Schoolbus Bullying Video
 

http://www.cnn.com/2012/06/21/us/new...tor/index.html

Anybody see the whole video? I was only able to sit through maybe 3 minutes of it before I had to turn it off lest I wanted to punch my computer screen.

Very awesome.

The kids were dicks, but I don't understand what the fundraising was for.

Her ordeal affected someone enough that he wanted to try to raise $5,000 to send her and her family on a vacation. Last I heard over half a million has been donated.:cool:

My question is...she obviously was afraid to discipline the kids in any way, so why was she on the bus in the first place? Saying "it was one of those things, I didn't know what to do" doesn't give me any faith in her as an authority figure. Kids pick up on that immediately, and exploit it - this is nothing new.

You do have a point, but that still doesn't excuse their behavior. All children will encounter pushover adults. It's up to parents to instill the expectation that those in authority are to be accorded respect. I might not expect my child to like the woman, but I would still expect her to mind her and behave.

I read this story a few days ago. I skipped around in the video b/c I couldn't watch all of it.

I work as a Camp Counselor right now and all I could think of is how those kids got to the point that they thought it was okay. If one person isn't disciplining them, whatever. But if they are always allowed to be this way in school, there's a real problem.

My campers wouldn't dare try to talk to one of us counselors like that. If they did, they know that serious consequences come with it.

Homegirl doesn't need all of that money. That money could go to, though, hiring some new staff with backbones or sensitivity training or something.

ETA: amIblue?'s post popped up when I posted mine and we basically said the exact same thing. Whoops.

Great minds think alike!

I never said that. The kids are evil spawn of Satan. I said I just don't understand what her function on the bus is if she can't or won't discipline the children when they're abusing her. Any school who employs someone in this position should realize there are going to be times when she's going to have to open a can of verbal whoopass.

I agree with both of these posts.

You're right. It's probably a tough position to staff.

I read something that said she was there primarily to assist a couple of the disabled children on the bus. I have no actual source for that so I don't know if it's accurate.

^^^When did you get here? Hi! ETA: And according to this she was a regular school bus worker. http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/lookout/...130501672.html

I saw the first minute then the last (which I didn't understand...it looked like she was showing them something). My position has pretty much already been stated. Those kids were being evil, it seems, for the sake of being evil. But it was hard to watch her just sit there and take it. I don't think she needed money or a trip to Disneyland. She needed some counseling or debriefing (because they clearly distressed her) and assertiveness training. This goes for the rest of the staff who interact with those kids on a daily basis because I'm sure this was not the first or last time they disrespect adults to such a dispicable level (which points to how they treat peers--I'd be shocked if that school didn't have a serious bullying problem).

I've been bullied in this same exact way. Not on a bus by kids a quarter of my age, but by peers when I was in school. It shuts you down. Fighting back makes it worse. You try to ignore it but the pain is horrendous and you can't. She was in an authority position so she should've disciplined them but if you've never been in that position, being bullied and having to hear things like that in front of a lot of people, there's no way to understand what happens to yourself. Watching this brought back way too many harsh memories and the sad thing is that bullying doesn't stop when you get older! No matter how successful you become, those feelings and memories don't go away.

I think it's awesome that someone felt compelled to raise that money for her. Now she can retire and go pamper herself somewhere! It'll feel good for a little while, but the hurt will still be there.

I agree with this post!

Didn't the kids say something about her family killing themselves so they didn't have to be around her and in reality her son had committed suicide 10 years ago? I mean its one thing to be like "you're fat, you're ugly" whatever but these kids took it to a whole new level of low. I can understand not being able to fight back when someone says something like that.

My question is not so much as why didn't she discipline them (she should have) but who the hell raises their kids to talk like that to adults?

Parents who dont give a damn. There are quite a few parents out there that dont see a problem at all with their kids being bullies.

I think they need to hire Madea to replace this poor lady. She will beat some sense into those little shits! :D

I'm sure she knew that if she said anything to those little snowflakes or even sent as much as a side eye in their direction that the parents would be demanding her termination and threatening a lawsuit. At one point there were quite a few comments on that fund raising page that were obviously from family members of the kids that were berating her for being so public with her struggle and how it had made their lives so difficult. I was appalled.

FWIW, yes I have been in the EXACT same position, not that that's any of anyone's business.

But at any rate - that has nothing to do with the fact that she is a grown woman and an employee paid for with tax dollars who isn't doing her job - whether that is her personal failing or the school preventing her from doing so, the tax dollars are still going down the toilet. Saying that doesn't mean you're excusing the kids who did this in any way.

I like the Madea suggestion. Another one I read was Henry Rollins. Any little brat who would talk back to him just flat out has a death wish.

I think it depends on what her job description is. I had a friend who was a bus monitor for a year while trying to find a teaching job. Basically her job was to watch for and report illegal acts and to help get the kids off the bus in case of an accident or other emergency.

That's what I'm trying to figure out. But no one seems to have a concrete answer.

I agree. If she did "step up" to those kids (especially with one filming) the headlines would have read "Bus Monitor Fired for B*tch Slapping Student on Bus". I would honestly be surprised if she had any authority to discipline as well. The hall and cafeteria monitors at my high school were quite the docile grandmothers themselves and were more there to keep the kids honest by their presence alone then opening cans of whoop-ass on them.

Considering that these kids probably aren't going to face any punishment with the school or police I'm actually quite pleased to hear about the general public giving these kids hell. This is a teachable moment not only for them but also their peers on bullying, effects of posting things online, etc.

"If you don't stop talking to me in such a disrespectful manner, I will write you up for detention and you'll lose recess (or whatever middle schoolers do) for a whole week."

Boom. Done.

I guess I'm also thinking from the stand point that my parents raised me with at least an ounce of sense, but still. I just cannot wrap my head around that fact that she is (was?) a hired employee and she did nothing.

No, the point I was making was that there's a really good possibility that she doesn't have the authority to do anything like that.

Right. I forgot to address that. There should (keyword) be a referral system in place for "hired" volunteers, chaperones, whatever so they can report issues that arise. I'm curious if she was going to (or if she did) take the proper steps to have these children disciplined.

Why would the police hypothetically be involved?

Yep.

Watching the video made me so sad and I kept saying "God bless you." However, at the end of the day, times have not changed so much that adults are unable to tell children to shut their dumbasses up and stop filming their stupidity.

Something to always remember: Good parenting and even being a good child (any other time) do not prevent bullying. Even the most awesome children do stupid things when they are not around their parents and when they are not preoccupied being Susie Sunshine. Also, kids who are bullied can be the bully when they find someone weaker, and kids who are bullies can be bullied when they are not the strongest.

Rant/

The most amusing thing is that bullying does not end in adulthood so I do not know why people are so shocked and up in arms with bullying itself (not the negative outcomes like suicide and self-harm). Bullying has existed since "Eve" allegedly punked "Adam" into eating that damn apple...or pomegranate.... The only difference is that idiots are filming the stuff and (some bullying experts and suicide experts agree) there can be a copycat effect in terms of how younger victims of bullying respond. As soon as we can get idiots to stop filming, we will find other ways to deal with bullying. It will be handled without the billboard on highway sensationalism that humans (media) has a tendency to do. I remember the assemblies that my elementary school had about gossiping and bullying in the 1980s and this was back when adults were allowed to smoke in our classrooms. Yet and still, we were not seen as fragile little flowers who cannot take even the smallest glitch to our childhoods--it kind of reminds me of GC recruitment stories.

The bus monitor was just on the Today Show. While she did not address her ability to discipline, she did say that the day it happened was something that had never before witnessed. She said that the kids were on the bus for only about 15 minutes, and she was caught off guard by the fact that they unleashed their nastiness immediately and for nearly the whole time.

She also said that "most of" the kids on the bus were kind and pleasant, and--from time to time--they would kid, but it was always in good spirit. She said that two of the four boys had come to apologize in person, and one father and one mother of the other two had come.

She said that she wants this: a face-to-face aplology from all four, and then she wants them to tell her in their own words why they behaved in such a way, and what they have learned from this whole ordeal. She said that she believes until they actually meet again and have a dialogue, they will have learned nothing.

My feelings are: Why in the world would any parents not force/drag/carry/run behind with a switch his or her child to her door and stand there while that child gave a lengthy and heart-felt apology. For any parent to "do the dirty work" for a child under those circumstances is absurd; those children need to look into her eyes and learn from their cruelty. I can also see those parents seeing to it that they did all her yard work for the summer--and that would be the only light of day they would see!

If Klein was to press charges against these kids the police would be more than hypothetically involved but I did read (somewhere) that the local police did look into this and they actually seized the cellphone that was used to record the incident.

Well, if Klein had pressed charges I would have called it an overreaction. There are smarter and less dramatic ways to respond to those kids.

Police have no reason to be involved. The general role of the police is to step in where informal methods of control are absent or failed. The fact that the local police had to investigate and seize cellphones means the parents, school bus driver, and bus monitor were admittedly absent or failing. Those adults should be embarassed. Regardless of how high standards are for children, I expect children to act dumb. It is the role of the adults to prevent or buffer some of their stupidity as well as to respond to their stupidity. The police should be reserved for far more important things.

I'd love to see the names of the parents of the ONE kid who has yet to apologize.

Why?**

I think this should be handled as it has been handled for generations--before the media and the Internet put everyone in your damn business. Those people and the school will figure out what needs to be done.

**There are psychos who would get that info and post it on the Internet.

I thought they already did.