As a parent, this video of middle school students taunting a grandmother Karen Klein, 68, on a school bus is nothing short of revolting. The grandmother was on the bus as a monitor and is reduced to tears by the cruel comments and threats of the children. The bus belongs to the Greece Central School District in New York.
Police are now reviewing the video but I do not see why this is a criminal matter. It is a serious school matter. The students involved in this episode show an alarming degree of antisocial and threatening conduct — even for teenagers. I was left wondering how these children were raised and what the reaction of the parents will be to this video. The school’s reaction should be hand out suspensions and expulsions.
Source: MSNBC
David Blauw
1, June 21, 2012 at 12:21 pm
————————————-
I think I saw the same Elephant vid….or read an article on it anyway. The discussion was about increasing aberrant behaviours in young male elephants and the source was the breakdown in their socialization because they had been orphaned at a very young age. Elly’s are a long time with Mom before being kicked out of the Matriarchal Kingdom to forage on their own…and in the herd they are raised by the whole group….I think poaching and trauma was cited as the main cause of parental loss…
Some of the commens above have made the point that this may not be a police matter. I agree, but it just occurred to me there may be a “dependency and neglect” issue, which would make it a DCS matter. Somebody’s head is going to roll on this, we just do not know yet whose head it will be.
“…but I do not see why this is a criminal matter. …”
——————————————————————-
Don’t you?
I think I find that sadder than the behaviour of children…..
About two lifetimes ago, I spent two years working as a high school principal. If I had stayed another year, I would either have done something to get indicted, or become a permanent resident in a rubber room.
However, back to the case at hand. If these had been any of our kids, it would have been the last time they got to ride the school bus. Riding the bus is a convenience, not a right. And of course, under No Child Left Behind, the parents are required by law to keep their kids in school no matter what. Too many absences will get a parent an engraved invitation down to the Courthouse. Perhaps having to take the kids to school every day will do a bit of behavior modification on the parents.
It is not a criminal matter, it is a parental matter. The school can’t change this kind of disgusting behavior. Only the parents can, but this tape is evidence of that their parenting skills are totally absent. These kids may need police intervention soon if their taunts are to be believed.
You can NOT wait until school to address these socializing problems. Too late.
For this reason, I feel the Swedish from six-months creche and kindergarten systems are better in that socializing comes as part of first playing two by two, and in larger groups later. Bullying or “mobbing” as it is known here is not socially acceptable, but emerges at puberty. And is subject to nationwide attention and countermeasures.
Are they robots? No, they are taught to remain themselves but learn to work well in groups.
Note, no or only selective TV viewing is allowed under care hours.
Where is empathy taught in this society?
It should begin in the home. But our homes are full of “fun” demonstrations of war crimes, mass killings, etc. in the form of TV and games in super-realistic forms.
Then we have all the “pretend” combats (latest Thrones), and so on and on the day long and in fact it effects them at last.
This is a form of trying out independence and showing disrespect, an inevitable and necessary point to be passed.
But hardly useful as a lesson when done in this form.
Solution? Dog training. For the monitor and for the kids.
Threw it out for the fun of it. Animals teach a lot.
David – it does ultimately boil down to the school administrators and the parents. If, as happens way too often, the admins do nothing or at least nothing of any impact or if the parents do not respond in an appropriate manner to the event and consequences when admins do take steps than the situation actually gets worse because the little dears know they are going to get away with it.
I do volunteer work at the local Elementary school (Destination Imagination – used to be Olympics of the Mind). For the last 4 years the school principal has been totally against strict discipline and there has been an escalation of problems ever since. This year there were several assaults against staff including 2 that I am aware of the required medical attention for the staff. Verbal abuse has gotten to the point I told them I will not be back next year and the teachers called a special meeting with the principal demanding action against the most abusive things but nothing has changed. And these are kids under 13 I can’t imagine what the Middle & high school has in store if this is allowed to continue.
“What’s the purpose of the bus monitor. I thought it was to keep kids from getting out of line; to keep the kids from harassing the bus driver and other kids It is not the bus driver’s job”
@ bettykath
This is near me, lots of local radio coverage. A common point being made, ; Bus monitors that often write up and report misbehavior are causing problems for the district. Write ups involve more paper work, calls to, and meetings with parents, decisions to be enforced and backed up by authority. Everything in this chain can be challenged, and often is. Also an excessive amount of write ups can indicate a bus monitor is not capable and therefore they risk the loss of their job. 16K/ year. The nuts and bolts of the system in action is quite depressing. Little Bobby is too often considered perfect by mom and pop. School budgets are extremely tight. Those that make waves often become victims of their own waves. Sheesh now I’m more depressed. I am appalled by the Big Brother turn our society seems to be making, yet in this case, the existence of this video will (should) determine the truth and need for correction. OUCH !
The person who put her there was a sadist and should be put on school crossing duty on rainy days without raincoats.
She should have been specially picked from candidates with nurse Ratchett qualifications. She should have been armed with a smartphone chained to her wrist, MACE or peppar
spray, and trained in put-downs and alerted to the weaknesses of the possible leaders of the pack.
Her raging doberman should have rested beside her, well leashed and snarling on hand command.
Such measures are required to maintain order among young apes.
Karen Klein Video: Bullied Bus Monitor Speaks Out On TODAY Show (VIDEO)
I watched a show on National Geographic about elephants. The old bulls had been removed from the area. The young bulls began flexing their “muscles”. Chaos ensued, or at least a radical departure from the norms of elephant society. The youngsters began attacking Rhinos, (no not the ones in congress), Fights broke out and females were harassed. Years ago I read the Territorial Imperative, it impressed me then and still. We, our species, are not the light years ahead of the lesser species than many like to think. Ps. the elephant documentary is fascinating, the caveman in me was in awe watching the young bulls attacking a rhino. Yes, my ancient ancestor ole “granpa caveman” had powerful enduring genes.
What’s the purpose of the bus monitor. I thought it was to keep kids from getting out of line; to keep the kids from harassing the bus driver and other kids It is not the bus driver’s job. This monitor isn’t doing her job. But I don’t see how she could since the kids show absolutely no respect for her. She doesn’t belong in this job. And the kids don’t belong on the bus! I like the idea of forcing the parents to walk their kids to school for some period of time.
When I was a freshman in college I lived in university housing. It was a house with less than about a dozen women. We had a house mother, an elderly women who spoke with an accent. Part of her job was to remind the girls about quiet hours (flagrantly abused), check curfew making sure everyone was accounted for, etc. The young women in that house were extremely disrespectful to her. While I never joined in, I didn’t do anything to stop them. I’m sorry I didn’t, but, then, I’d have just been another target. Is that a too easy excuse? They were the pack. She and I were outsiders but not joined together. Guess I could have done something by showing her that she wasn’t alone. Damn. Now I think of it, why not then?
Threats of violance are definitely a criminal mater.
Wow, this is just life in our culture.
It is life for so many people, with no record being made of it, and no outrage over it, and no negative consequences for the abusers. It is so US, so “computer game victory” us, so “win by any means” us, so “I feel better if I can get my foot on your neck” us, so “you’re weak proves I’m strong” us, so inherently evil, so acceptable, so monumental, immutable, demoralizing, disgusting, so so so…
It’s about our education, too, about education meaning: “Get ahead.” Take your adderall and do better than the next guy; whenever possible also do TO the next guy, that will make him fall behind.
Mass bullying is a social phenomenon, which is a big and growing bigger problem of our society.
I am amazed that we can’t see sometimes that our culture is becoming what Orwell described as a bully worshiping universal religion that has been growing out of control like a wildfire for decades.
I agree with you that this is really a matter for the school and not the police, but if anyone thinks this is anything new, you’re wrong. My sisters and I were subjected to verbal abuse just like this when riding school buses back in the ’70s…the only difference was in the use of four-letter words. Back then the F-word didn’t roll off kids’ tongues like it does today. But the mean things they said about this woman remind me all too much of the kind of things said to “unpopular” kids on school buses since forever–myself included. They made fun of our hair, our clothes, our weight, our physical build, our families, and our responses to their insults. Like poking a caged animal with a stick, they kept trying one tactic after another to get a reaction out of us, talking about it and giggling amongst themselves over each attempt, as if we couldn’t understand what they were saying about us. This was how they whiled away the trip. And people wonder why kids want to be able to drive to school as soon as they can. (I was lucky. I lived within walking distance of my high school and my mother worked for the elementary school next door, and even though she didn’t drive we often got rides to and from school. Which was good, because the taunts I got while walking weren’t much better.)
For the record, I lived in Greece at one time, and it’s a comfy suburb of Rochester. This video should destroy once and for all the myth that only in the “urban jungles” do you find nasty school kids with foul mouths. These are suburban kids. To paraphrase the song from “West Side Story,” they’re not “depraved because they’re deprived.” They just haven’t been taught any better–or if they have, it didn’t stick.
I’m so glad this went viral and that there’s apparently been a hugely successful fundraiser to send this woman on a vacation. But if you think this is bad, consider all the bus monitors and all the school kids who hear this kind of abuse every day when they ride the bus, with no one recording it. We need to change school culture, and we need to do it fast.
If these kids were mine, this would be the last time they did something like this when I got through with them. I wonder how much their parents respect others, or even care that their kids are sociopaths.
Put the matter before a Juvenile Court. Summon in both parents of every kid. The Judge plays the video of the abuse in front of both parents and every kid. Put each kid on the stand and let him deny that it was him calling the elderly lady fat etc. Those that deny it, give them a trial with granma there to identify the brats who did it. Place all the kids who are guilty together with their parents in a program. Its called Walk To School. Require mom and dad (even if dad is living elsewhere so that mom can collect the welfare) to walk sonnyboy to school and home from school for 30 school days. If it is five miles so be it. This makes the kid first appreciate the value of a bus. At the end of the 30 day walking privilege (by privilege they are not kicked out of school) they get back on the bus with a savage German Shepard seated at the rear. A cop is seated at the front. Each parent is seated on a bench with Sonnyboy in between. They are to ride to school in total silence. If they squawk then they get additional time on the sentence. After 30 days let the parents go back to their lives of being consumed with other things. Leave the Geman Shepard on the bus. The elderly lady can be assigned another job at school but not on the bus.
As to the bus driver who let all this happen on his/her watch, fire the driver. Hire a dog who can drive.
Seems that the me, me generation has lots of work to do in order to properly raise children……