( CNN ) -- The parents of a 15-year-old Massachusetts high school student who committed suicide after being bullied by her classmates received a nearly quarter-million-dollar settlement , according to documents made public after a months-long attempt to uncover details of the agreement . The settlement was reached with the town of South Hadley in November of 2010 , but it was only made public Tuesday after a reporter successfully sued to gain access to the records . The reporter , Emily Bazelon from Slate Magazine , filed the public records lawsuit on December 2 with assistance from the American Civil Liberties Union , after first requesting the documents in May . Superior Court Judge Mary-Lou Rup on Friday ordered the settlement be made public , adding that Bazelon `` demonstrated that she , in her role as a news reporter , and the public have a First Amendment right to access the information contained in these settlement documents . '' The agreement centers around the case of Phoebe Prince , whose body was found last year hanging in the stairway leading to her family 's second-floor apartment . On the day she died , Prince had endured a torrent of verbal abuse that began at the school library and continued as she walked home from school in tears , according to prosecutors . Her parents , Anne O'Brien and Jeremy Prince , received the $ 225,000 settlement sum after filing a complaint with the state 's Commission Against Discrimination in 2010 , arguing that South Hadley Public Schools failed to address hazing that preceded their daughter 's death . The settlement prohibits Prince 's parents from again suing the town over Prince 's suicide , but it also binds them to a confidentiality agreement that prevents publicizing details of the agreement . In a letter written to the Slate reporter on May 9 , town officials pointed to a confidentiality clause in the agreement as reason for keeping the record sealed . `` I did not want to violate the trust of the people who entered into it with that confidentiality clause in it , '' town counsel Edward J. Ryan Jr. told CNN . Civil rights advocacy groups have since hailed Friday 's decision . `` A public document does not become private because the government inserts a confidentiality clause or a nondisclosure clause , '' said Newman . According to the court order , public records are defined as `` all books , papers , maps , photographs , recorded tapes , financial statements '' and other items `` made or received by any officer or employee of any agency . ''
Phoebe Prince 's parents receive $ 225,000 settlement after daughter 's 2010 suicide . 15-year-old Prince hanged herself in January 2010 after being bullied by classmates . The school district agreed to pay the family a total of $225k, but only if they would drop their lawsuit against the school and allow them access to confidential student records that could have helped prevent her