Former Student Describes Bullying She Received at Concord-Carlisle

Belle Hankey endured vandalizing of her car, threats – even death threats – during her junior year at Concord-Carlisle High School, and said that school administrators did not take her complaints seriously.

The former C-C student filed a $2 million federal civil rights against the district and some school administrators based on the state’s anti-bullying law.

In interviews this week Hankey described receiving threats in her locker and in the bathroom, and also on her car.

The Carlisle resident received a Ford Escape for her 17th birthday in October 2011, but the next day she found it scratched in the student parking lot, according to a Boston Globe article.

In February 2012, she found someone smeared feces on her car door.

“I was in shock, it was disgusting,” she said Tuesday. “Who is physically capable of doing something so disgusting?”

She also received threat messages, the Globe reported.

In June 2012, she found the message “Kill Belle” carved in the bathroom wall of the locker room, and days later another one with a specific time.

When she reported the bullying to school administrators, Hankey said they did not take it seriously.

“They would shoo me from their office and they would make it seem like they had more important things to be doing instead of paying attention to a threat someone wrote about my life,” Hankey told WHDH Channel 7.

Concord-Carlisle officials said they cannot comment on the lawsuit because they had not reviewed it yet. John Flaherty, deputy superintendent for finance and operations told the Boston Globe that school officials “take the issue of harassment seriously” and the district is committed to giving students a safe environment in which to learn.

As a result of the bullying, Hankey suffered severe stress and anxiety, she told WCVB Channel 5, which is the basis of her suit. She told the Boston Globe she twice had to be hospitalized – once after a stress induced blood clot in her leg and once after a she suffered a pulmonary embolism.

Hankey graduated early, and hopes to attend the University of Mississippi in the fall, WCVB reported.