As a human being, as a former classroom teacher and guidance counselor, I am deeply saddened and angered by the suicide death of Phoebe Prince, a 15-year-old Irish immigrant attending high school in South Hadley, Mass. It was well known within the school environment that Phoebe had been the target of unrelenting bullying and harassment by a group of fellow students. Phoebe’s parents talked with school officials regarding Phoebe’s predicament. Apparently, attention was not paid.

Bullying tactics are a sad and miserable fact of life. Such tactics can flourish if not met head-on. Immediate attention must be paid. In the classroom, a fully responsible teacher (a teacher who keeps eyes and ears open for such egregious behavior) can do much, by his or her own initiative, to change not only the behavior, but the attitude that promotes it.

A classroom should be an inclusive place; for academics, of course, but also for the formidable social and emotional concerns that confront all of us every day. Every school can and should provide a level playing field – implemented by the administration, staff and most specifically the teachers – from which no student is excluded.

An excluded child is obvious to everyone; few circumstances are more forlorn, more terrible to witness. Each and every one of us is guilty if we are aware of injustice and not offer care, support and validation to anyone who is being abused.

In the case of Phoebe Prince, no one stood fast against the bullies. Guns, ball bats, stones are not needed to face them down. What is needed is the conviction that bullying, harassment and criminal meanness is wrong. Courage for what is right will win, not only the individual battle, but ultimately, the war.

ROBERT L. KELLY Fort Wayne