(Newser)
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The mother of a teenager charged with bullying a classmate into suicide is blaming the dead victim for what happened. The cyberbullying began after the dead girl, Phoebe Prince, started calling her daughter "names" at their Massachusetts high school, said mom Angeles Chanon of her daughter Sharon. "Phoebe was calling her names. They're teenagers. They call names," she told the Boston Herald. Chanon admitted that Sharon was suspended from school for verbally abusing Phoebe, 15, after the battle began, but insisted her daughter never physically attacked Phoebe.
"We have strong values," she insisted. Sharon, one of 9 arrested in the suicide, has been charged with stalking and violation of civil rights resulting in bodily injury. Some of the "Mean Girls" at Prince's high school have already posted hate comments on Phoebe's Facebook memorial page. District Attorney Elizabeth Scheibel also blamed teachers and school administrators for failing to protect Phoebe. Her persecution was "common knowledge" at the school, and even witnessed by teachers, who said nothing, charged Scheibel.
