Kids in NY bully their elderly bus monitor making her cry

[Anonymous]

I saw the video and it is digusting. I saw on the news this morning that one of the boys involved & his family are getting death threats. Just wrong all the way around. Those little f*cking brats.

[Anonymous]

We used to do some really mean stuff as children. Left to their own devices, kids can be feral and terrible. I hope this is a time of learning for those children, to see how awful you've been. It is not something they will ever be able to forget, now. I remember being a child around the same age and contributing to teasing the only child who was lower in the social order than I was at the time. I didn't feel good about doing it, but groupthink is a powerful influence on children, as is jockeying for position. Children lack empathy and the skills to make good decisions through many ages. I hope their families will take this seriously and make sure their children do not ignore the lessons here.

[Anonymous]

I agree with the above PP. I don't think these kids were necessarily poorly raised. Nor do I hope that bad befalls them and ruins their futures. They were disrespectful and rude to a woman. They likely got caught up in the moment and peer pressure and showing off and feeding off each other. Likely most of their parents are horrified by their behavior and would never have guessed that their kids would speak to someone this way.

Should they be punished/consequenced, absolutely but but not a punishment that follows them for the rest of their lives. It would be much better for all involved if the consequence was directed at teaching them to be better people rather than something that drags them down and makes them angrier and more likely to do further harm.

I have worked in the school system and many times have seen teens and especially middle school aged students behave in horrific ways. Their parents would vehemently deny that THEIR child would ever act like that, that they have raised them differently, but in the moment kids that age can completely carried away and try to impress the other kids and say and do things that sometimes even they can't believe afterwards that they said and did.

I hope the parents and the school do take this seriously and that it is a wake up call for these kids and ultimately that it makes them realize the impact of their words and the damage they can do when they get carried away.

[Anonymous]

Oh stop making excuses

[Anonymous]

The woman showed a lot of class by not responding with her own insults. Unfortunately, this has been going on since the beginning of time. Imagine the poor bullied kids who go through this every day. No one tapes it and no one sets up a vacation in his/her honor. Imagine the damage to their self esteem. I hope the parents are ashamed but sadly, they're probably just as bad.

[Anonymous]

It's up to $300,000 now for her vacation. Hell, they're funding her retirement.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I agree with the above PP. I don't think these kids were necessarily poorly raised. Nor do I hope that bad befalls them and ruins their futures. They were disrespectful and rude to a woman. They likely got caught up in the moment and peer pressure and showing off and feeding off each other. Likely most of their parents are horrified by their behavior and would never have guessed that their kids would speak to someone this way.

Should they be punished/consequenced, absolutely but but not a punishment that follows them for the rest of their lives. It would be much better for all involved if the consequence was directed at teaching them to be better people rather than something that drags them down and makes them angrier and more likely to do further harm.

I have worked in the school system and many times have seen teens and especially middle school aged students behave in horrific ways. Their parents would vehemently deny that THEIR child would ever act like that, that they have raised them differently, but in the moment kids that age can completely carried away and try to impress the other kids and say and do things that sometimes even they can't believe afterwards that they said and did.

I hope the parents and the school do take this seriously and that it is a wake up call for these kids and ultimately that it makes them realize the impact of their words and the damage they can do when they get carried away.

ITA, PP -- very well said. There is absolutely no justification for these kids' behavior, and PP is not trying to justify it. But why should a mistake made at age 12 or 13, before a child's character is developed, ruin his whole life? I was thinking today about what I would do if (god forbid) one of my kids ever bullies someone like this. So many people are saying they should be beaten and stupid shit like that. Yeah, that's a great idea, make these kids MORE antisocial and bitter and resentful of authority and LESS likely to become good people. What I would want to do if this were my child is to: (1) have him make amends to the person wronged; and (2) learn more about exactly why what he did was wrong. I think that these kids should get to know Ms. Klein, meet her family, see pictures of her late husband and son, have one on one conversations with her (supervised by a parent of course), write a paper about her life story. It is only by dehumanizing a person that they could possibly engage in this type of abuse. If they got to know her, they would learn how awful and unacceptable their behavior was and would be far less likely to do it again.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's up to $300,000 now for her vacation. Hell, they're funding her retirement.

That would be great if so. Better than working with those shitty kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's up to $300,000 now for her vacation. Hell, they're funding her retirement.

I watched the whole video and she is not asserting the proper authority as the monitor. Only in america can you get rich by playing a victim. How many more of these are we going to see now that there is a pay out. Is she going to have to spend it all on vacation?

[Anonymous]

I feel horrible for the woman, and the behavior of the kids is wildly inappropriate and cruel. I think a bus monitor position was not the right one for her, since the whole purpose of the position is to assert authority to ensure proper behavior on the bus. Hopefully she can use the money she's getting to retire/go into another field.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I agree with the above PP. I don't think these kids were necessarily poorly raised. Nor do I hope that bad befalls them and ruins their futures. They were disrespectful and rude to a woman. They likely got caught up in the moment and peer pressure and showing off and feeding off each other. Likely most of their parents are horrified by their behavior and would never have guessed that their kids would speak to someone this way.

Should they be punished/consequenced, absolutely but but not a punishment that follows them for the rest of their lives. It would be much better for all involved if the consequence was directed at teaching them to be better people rather than something that drags them down and makes them angrier and more likely to do further harm.

I have worked in the school system and many times have seen teens and especially middle school aged students behave in horrific ways. Their parents would vehemently deny that THEIR child would ever act like that, that they have raised them differently, but in the moment kids that age can completely carried away and try to impress the other kids and say and do things that sometimes even they can't believe afterwards that they said and did.

I hope the parents and the school do take this seriously and that it is a wake up call for these kids and ultimately that it makes them realize the impact of their words and the damage they can do when they get carried away.

Here we go again. "This is just a phase", "Some children are harder to discipline than others", "You can't judge unless you walked in their parents' shoes" and on and on and on.

[Anonymous]

I agree that Bus Monitor was a poor job choice on her part. However, the behavior of the children on this tape is nauseating.

I would be heartsick if any ofmy children behaved that way. But I would absolutely make it clear that it was unacceptable.

[Anonymous]

Good grief, if people think character isn't formed by 13-14 years old then no wonder we're in the mess we're in as a society. Kids do stupid things but this was vicious and speaks to a complete lack of empathy or even basic kindness, not just some kids having an age-appropriate goof. I hate when people use the "well, kids are like this" excuse. I and my friends were NEVER like this - NEVER - and neither are any of the children I know. There are PLENTY of good sweet children out there who would not behave like this.

[Anonymous]

When I was in7th grade I had a teacher who was weird. He was ineffective as a teacher, he was odd, he didn't seem to like us, he got emotional easily and at time he was inappropriate. As kids all we thought was that this guy was a terrible teacher and a bit creepy. We wanted him gone as we hated being in his class. So as a class we were pretty mean to him, myself included. My only thinking was that maybe if we were mean he would leave and we could get a decent teacher. My parents were strict and NEVER taught me or modeled that being mean was the way to get something changed but at that time it just seemed to be a good strategy. They would have been disgusted if they had known what I as part of that class was saying and doing and that I contributed ideas on how else we could annoy him into leaving. Pretty much all the kids in this middle class school with educated parents were involved in bullying this teacher. It worked and he left. Never once did his mental health occur to me, I didn't even know what mental health was at the time - I just cared about not hating school and having a decent teacher. Years later I found out he had a mental break down from how we treated him. He had been going through a divorce that year and had been depressed. As an adult I am shocked and horrified by my behavior but that is because I am seeing it through the lens of an adult. As a 7th grader I saw it all through a very different lens.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's up to $300,000 now for her vacation. Hell, they're funding her retirement.

I watched the whole video and she is not asserting the proper authority as the monitor. Only in america can you get rich by playing a victim. How many more of these are we going to see now that there is a pay out. Is she going to have to spend it all on vacation?

She's 68 years old! Playing the victim? She wasn't recording it...she was enduring it. They're crappy kids raised terribly. I have a child that age and there is no way in hell he'd ever talk to an adult or even another child like that. You don't treat people this way no matter the age. I'd love to see you assert your authority at that age, outnumbered and being spoken to like that and prodded to boot.