Anonymous wrote:kid would be at her doorstep and cleaning her house with a toothbrush!!!

Seriously. My kid would be out doing her yardwork in 100 degreees with manicure scissors.

PP here...just read reports that two of the boys have apologized in written statements - but they didn't do it in person, and the other boys have yet to apologize. So now I'm inclined to think very poorly of their parents, too. My kid would be at her doorstep and cleaning her house with a toothbrush!!!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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?

ITA. No one is standing up for the AA kids acting the same way on the metro here on DCUM. Most on this board view those students as criminals.

Let's turn the tables and put this scene on the metro, and make all of those students black. I bet there would not be a SINGLE defender of those children here.

By middle school, if you are an asshole, you are an asshole. If this was 6 and 7 year olds, sure, kids don't understand the consequences of their actions. All of you defending those children probably have asshole kids who do stuff like this when they can get away with it. Yes, I called your kids assholes. a 13 year old can be charged as an adult for a crime for a reason. They know the difference between right and wrong at that age.

I agree. Or even a busload of kids on a bus to Anacostia. People would be wanting to send them to prison. But because these are "light to white" kids, it's a totally different ballgame. They should right a book report.

Give me a break. They aren't even sorry.

Anonymous wrote:PP again...I really like PP's idea to have the kids write book reports on her life story.

Does she have a biography out there?

PP again...I really like PP's idea to have the kids write book reports on her life story.

I agree that middle school kids can be brutal, but this goes to a whole different level, bullying a senior citizen who was crying. They tormented her in such a cruel, vicious way. I don't doubt that some of those kids were influenced by the group and would never have behaved that way independently, but nonetheless - this went beyond the typical bullying of this age group...at least I truly hope so.

Anonymous wrote: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?

ITA. No one is standing up for the AA kids acting the same way on the metro here on DCUM. Most on this board view those students as criminals.

Let's turn the tables and put this scene on the metro, and make all of those students black. I bet there would not be a SINGLE defender of those children here.

By middle school, if you are an asshole, you are an asshole. If this was 6 and 7 year olds, sure, kids don't understand the consequences of their actions. All of you defending those children probably have asshole kids who do stuff like this when they can get away with it. Yes, I called your kids assholes. a 13 year old can be charged as an adult for a crime for a reason. They know the difference between right and wrong at that age.

Do you really think she had tons of other options and just DECIDED to spend her golden years being tormented on a shitty schoolbus???

Not the poster you were responding to, and I do genuinely feel horribly sorry for this woman and believe that there is something seriously wrong with these kids. That being said, the other children on the bus deserve a monitor that can assert authority to protect them from kids like this, and it does not appear that Ms. Klein is the right person to take on that role.

Apparently Karen is quite hard of hearing and didn't hear many of the comments being said on the bus. It wasn't until they replayed the video for her in the Today studio that she knew what had been said to her. She was a bus driver for 20 years before becoming a monitor so she is probably pretty used to rowdy kids.

She is asking that they apologize, and that their parents deal with them and I think we should respect her wishes.

Those people wanting the kids to have their futures ruined or calling and leaving death threats for the families of the kids could learn a little from Karen and her example of grace in this situation.

The fund for her is now up to almost $500K - seeing as her annual income was $15K, that should allow her to retire.

Bus monitors are there to control order as it relates to kids effing with other kids, being really loud, rowdy, etc. While shitty kids, they weren't acting out of control. I doubt that the bus driver even heard this incident.

So you're saying it was outside of the bus monitor's job description to control kids effing with the bus monitor? She can tell them to settle down when they are mean to other kids, but when they turn on her she sits there mute? Gottcha.

Look, as I said before, the kids are little shits, and some of the comments are appalling. If they were my kids, I'd be horrified and ashamed, and come down on then like the wrath of God. But this is an authority figure whose *sole* purpose is to control kids who *couldn't* control the kids, apparently can't hear much of what is going on in the bus, and who people have decided to give over $300,000 because she couldn't do her job and was made to feel bad. Doesn't that strike anyone else as mildly ridiculous?

Making the Bus Monitor Cry Cameraman Speaks Out http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KdfRHlzWOZk
He doesn't seem thT remorseful, I don't think he learned his lesson.

Anonymous wrote: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.

+1

Anonymous wrote: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 ...

Reminds of an incident (8th grade also) where we had an AA substitue teacher. One boy wrote the message, "She looks like a monkey" on a folded sheet of paper and passed it behind him. People kept passing it on through the rows, and the teacher caught the note because everyone would laugh after they read it. Teacher opened it up and tears started coming down her face... Kids (including myself) were cruel. It's easy to be cruel without thinking much about what's going on. I am definitely trying to drill into my kids, "Think before you act/speak."

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Bus monitors are there to control order as it relates to kids effing with other kids, being really loud, rowdy, etc. While shitty kids, they weren't acting out of control. I doubt that the bus driver even heard this incident.

I hope she takes that money and quits that damn job.