have been. i don't know how to describe it. >> i think crucially to how this all plays out, when you enrolled phoebe at the school, you did tell the officials that she was susceptible to bullying. >> i did. i did. and that she was vulnerable. the guidance counselor who i met with -- >> why did you say that? what happened before that made you feel that? >> phoebe, she had -- she had a run-in with some girls before. >> in ireland? >> yeah. but nothing -- nothing too dramatic. at south hadley at all. but phoebe would be -- phoebe kept things to herself. she internalized a lot of pain or stressful situations. so my point of warning the school or, you know, advising the school was that she wouldn't necessarily come right out at the beginning and say, oh, this is happening. she would initially internalize it. >> you were doing this as a mother, but also as a teacher yourself. so you know how schools can work. you know how some kids can prey on vulnerable people in a school situation. so you laid down a marker. you said, just keep an eye on phoebe because she's had a bit of a problem with bullies before. >> mm-hmm. >> what did they say to you? >> oh, that will be no problem. and one of the vice principals was actually called on a personal call and asked to keep an eye out for phoebe. >> so they knew. they knew right from the start there was a potential from trouble. >> they knew right from the start. >> when did you discover for the first time that phoebe was being bullied? >> november. and it happened, i suppose, 14th, 15th of november. she was very agitated and said to -- and she was getting a ream of texts. and i said, "what's going on?" she said, "oh, the girls are at me." i said, "who?" she said, "you don't want to know. you don't want to know. it'll blow over, mommy." i said, "you need to let me know." "no, no, no. it'll blow over. it'll blow over." and then a couple days later the adjustment counselor rang me from school and left a message that she had met phoebe for the very first time. and that she thought she was just wonderful and charming. and phoebe could be very charming. and that she thought it would be a good idea for me to just check in with her. and that -- that there was nothing to worry about. >> what kind of thing was going on now with phoebe? what were these girls doing to her? what could you deduce? >> she wouldn't tell me. i thought, oh, it must be they're either falling out over -- i don't -- you know, friendships, gossip. something. and she -- she never said what it was about. >> did she ever say what it was about? >> never. >> never? >> well, once in december she told me that one -- one of the girls involved in a new incident of bullying kept coming up to her in the hallways and screaming at her. and phoebe was there. we were in the kitchen. phoebe was there with a friend of hers who said oh, yeah. she's known for that. and she does it quite a bit to a lot of people. and phoebe and i discussed it. >> did she know that these girls were using social media like facebook and so on to bully her as well? >> but she wasn't -- the bullying on facebook, the cyber bullying that has been put out by people was just a small component of the bullying of phoebe. and, yet, it's been taken on as it was predominantly cyber bullying. and yet, it was very little. most of it, i think, a lot of the nasty comments were put on facebook after phoebe died. there were a couple that were put on before. there was one girl who she would have considered a friend, and she was one of the girls who was -- afterwards i found out was one of the girls getting at her that she said in november. she put a nasty message on twitter or something the week that phoebe died. >> let's take a little break, anne, come back and talk about the day that phoebe died and the aftermath. because a terrible situation became, if it could possibly become, became even worse by the way that everyone reacted. it's okay. we're going have a break. what's this? it's progresso's new loaded potato with bacon. it's good. honey, i love you... oh my gosh, oh my gosh.. look at these big pieces of potato. ♪ what's that? big piece of potato. [ male announcer ] progresso. you gotta taste this soup. of course, neither do i. solution? td ameritrade mobile trader. i can enter trades on the run. even futures and 4x. complex options, done. the market shifts, i get an alert. [ cellphone rings ] thank you. live streaming audio. advanced charts. look at that. all right here. wherever "here" happens to be. mobile trading from td ameritrade. number one in online equity trades. [ male announcer ] trade commission-free for 60 days. plus get up to $600 when you open an account. she didn't reveal to people what she was being subjected to. and unfortunately, until january 7th, we were not aware of what she was being subjected to. so there was very little way we could have intervened in the bullying that took place. >> that was south hadley school superintendent gus sayer speaking to cnn months after phoebe prince's suicide. phoebe's mother, anne o'brien, is back with me now. anne, we'll come to what gus sayer said in a few moments. take me back to this awful day when you discovered that phoebe had taken her life. >> well, it was -- it was stunning. because -- i knew she was under stress. and i was worried for her safety. and i had told her that the night before i had called the school the week before and spoke again to the adjustment counselor, which was probably about the third time i had spoken with her since november. and -- shocked. i -- stunned. you don't expect to come home and -- and find that your amazing kid has been pushed so -- to such a limit. and i had booked her a ticket to return to ireland to take a break. and she just needed to hold on for two weeks. and i was at a loss to explain to anyone exactly how intense it had become because i wasn't being told by the school. and i remember telling the police who had to -- to tell me, that she had been being bullied. that, you know, this -- this bright, beautiful girl who was so excited to go to the catillion -- >> had she confided in anybody about how bad she was feeling? >> i don't think until the last day, really. and even then, she wouldn't have confided completely. i think having gone through with the police exactly what happened and what was being said -- >> i mean, it's an appalling litany of abuse on her last day. she was in the school library. someone had written swear words and racial slurs next to her name. after school they chanted profanities at her. as she walked. the bullies threw a can of energy drink over her. this is taking bullying to a whole new level. this is a systematic abuse of somebody, isn't it? >> oh, yeah. yes, it is. it was almost torment. you know? >> one of the bullies the next day was overheard saying, "done." posted on facebook. >> yeah. we -- >> i mean, i can't think of a more callous thing for somebody to do. to drive somebody to suicide and they just put "done" on facebook? >> well, she got what she deserved, that was another one. >> another one was overheard saying, apparently, before phoebe died, why doesn't someone just convince her to kill herself? i mean, this is really -- it's depraved behavior by these other kids. what do you think was driving it? why were they so determined to force phoebe into what eventually happened? >> i honestly don't know. because it's -- that level of aggression towards another human being is just beyond my understanding. >> it's wicked, isn't it? >> it's astounding that there was never a stop mechanism, you know, internal stop mechanism for some of these kids to say, this is going too far. but i also think the culture in the school helped enable that. >> well, gus sayer, the superintendent, he made it pretty clear. don't blame us. not our fault. we knew nothing about any of this. >> that's not true. it's not true. >> what is your reaction when you see, again, gus sayer saying that so soon after phoebe died? >> it was -- it was very painful because, you know, you realize as a parent that no matter what i did, no matter how many times i called the school, no matter how many people i might have spoken to there, that she didn't stand a chance there. >> what did you find out after her death about what else had been going on that you weren't aware of? >> i didn't know that there were a fairly good number of teachers who witnessed things. and i never was told. you know, when i called the school in november when i returned the adjustment counselor's call, i did say, well, i am -- you might not be concerned about phoebe right now, but i am. because she says the girls are getting at me. and i am concerned. i don't know whether it's over a boy. i don't know whether it's over gossip, how girls gossip about each other. she won't tell me the details. but she is very agitated. >> she'd actually been herself to the vice principal's office to say a girl had threatened to beat her up. >> i didn't know that. i didn't know that until after she died. >> and she was just told, there's no time for this. get on with it. >> she was told to go back to class. i think there were two instances. beth and betsy could clear that up with you. i think there was one time when she was just told he was busy, go back to your class. and i think the other time she was told, look, just don't -- don't go talking to any boys, or something. in other words, it is your problem. it is your fault. >> how much do you blame the school? >> as a teacher or as a parent? >> maybe both. if there's a different answer. maybe both. i mean, was your teacher hat on? because you would have been -- >> with my teacher hat on, absolutely the school failed. you know, i'm repeating myself. as a teacher, you have a duty of care to your students. i've reported many things that i've seen. you know, or -- or concerned about. and that was not going on at south hadley. >> and as a mother? >> as a mother, i think that had the school intervened the way they should have intervened, if they had followed up the way they should have followed up, that phoebe would still be here. absolutely. she would still be here. >> let's take another break, anne. i want to come back and talk to you about the dramatic development which was when the bullies got arrested. and they had to be accountable for what they'd done. >> okay. her final text messages were about shawn and the girls that tormented her. she wrote, "i think shawn condoning this is one of the final nails in my coffin. i can't take much more. and it would be easier if he or any one of them handed me a noose." >> phoebe prince's mother reading phoebe's last text to two of her bullies in court this past may. phoebe's mother, anne o'brien, is back with me. incredibly painful for you to have to go through the court case and also very important, i would imagine for you, in a very unprecedented step, six of the bullies were arrested. they were treated as adults. and went through this court case. five were convicted. in the end, they didn't go to prison. they were given probation and community service. do you feel that justice was done? >> i'd like to actually clarify, because i know that there are some journalists that -- that think that prison terms were on the cards. we never asked for prison sentence. and it was never on the cards. it really was about accountability, taking responsibility, and we had specifically wanted a community service and probation. and that the community service would really give them a chance to reflect upon their actions. >> do you feel that you got justice for phoebe? >> i think even having the charges brought was -- was justice for phoebe and for so many other kids who are bullied that -- what betsy and beth did was they kind of threw down the gauntlet. >> the lawyers that helped you. >> yes. well, no. the prosecutor and the district attorney who brought the charges. i think by throwing down that gauntlet, it was a message to schools and to other kids that it's not tolerated. and there is a point where it is criminal behavior. and it's not this, you know, name calling bullying that some people tried to dismiss it as. >> they taught people that bullying has consequences. they can be appalling con kwenss. life ruining for everybody concerned. not just for phoebe but for you and your family and friends, for everybody. the circle of people that get so damaged by this kind of thing is huge, isn't it? >> it's massive. to push another human being, i think, to the point where they can't cope and their coping mechanism snaps and they commit suicide and the effect on the family is -- it destroys a family, you know. tessa, who was phoebe's older sister and how close they were, and lauren, having to lose her sister, and that -- you know, you never -- you're never going to stop grieving that loss. you move on. no. you don't move on. you learn to live with it. you put layers over that -- that pain. but it doesn't ever go away. >> the reaction of the bullies was mixed and different, i would say. i want to play just a clip of one of them, sharon avelica is who appeared on the "today" show. this is a curious reaction, i thought. >> i want people to not judge me. i want them to leave me alone. i want them to stop saying things to me and, you know, when i started school, people came up to me and told me to leave because they don't want me here. nwd r p3-sd ay th wteou3 bime mh .flying in3 p>anthrey adhi these kids, i don't know what the stereotypical image of a bully is particularly. i've never worked in a school. and when i was young, i can't even remember really the make-up of the bullies in school when i was there. i remember some of them. they seem such ordinary kids, you know. it sort of said to me when i saw these interviews that they were giving, both in court and on television and stuff, that this could almost happen at any school in america, any school in the world, couldn't it? bullying doesn't seem to have a kind of remit for how you look or sound or anything. >> that's right. that's right. i think it -- in south hadley, i think it's part of the culture. i think it's part of the school culture. >> and as a teacher, do you feel that very strongly? that these things are allowed to happen unless you put a lid on them? >> oh, yes. i -- when i first started teaching at vansickle in springfield, a colleague came into a staff -- a team meeting and went up to one of the vice principals and said, greg, named two names, and said i just heard them talking together about getting at another girl. and she mentioned the name. he wrote the names down. and he said, sorry, i've got to go. and he excused himself from the cae erwaze teranceane % hle udents wulho it ts tyeiicas t rerssns legallin yoto t aio ye point. >> beth, how did the school behave, do you think? i mean, obviously i think anne's very powerful comments earlier have to be taken in the spirit of she's a mother grieving for her daughter as much as also being a teacher and so on. from a strictly legal point of view, how culpable do you think the school was in terms of not tackling this bullying before it was too late? >> well, we looked at the school behavior. and we looked at their culpability. and we came to a conclusion that it was troublesome b