Sharon Chanon Velazquez, Teen Bully, Speaks Out On Today Show

Sharon Chanon Velazquez, one of six teens charged in the Massachusetts bullying case of a 15-year-old Irish immigrant who committed suicide last January, spoke out on the Today Show last week, saying she's "not a bully" and "not a mean person."

Velazquez was sentenced in April to two months of probation after five of the six teens reached a plea agreement with prosecutors -- they originally pleaded not guilty. Officials said the teens relentlessly bullied Phoebe Prince, calling her names like "Irish whore" and "stupid slut," and posting mean comments on her Facebook page.

Prosecutors said Velazquez and her friends were angry with Prince for her relationship with one of the bullying teens' on-and-off boyfriend, Auston Renaud. Renaud and another teen from the group faced charges for statutory rape. Court records say the teens threatened to beat up Prince and had cornered her in a school bathroom.

Prince was so afraid of being jumped that she walked between two friends in the halls of South Hadley High School for protection, The Boston Herald reports. Prince hanged herself in the stairwell of her family's apartment.

Velazquez told the Today Show's Ann Curry that she was just trying to help her friend, who had the ambiguous relationship with Renaud, and didn't know Prince "had so many problems."

"And if I had known that, then I would have gotten out of my way and tried to help her instead of saying the things I said to her," Velazquez said. "I was trying to help out a friend, and people don't understand that, and I want them to know that. And they're going around saying things that aren't true, and saying that I stalked her and that I bullied her, and that wasn't the case at all, we argued."

The now 18-year-old Velazquez acknowledged that some of what she said to Prince were "unnecessary, and you know, mean," but still just called their interaction bickering.

She also pointed out that as a result of the case, Velazquez herself has become the target of prolific bullying. Her peers have demanded that she transfer, and she's received several death threats, she said. She added that the case has also forced her to halt her pursuit in modeling.

Velazquez's probation ended this month because the Juvenile Court's dominion over her expired when she turned 18. Prince's mother Anne O'Brien said in May that the probation escaped "any reasonable sentence of court supervision," The Republican reported.

"I'm not a mean person. I think I'm really caring. I care a lot because I went out of my way to help out my friend, and I didn't mean to hurt somebody, or say the things I said to them," Velazquez told Curry.

Comments

[atcrossroads]

11:51 AM on 08/22/2011

Sharon, you would have been a much better friend if you had told your friend not to waste her time on a boy who is two-timing her, rather than ganging up on another girl.

[kimblueyes]

08:53 AM on 08/22/2011

If Phoebe could have hung on until she had graduated and looked back about 10 years after, she might see that these girls would probably have developed into unattractive adults with something dysfunctional in their life..such as battling alcoholism or other addictions. So often, the bullies seem to think they are all that and a bag of chips, when as grown ups, they are the ones who are not particularly well adjusted. Late bloomers always rise above. I just wish Phoebe had given herself the chance.

[Marci Blum]

11:07 PM on 08/21/2011

Miss Prince was NOT "an immigrant". Her mother was, and is, and American citizen, as was Miss Prince by birth. This does not meet the definition of the word "immigrant". Please use words correctly!

[MorpheusXNYC]

12:45 PM on 09/05/2011

She was born in the U.K. in 1994 and moved to Ireland when she was two and lived there until 2009 when she emigrated to the U.S. The immigrant experience is not just one of legal status.

Bruce Lee was a citizen, born here, but went to live in Hong Kong when he was still a small child and came back at age 18. He was a full citizen, but he still emigrated to the U.S. from China. He was raised there and his entire youth was spent there.

I get the legal distinction you make, but I don't think that's the point they're making with the use of the word immigrant. She was an Irish lass that emigrated to the U.S.
She wasn't an American that went to live in Ireland, then came back.

Ireland is all she'd ever known...

[Russell Smith]

06:18 PM on 08/21/2011

Poor bully doesn't like it when she gets a taste of her own medicine. She did not express any sincere word of regret about her part in that poor girl's suicide. Her mother was a real piece of work too. "I couldn't protect my daughter," she says. What about the mother of the girl who is dead, how do you think she feels? It's unbelievable how far people will go to avoid accountability for their actions. She expressed about as much contrition as Richard Nixon.

[Marci Blum]

11:08 PM on 08/21/2011

Come on! Do you really need to bring partisan politics into this tragedy? The Nixon reference is idiotic!

[B Kleitz]

04:36 PM on 08/21/2011

Awwww...poor wittle bully...she just wants to be left alone...

I knew girls like her in high school. I was a target for them. Thank goodness I knew that once I got out of high school, it would all be over.
I wish Phoebe could have held on.
It's really awesome now, 25 years after graduating, to see those same bully bi*tches having become FAT, ugly, on welfare and just general all around LOSERS. Makes me smile every time it happens...makes me LAUGH OUT LOUD at them to their faces.
Am I bitter? Not as much as I was 25 years ago, I promise you that.
I have everything they do not...love, happiness, money, good heath and good looks.

It's nice to win.

[MorpheusXNYC]

12:48 PM on 09/05/2011

The best revenge is to live well. ;-)

[shy310]

04:15 PM on 08/21/2011

Hey Sharon. How about next time you "help out a friend" you don't drive someone to hang themself. What a moronic thing to say!

[MyFatCat]

04:09 PM on 08/21/2011

Bullies can't identify their own behavior. To them, their reactions are perfectly normal. Bullying from personal insecurity and anxiety can be dealt with, but sociopathic bullying can justify itself for a lifetime, no matter what happens in its wake.

[Caydan Bray]

03:59 PM on 08/21/2011

*It bothers...

[Caydan Bray]

03:58 PM on 08/21/2011

I'm bothers me that the reason she's speaking out is just to try and clear her own name. She doesn't even seem to show any remorse that her "three arguments" aided in ending a young girls life. She should speak out against bullying and take responsibility, but she keeps giving answers that show she doesn't even want to admit she did anything wrong.

[The Nuh Uh Chronicles]

02:54 PM on 08/21/2011

How was she helping her friend when her friend was in on the bullying, too. You used to see this type of "As the Stomach Churns" BS on soap operas. Now it's on most of the teen shows as cool.
Being nasty to your parents, friends and associates seems to be the key to the "In Crowd" anymore. Time out was always a whacked idea. It never pressed home the idea of consequences for bad behavior. This girl and all bullies are people you never have anything to do with. Guess what,that friend will be her victim in the future, because she'll blame their friendship for all of these problems she's having and will have. Good luck with that, Chicha! .

[PhineasGage730]

04:54 PM on 08/21/2011

What she is saying is, a friend came up to her saying this girl was sleeping with her (on and off) boyfriend...so she then went after the girl to "help out a friend." She claims she didn't know about all the intense bullying going on from others and if she knew she probably wouldn't have jumped in.

I write this not to defend her, but you seem to not understand what she is saying. I'm not saying she is right, but that is what high school kids do.

I guess it comes down to if you believe her or not...and I've learned in cases as tragic as this one, people rather think those accused are evil and everything they say is a lie.

[Abigail Sanders]

02:38 PM on 08/21/2011

I would have asked her tougher questions! When she said "I want to be left alone." Why not ask if she now knows what Phoebe felt? Or Do you now consider yourself as having "PROBLEMS" lik Phoebe? YOU were the problem and yet you say you would have helped her. If you are such a good person you would have stayed out of it and "helped" your friend cope in another manner. As for the mother being asked how she felt and all she responded to was how hurt she was not to help her child in the court room??? ARE YOU KIDDING ME? You couldn't wrap your arms around her as she cried? What about PHOEBE'S MOM, who will never get to hold her child. Even this mom is not repentant for what her daughters actions did. She states what Phoebes mom said in court was untrue and her daughter wasnt raised that way. But its ok for her daughter to say UNTRUE things about Phoebe? Where is the hardcore questioning? Their lawyer? Does he have a child who will get bullied and have "untrue" things said about them? Will the lawyer wipe it under the rug and say "oh its just untrue and unfair." They are still clueless as to the actions of this girl and she got off way to easy. More stern questioning would have made these people really have to think but they just blew it off like it's no big deal.

[theophile]

01:10 PM on 08/21/2011

Sharon Velazquez is having to deal with consequences. So are the others who bullied Phoebe Prince into a suicidal depression. That's what happens.

[cobraxus]

11:56 AM on 08/21/2011

it would be nice if these kids learned something and became better people but I just don't see that happening.

[markvasquez]

09:46 AM on 08/21/2011

Please understand I am not critizing Phoebe in any way, God rest that poor girls soul.

But what I have not wrapped my hands around is the differences in this generation vs. their parents (my generation). During our generation, not much was done about bullying which even included physical beatings. As bad as the bullying was - you never heard of teen suicide, school massacres, etc.

We need to toughen up our kids, because God knows we may not be able to save them from the mean people they may have to endure. In turn, we also need to teach our kids the importance of treating others the right way.

[angie39]

01:12 PM on 08/21/2011

How much tougher do they need to be? Things are much different these days with all the
technology. Everthing is out there for the whole world to see.

[markvasquez]

08:17 PM on 08/21/2011

Tough enough to be able to brush it aside, for their own good. Most bullies don't pick on kids to make them feel bad, they pick on others to make themselves feel better about what losers they really are inside.

True that Angie, it is a smaller world for sure. I for one sure don't envy this generation.

[MorpheusXNYC]

01:10 PM on 09/05/2011

I'm going to have agree with Mark here; kids today are soft. George Carlin had a great rant about this very issue.

The reality is that life isn't fair and that you can't Nerf the outside world, so parents have to teach their kid to be emotionally resilient, to know their worth and to fight back so they don't curl up into little balls of suicidal depression or build into into maelstroms of rage that go on killing sprees.

You know what happened in my day? You punched the bully in his eye and that straightened things out. You fought them and if you won, they left you alone and even if you lost, they usually still left you alone because you're more trouble than you're worth. Especially if you fight back every time. Bullies don't like challenges.

So yes, sometimes violence IS the answer - another old timey truth that's been deprecated as being a politically incorrect impulse of a bygone era.

But I ask you, if Phoebe had caught that lead bully girl alone, beat her down, scratched her face, told her that was just a warning and that if she hears one more nasty comment about her at school or on Facebook from her and her friends that she's coming back to finish the job, then punctuates that statement with a kick her her ribs and walks away, I think this entire thing would have ended quite differently. Both girls would have LIVED and learned valuable lessons.

[RavenRaving]

10:56 PM on 08/20/2011

So Sharon's behavior, her bullying actions toward Phoebe, were okay because actually they were acts of kindness for Sharon's friend? So we should all just say"Gee, I've had it all wrong about Sharon. She is a paragon of kind, thoughtful, true-friend material, who if she had only known Phoebe had 'problems' would have acted in a less-cruel manner."
Rather than go on TV to defend the indefensible, Sharon would have done better by talking about all the ways she's tried to rehabilitate herself. Counseling and whatever one does to grow a compassionate soul.