Bazelon has been nominated for the 2011 Michael Kelly award.
Slate's Emily Bazelon's investigation into bullying at South Hadley High School has been nominated for the 2011 Michael Kelly award. Slate's Emily Bazelon has been named a finalist for the 2011 Michael Kelly award for a story on bullying and the Phoebe Prince case.
Bazelon investigated Prince's 2010 suicide after she had allegedly been bullied by several of her classmates, drawing a strong mix of praise and criticism for offering an alternative to predominate narrative offered by Boston Globe columnist Kevin Cullen, who wrote “The Untouchable Mean Girls, The Republican and other media in the immediate aftermath of Prince's suicide.
The Michael Kelly award was created in the reporter’s honor after he was killed covering the Iraq war in 2003. The winner of the $25,000 award will be announced April 17.
Bazelon’s series on cyberbullying was published by Slate.com following Prince’s death and after reports of a number of young people taking their lives after being bullied. Her July 2010 story What Really Happened to Phoebe Prince?” was the most prominent feature in the series.
Bazelon’s narrative focuses less on the behavior of the South Hadley bullies and focuses more on the victim, describing Prince as a troubled young girl.
“The notion of a clique of students driving a classmate to her death was a compelling narrative, but it wasn’t true. Bazelon’s reporting makes clear that prosecuting Prince’s classmates for what a troubled girl did to herself was an abuse of the law,” states the announcement on the Michael Kelly Award web site.
Bazelon, who was interviewed by Meredith Vieira on the Today Show after the article was published, said she spoke to a number of students and read through police reports.
“There were a couple of conflicts that Phoebe had with different kids," Bazelon said in the interview. "From the point of view of the kids in the school this was sort of normal girl drama. Until really right before she died the last day of her death the bullying really became serious.”
Bazelon questioned then District Attorney Elizabeth Scheibel who charged students last spring in connection with Prince’s death. Five former South Hadley High School students are facing charges ranging from rape to sexual harassment to stalking.
“There were really only three kids involved in bullying her on the day she died. The other three kids, no one says you know were anywhere near her the week before her death. And yet they’ve all been charged,” Bazelon told Vieira.
Bazelon said to Vieira it was hard for her to see how criminal justice was the right solution and that, “isn’t to say that terrible bullying didn’t happen here, or that this death isn’t tragic. Just the notion of criminally charging six teenagers in a way that blames them for the death of a girl who had this much more complicated history.”
Bazelon also wrote about Prince’s history, revealing that she had issues with cutting and depression as well as similar bullying issues at school in Ireland.
While Bazelon’s article stated Prince was meeting with some administrators, she questioned the role of administrator’s at the high school. “The South Hadley school district does bear some responsibility here,” Bazelon wrote.
Since her series ran, Bazelon has come under heated criticism on online message boards and comment areas.
"Why hasn't there been more investigation into Emily Bazelon's involvement with the defense team? She leaked obviously confidential information without the consent of the Prince family, her articles at Slate have been extremely biased, poorly reported, and entirely 'blame the victim' oriented," wrote MassLive commenter 'Jonathan_Adkins_367.'