Officials did not realize that several other girls continued to harass Ms. Prince in the days that followed, according to Gus Sayer, the superintendent, and Edward J. Boisselle, the chairman of the school committee, as the school board is known here. And only after her death, they said, did officials learn that she had been threatened and slurred since October.
The officials said they had no record of Ms. Princes parents complaining to the school about the hazing, something that the district attorney and the parents say the mother did twice. They said they had taken districtwide measures to fight the problem of bullying well before Ms. Princes torment came to light.
We were proactive, but unfortunately, accidents and tragedies can still occur, Mr. Boisselle said in an interview.
Darby OBrien, a friend of the Prince family, said Thursday that Ms. Princes parents had told him that they had twice tried to alert the school and protect their daughter. Anne Prince, the mother, told him that in one case she had contacted a school official in November asking whether this gang of girls was a threat to her daughter, and was told not to worry. The mother said she had contacted the school again in the first week of January as the taunting continued, Mr. OBrien said. The parents, who are discussing a possible civil suit, have refused to speak to reporters. Mr. OBrien, a parent and head of an advertising agency here, called for the superintendent, board chairman and principal to resign. I cant buy the story that they were unaware, he said. They are running for cover.