I assume that what I would like to do to those middle-school boys who assaulted the 68-year-old bus monitor in Greece, N.Y., is illegal in all 50 states.
I assume that some of you at least would also like to get your hands on them.
In case you have missed it, Karen Klein was doing her job as a bus monitor when four seventh-grade boys began verbally attacking her — and, of course, like so many other things today, it was all caught on tape.
It has been all over the network news, but the language is so bad much of it is “bleeped” out.
In order for the full effect, you need to find the video online.
It certainly is enough to cause you to question our future. The future of humanity, that is. It is ugly.
We can only hope that those boys are not in charge.
It has certainly got people talking. Should they be charged criminally? Should they be expelled? Where, by the way, are the parents? Is this depraved behavior normal?
My husband had heard of the incident. He felt what he had heard on the network news was enough. He got it, he said. He didn’t have to actually watch it, he said, to get the idea.
I felt differently.
So, begrudgingly, he watched it — the whole thing — and it became clear that it was painful for him. I was not sympathetic.
“It should be painful,” I said.
It is not necessary for us to watch all things bad and painful and harmful, but it is good for us to watch and see some of them.
This was one of those.
That video has disturbed my days.
I can only hope that it disturbed yours as well.
And if it has, let me provide you with this.
This week, 20 miles down the road in Ellsworth, there are dozens of middle-school kids — demons that they are — having a different experience. They are at the Bangor YMCA’s Leader’s School. They are spending their days learning that their teams are only as strong as the weakest member. They are learning that there is greatness in supporting the runt kid or the chubby kid or the shy kid.
They are learning about empathy, a simple concept, really, but one that somehow seems so elusive.
They are kids who would have stood up on that bus in Greece, N.Y., and said, “Stop!”
They are our bright light when we feel like our world is darkened by the likes of those four boys on that bus.
It is important to remember them, just as it is important to watch that awful video.
It is important to see the badness. To understand it is there. To be ashamed and alarmed. But there are great mentors out there who are teaching our kids great things, and there are great kids carrying that forward.
Many of them are in Ellsworth this week learning values that will change their lives.
I assume that my future and yours will be brighter because of them.
008
Again lack of parenting due to the welfare state. I would NEVER yelled at cursed at or even raised my voice to a bus driver, teacher or other adult. I was taught to RESPECT my elders and this just woudl not have been thought of. With the destruction of the family unit the nothing is YOU’RE fault mentality of a good part of the country and kids who know no matter what they do they will not be punished for it what do you expect. All the kids shoudl be expelled from school and charged with crimes. Of course all there parents need to step up as well..
008
I would be willing to bet otherwise.
000
From my experience behavior like this has zero to do with “the welfare state”.
The meanest biggest bullies tend to come from the “well to do” families.
They somehow think that dad’s cash makes them special snowflakes.
Mommy and daddy refuse to believe perfect little billy the star of the football team would ever do anything wrong.
But I agree with you on one thing – all the kids involved need to be expelled and charged with a crime
IF any action was taken against the kids, I’ll bet the parents will support these brats 100%. My kids would get it from the school THEN me , too. Times have changed…
Karen Klein was hired to be the bus monitor. In my opinion, she failed miserably (and so did the parents of the miscreants). What would Ms. Klein have done if these kids were treating another student on the bus the way they treated her? I wouldn’t be surprised if that in fact has already happened. Ms. Klein is clearly out of her league as a bus monitor.
If I was sitting in Ms. Klein’s seat, I would have yelled to the bus driver to pull the thing over. The offenders would have been moved to the front of the bus with stern warnings to behave appropriately. Meanwhile a call to the school principal would have been made for disciplinary action. By allowing these kids to behave the way they did, more kids got involved fueling this situation.
Perhaps with the half a million dollars that has been raised for Ms. Klein, she can quit her job and take a late retirement. As for the kids, their moral compasses have been lost (if they ever had them at all). I don’t have much hope for them.
Principal…disciplinary action. Maybe…unlikely. I love that there is video now, tho. I drove bus for three years, and if I had a nickel for every parent who swore their little angel wouldn’t do such a thing…!
It does appear Ms. Klein was not properly prepared by the school system who hired her. She has no idea how to handle the situation as you indicated. She should sue her employer for putting her in a harmful situation. That one boy assaulted at her least three times by flicking her on the head. She had the right to defend herself in like by flicking his head. She showed remarkable restraint. I’m sure Ms. Klein didn’t know she was going to be the victim of bullying and physical abuse when she accepted her position.
The next step would be to hire TSA Marshals.
Wait, just what is it we need monitors for anyway?
I have thought the same thing. I heard her in an interview and she said she didn’t hear everything the boys said. So how would she do if it was towards another student. The boys were obviously in the wrong, but the school system never should have had her doing that job.
well when this goes to court i hope the parents of these rotten little brats will be so proud. Has nothing to do with welfare, just has to do with parents who dont make their kids mind.
Community service,maybe in a nursing home or senior housing with supervisor over them. Expelling them of fining them would do no good. Take away their cell phones for a month, computers. Make them do things in long hand.
For a half milllion plus dollars, I would easily sign up to put up with those little $^!%’s taunts and jeers.
I have seen here and elsewhere the suggestion that the kids do community service in a nursing home. Letting them anywhere near helpless nursing home residents is like making a child abuser do community service in a nursery school.
This is the result of no child can do any wrong. They are permitted to talk to teachers, bus drivers, custodians etc. in this manner with no fear of any repercussions. You have people standing in line with all sorts of excuses for this kind of behavior. It is condoned by the community.
The little rug rat who touched this woman should be charged with assault. There are limits to what is allowable. Physical contact put this little darling beyond the limit. If a teacher lays a finger on a student they are subject to assault charges. Therefore what goes around comes around.
Another sign of the breakdown in our society. Shameful. But, the kids are probably laughing about it all…
Wow.
Wow on both ends. It’s obvious, and we all agree, the kids are really way out of bounds. And that there needs to be hard consequences to their actions.
BUT… I babysit, I know that young boys (one I currently babysit is 10) WILL push their boundaries. As the adult, I am the one that decides where it stops. Not him. I would have stood right up after 10 or so seconds of being called a fat *ss, pointed my finger, and used what my mother calls “teacher voice”. The I’m-Not-Kidding-Around, If-You-Do-Not-Stop-There-Will-Be-Hell-To-Pay voice.
I also know what it’s like to be abused and feel like there is no escape. So, I can’t really blame her. Perhaps a more intimidating bus monitor would help?
….
A result of the every one gets a trophy, kids can do no wrong mentality sweeping our schools. The rug rats have no concept that they can do any wrong and no sense of responsibility for their actions.
The ‘N’ and ‘F’ words trigger fingers pressed to lips.
Consequently, even with society so easily disposed to shun such epithets, the ‘D’ word is archaic. It died, or, was quickly buried. Unfortunately, the rot that has surfaced to replace it, now pollutes our world.
‘D’ is for Discipline. “Training that corrects, molds, or perfects the mental faculties or moral character” – Merriam Webster.
Sadly, a 63-year-0ld woman attempting to shore up her SS is set upon by repugnant bullies. The driver was negligent in not stopping the bus, calling police, and summoning the school administrator to meet the bus who would then drive them all to Detention Hall.
We hear some have drafted letters of apology as part of the “disciplinary procedures.” How nice. These kids are laughing their heads off. Their inability to maintain orderly decorum while aboard a city-chartered bus, should have brought the local police into the picture. A strict lecture in Detention Hall, and a call for parents to pick up their kids for the day, might have ruffled them – just a bit. But it would be a start. Parents would then be asked to talk to their kids and explain a few rules of civility. The follow-up would be in classes devoted to picking up on what the parents never knew.
If ‘D” isn’t at home, or, in school – meet our new society. Many will never know what it is – unless they enter the military. Then – God help ’em. One minute nose to nose with a Marine D.I. Case closed.
Good column.