South Hadley, Massachusetts has made international news in just a few months after a family from Ireland moved to the town. One of the daughters of that family was named Phoebe Prince. Unfortunately after apparent bullying by six to nine of her peers at South Hadley High School she decided to take her own life by hanging herself in the house they resided in. The media became extremely interested in the case and local residents were in an uproar.

Social media sites have been eating up this story and all the developments daily. Parents screamed and argued in outrage at school committee meetings and students started to stand up and express their feelings and own experiences.

So what happened exactly? Apparently after a dating/relationship situation a group of high school students started to express their anger and frustration towards Phoebe. Students allegedly harassed her daily, calling her awful names, throwing things at her as she walked home after school, and bullying her online.

Since January, a handful of groups have appeared on facebook dealing with the case, the students involved, the media, and the town itself. Bullying continued to occur, but this time it was turned on others. It seemed that people weren't thinking about what they were saying or how their actions would be portrayed. In one group on facebook, which is in support of the school's principal, some people still managed to make comments, this time towards the principal in a very aggressive manner. Another group was a memorial page for Phoebe and people from all around joined the group, but negative comments still arose, but they were aimed at the students who were being blamed for the suicide.

South Hadley is the town that I call home and I also attended South Hadley High School. During my four years in the high school I made sure to make myself involved. I joined Peer Leaders, NHS, Tiger Times (the studio/morning news show group), and a couple other clubs during my time there. I worked closely with the administration during the couple of hours a week that I worked in the main office, assisting the principal, assistant principles, or secretaries. During my time working in the office I heard it all, and I was surrounded by the issues between students and faculty, parents anger, and everything in between. SHHS, unbeknown to most people does use a "punishment system" for lack of better phrasing. If students got into fights with one another, teachers would run out of classrooms and stop the fight and bring them right down to the main office where they would get talked to, have their parents called in most cases, and were given a disciplinary action. Even if something small occurred at the school, some sort of mediation or discussion would be made so that both parties understood their actions and were given solutions.

From personal experience, Principal Smith truly cares for his students. Every morning when I would leave the studio from airing the morning show over the school's television system, he would still be in the hall with other administrators from when they had greeted all the students before the bell for homeroom rang. He would always say hello and ask how I and my friends were doing. It made me feel good that he not only cared enough to know my name or ask me how I was doing but that I could tell he actually and truly wanted to know and cared. He shouldn't be blamed for any part of the case. That wouldn't make sense. Isn't it the job of parents to teach their children morals, respect, and how to behave? School administrators and teachers are there to assist students with their education, not to make them perfect human beings. There is only so much that school officials can do, and somewhere someone else, be it the family members or the school committee/board needs to step in.

Today, as a student attending Hofstra University, majoring in broadcast journalism, this case intrigues me, sometimes more than others. I look at the issue from both the perspective as a student and town resident along with having a journalist's mentality.

When I go onto facebook and see fellow SHHS students, current and past, I see them blaming or yelling at the media. At times I can't help but laugh and sometimes take offense to their comments. I wouldn't blame the media for being interested. Students even made groups threatening the media or saying that journalists are scum and so forth. What they don't seem to comprehend is that the job of a journalist is to discover what is occurring and what the truth is. Journalists are curious people, and the public expects them to give them knowledge that they don't know. Sure South Hadley residents are probably annoyed with seeing camera crews and reporters everyday, I can understand that. Yet people around the world who don't live there, still have the desire to hear what is going on and want to know how everything ends. If there is a need or desire for information, then a journalist and the media will no doubt arrive and cover that story.

It is intriguing to see students complain about reporters trying to add them as friends on the site as well. If that was me, and someone from Good Morning America or the like was friend requesting me I would be all over that! Of course for me that would be networking, but still, just imagine the possibilities! You get to talk to someone from a major show or market and get to tell them exactly how you feel.

In the end however, it isn't about the media apparently bombarding a small town in Western Massachusetts, and it isn't about how awful kids can be. In the end, society needs to realize that all over the world bullying occurs. As BAM put it on his blog (brian.brispace.net), South Hadley is a good town, and if this incident happened a couple towns over from it, the situation could have been a lot worse. In Springfield for example, gangs are present and it has been seen that a small percentage of people are willing to use weapons to solve their problems. After interning at a local TV station over the summer I saw just how violent things can be in a small city setting compared to where I live. Bullying can happen in the smallest town in Utah, it can happen in California, Alaska, or anywhere imaginable, and it has happened! Bullying unfortunately happens everyday.

Unfortunately Phoebe Prince's case isn't completely unique. Where there are communities of students/kids, relationships will form and fall apart everyday. There will unfortunately be arguments, fights, and problems. It is an unfortunate reality of life and growing up. South Hadley is just the latest and most intriguing case. But, perhaps it will help people by realizing that these issues do occur and that parents need to listen to their kids more and talk to them. Also, schools need to come up with better policies on bullying issues.

Will change happen over night in this small town? No, of course not. But, the attention placed on it by the media is going to push it to try harder to work together, which I think is a great thing in the long run. We can't all run around trying to point fingers and placing blame on everyone, but instead we need to work together to find a solution that works.

Nothing can change what occurred in South Hadley, and nothing can take back the actions that everyone involved did or did not participate in. From here we have to move forward.

South Hadley is not a bad place to live. Most days it is a quiet and rather boring town. Sure some people will always misbehave now and then, but that's just a very small minority. One issue can't cause fear in residents or those who considered visiting or moving there. The media is also not the bad guy in the situation either, they are just doing their job and trying to make a point for society that change needs to be made, starting with the home.

For now the case is in the hands of the government, not for you or I to decide. However, we need to be the ones to decide to have an open mind. With open minds change can occur.

Since my last post I actually updated the site with was about Radio, I figured I would discuss radio just a bit more. Since then, I have spent another three times one on one in the station. Instead of observing I was going to be tracking. Tracking means that I become the engineer (audio/board engineer) for the show. It seems kind of scary at first, to think that you are going to be thrown into the studio and expected to be incharge of everything that the audience hears.

I will admit I was a bit nervous the first time, but things seemed to click so well. I can officially run a whole music show. When I go in for tracking hours now, the person who is supposed to be working the slot, simply sits in front of the guest mic while I cue up songs, mic breaks, and run the board. I never thought I would be able to say I could run an audio board for a radio show, but if you could only see me now, haha.

In a way, I think my choice to interview to become a member of the station was really intelligent. If I can't get my dream job of being a famous anchor for a news show right away, I can now look into radio and possibly host there or engineer, and who knows, maybe with enough experience even produce a show a ways down the road. I can be the "me" verison of Wendy Williams (haha well maybe). She started off in college radio and then went to have her own radio show and now she hosts a show on TV (sure it isn't news, but I would also love my own talk show).

Over than radio, my life has become very stressful. My sorority is dealing with our pledges, my TV production class, and advanced broadcast news writing is piling on the work and stress like never before. I can't wait until this semester is over. I will need a break for sure!

That's all on the top of my head for now.

Peace. Katie ... out.

So yesterday as I mentioned in my latest post, I was doing my first observation. At first I was nervous. Who wouldn't be? I've never been in a studio for radio before in such an intimate setting, such I saw the room while on a tour but it is nothing compared to actually staying there and observing everything for an extended period of time.

My observation was pretty interesting and not terrifying at all, which was great. I was alone in the studio with one girl who was putting on the show. It was cool to see how everything came together and the whole process for choosing music and content to present to listeners.

I was asked to search a website that has an immense about of information on celebrities. Basically, I would look up various artists that we scheduled to play next, and then write down some bullet points about the latest on that celeb. What I wrote was actually said over the radio live. It was cool to hear the girl I was working with read what I had prepared for her. It made me feel like I was already contributing to the broadcast, even if I am not allowed to speak personally yet.

Next Wednesday will bring a new training class for me and hands on time with equipment. It should be pretty exciting.

In other news, yesterday was my sorority's first round of recruiting girls for the spring semester. It went fairly well, and I believe we can all say that the potential girls this semester around are much more respectful than they were when I pledged. I hope we can find some awesome girls to add to our little family! Tomorrow will bring more hours of recruitment, early in the morning, which I'm not looking forward to, but hopefully it will go well.

Currently I'm listening to my tunes on my macbook with my new headphones I got for the radio station. They make everything sound so new and great sounding. Haha, I guess that's what spending money can do for you.

For now I'm out, until the next late breaking event in the life of KT.