Fatal case puts bullying back in spotlight

Bullying has long been a problem for school children and it seems that the level of violence is both increasing and spreading beyond the schoolyard on to the Internet. On Monday, charges for “unrelenting bullying” were filed against nine teenagers in the case of Phoebe Prince. The 15-year-old girl hanged herself in January after being tormented for months by other students at her high school. Two teenage boys were charged with statutory rape and a clique of girls were charged with stalking, criminal harassment and violating Phoebe’s civil rights.

We speak with two authors who have examined this issue. Brigitte Berman is the 16-year-old author of “Dorie Witt’s Guide to Surviving Bullies,” a book she wrote before entering ninth grade. Emily Bazelon is a senior editor at Slate magazine where she is publishing “Bull-E, the new world of online cruelty,” a series of reports on cyber-bullying.