Schoolbus Bullying Video

PiKA2001 · #1 06-22-2012, 04:07 PM

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

Quote:

A profanity-laced video of middle school students in upstate New York verbally abusing a bus monitor is sparking an outpouring of support as strangers worldwide rally to her side.
Students taunted Karen Klein, 68, with a stream of profanity, insults, jeers and physical ridicule. Some boys demanded to know her address, saying they wanted to come to her house and steal from her.
One comment from a boy aboard the bus was especially painful, she said. He told her that she does not have family because "they all killed themselves because they didn't want to be near you."
Klein's eldest son took his own life 10 years ago, according to CNN affiliate WHAM.
The bullying continued unabated for about 10 minutes in the video, as a giggling student jabbed Klein's arm with a book and made fun of her weight.
Recorded by a student with a cell phone camera Monday, the brazen bullying went viral and spurred international outrage.

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.

Quote:

The video prompted an outpouring of support and a fundraiser by international crowd-funding website indiegogo.com that had gathered more than $450,000 by Friday.
Indiegogo's Max Sidorov said the video struck a chord with him because he is a bullying victim and the first thing that popped into his mind was to raise money to get her away from the environment.
"I had no idea I was going to raise anywhere near this amount. I thought maybe a few thousand," Sidorov said from Toronto. "Maybe to send her somewhere nice. But this is enough for her to retire."
Southwest planned to provide Klein and nine others with an all-expense paid trip to Disneyland in Southern California. Klein said the outpouring of support is overwhelming.
"I don't feel like I've done anything," she said after learning of the Southwest offer on CNN. "It's awesome."

Very awesome.

knight_shadow · #2 06-22-2012, 04:16 PM

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

PiKA2001 · #3 06-22-2012, 04:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by knight_shadow

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.

33girl · #4 06-22-2012, 05:42 PM

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.

amIblue? · #5 06-22-2012, 06:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 33girl

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.

pshsx1 · #6 06-22-2012, 06:03 PM

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.

amIblue? · #7 06-22-2012, 06:05 PM

Great minds think alike!

33girl · #8 06-22-2012, 06:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by amIblue?

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 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.

knight_shadow · #9 06-22-2012, 06:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 33girl

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.

Quote:

Originally Posted by pshsx1

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.

I agree with both of these posts.

amIblue? · #10 06-22-2012, 06:16 PM

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

Drolefille · #11 06-22-2012, 07:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 33girl

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 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.

christiangirl · #12 06-22-2012, 09:24 PM

^^^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).

PM_Mama00 · #13 06-23-2012, 09:35 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 33girl

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.

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.

ThetaPrincess24 · #14 06-23-2012, 01:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by PM_Mama00

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!

trisigma212 · #15 06-23-2012, 02:56 PM

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?