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?

The kids are little shits, or at least acted like little shits. This quote, from the Post, was really awful.

One student taunted: “You don’t have a family because they all killed themselves because they don’t want to be near you.”

Klein’s oldest son killed himself 10 years ago.

Having said all that - she's the Bus Monitor! The person charged with keeping order on the bus! WTF? I go back and forth between thinking she needs to do her job, and thinking that no one could have controlled these kids.

I just watched the video and it was pretty surprising - shocking really. I work in a school and I am sure that some of our kids would do the same thing under the right circumstances. (I know Greece, NY and it is a typically nice suburban town much like many in the DC region.) However, it is still a shock to actually see it happen. I was impressed with the way that she never came back with a negative or inappropriate statement of her own.

I hope that schools will find a way to use the video to start a conversation with their students about respect, maybe using the phrase "living with integrity" since that is something that she tells the boys that she always tries to do.

I was the first PP who said kids are vulnerable to group think at that age, and can easily become feral. PP who recounted the story of a teacher who was bullied reminded me of a teacher that my class had, and I almost wonder if he was the same one. He was a substitute, though. He was one of the nicest men, but he was crazy. He used to bring candy bars and raffle them off for kids who did the work he gave them, and the kids were so unappreciative and would call him old, say he found the candy bars under his couch, etc. I mean, picture a 70 year old, shuffling man trying to laugh "with" kids who are just mercilessly mocking him to his face. And occcasionally he'd try to assert his authority and it wasn't working. This was probably 8th grade, maybe about a year after the incident where I picked on the girl on the bus with some other kids. I remember being VERY uncomfortable when everyone mocked the teacher in a way that just didn't occur to me when we were teasing the girl on the bus. The teacher didn't cry, but I remember he once said "what's wrong with you kids? I am trying to be your friend, I'm trying to make this fun" and they were like "we don't want to be friends with your old ass." Cruel. Kids can be cruel. I'm not sure why I felt awful for this man but had less sympathy for the girl on the bus who we mocked. Both situations are things I remember from time to time, as I said. Like the PP, I just feel horrified looking back, at how people behaved. Turns out, another classmate of mine (one of the biggest mockers) actually became a teacher and looked this teacher up later in life. (He'd retired). My friend developed a friendship with the man until his death. Several of us from the school went to the funeral because my friend told us he'd died. I'd like to think this means that many people think about these incidents, where they contribute to someone else's grief (not just sadness, or frustration, but grief) as a child. I think it does serve as evidence that children are still forming their characters.

All this said, I genuinely think these kids crossed some lines that we wouldn't have crossed as kids and maybe there IS some parenting, in a general sense, at fault as much as the whole groupthink thing. But at the same time, it's hard to say. I know I don't like it, and I'll do everything I can to make sure my child grows up with character. And when you have everyone giving your kids everything, everyone saying to kids "oh, you don't have to share, we'll buy you both one" or not correcting a child for saying hurtful things, not stopping your preschooler from taking toys off of someone else, parents who think it's okay for their children to not invite certain kids to their parties, etc, well, we're feeding it. It may be natural and part of childhood, but I do think we're feeding it.

My mother would've had me at her door step to apologize and the rest of my summer would've been spent cleaning her yard and helping her with her odds and ends. No TV. No Internet. IPod only while I worked in the yard.
If my DS ever does this... Rrrrrr! (DS is 10 months)

The defenders on this thread are interesting. I wonder if they feel the same way about the "misguided" youths who ride the Metro. Different reactions for different demographics?

Anonymous wrote:In my youth we always had to treat the elderly with respect.
Can the bus driver not refuse to take some passengers?
At the very least those kids should lose the right to travel on the bus.

Heck no. Just put them on their own bus. Could you imagine them walking on their own. Oi

Anonymous wrote: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.

I guess CEO and brain surgeon were taken. Not by you though, apparently. Do you really think she had tons of other options and just DECIDED to spend her golden years being tormented on a shitty schoolbus???

My grandmother works as a bus monitor and she can definitely hold her own with bad ass kids. While I really do feel for her, because NOBODY should be respected, its sad that she hasn't learned to stand up for herself by now.

The lack of respect that a lot of kids have for adults these days is shocking. Hopefully, those involved will receive punishment fitting their behavior.

Unfortunately, this kind of thing goes on everywhere. My DS would come home from his MCPS middle school, telling me of teachers being cursed at,on a fairly regular basis. The punishment doled out for disrespect is not enough to discourage the behavior from being repeated. It is disgusting. There are too many parents not teaching respect, and with the schools not taking a strong enough stand, it really makes me wonder how much worse things can get.

I am glad that this woman will have enough money to be able to leave that awful job.

She has a hearing impairment and said on one of the news shows that she didn't even know everything that they said until she saw the video. This story makes me want to cry.

I feel so bad for this lady. She cried instantly, as if they pick on her every day and she just knew it was coming. I am so happy that people have come together to help this lady out. Seems like she has been through a lot, with a husband passing and a son (I believe that's who it was) that committed suicide. Words hurt, even when it comes from innocent children/teenagers, just for a laugh among their peers. She is a strong person.

Unfortunately these kids wont actually grasp how terrible this behavior was until they have kids of their own, or at least not until they are in their early thirties...before that just still too immature. I hope they think about it every day until then and it eats at their gut so they are always aspiring to be better to make up for it.

She reminds me of my grandma, so I'm not going to watch the video because it would piss me off.

Kids are going downhill. We NEVER would have spoken to an adult like that. Maybe snickered behind her back, but to taunt like that, no way.

poor little darling snowflakes
How unfair
such a big noise over just an old hag