Those nasty bullies who tormented an innocent 68-year-old school bus monitor with comments about her weight, sexual acts and family members killing themselves, finally got their due. A one-year suspension from school, time in some type of rehab facility and community service with the elderly.
A one-year suspension is huge. It seems just and appropriate for a bullying offense. But why does it still not feel like it's enough to pay for what they said and how they actually did it? Maybe because it's not. Once you say such terrible, mean, and hurtful things as they did, you can never take them back or make good on them, no matter how harsh the punishment.
Those taunts will live on the Internet and in the heart of poor Karen Klein forever, no matter how many vacations she gets to take or how many days those boys miss school.
The four middle-schoolers apparently waived their right to a hearing. After a week of talking about the incident, which went viral around the world, the school district near Rochester, New York, issued a statement last night on how to deal with the deviants.
In addition to the suspension and community service work, the boys have to go through a bullying prevention program. Usually, being suspended (or expelled) from school does not mean they miss a grade, it just means they attend an alternative type school where they are still required to complete classwork requirements to be able to keep on track with their current grade. But in many districts, it's not nearly the equivalent of instruction they get while attending regular school, and they miss out on all the social and extra-curricular activities as well. So yeah, it's a real blow to a kid.
But whether the boys will "learn their lesson" from this punishment is unclear. It still doesn't seem to bridge to the larger crime of human decency and respect. Nothing really does. There just is no appropriate punishment for what those boys did to Mrs. Klein ("official" punishment, that is).
Do you think the boys got the punishment they deserved?
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Comments 72
Ok, after I saw the comments saying that she didnt do her job, I just had to comment again. What could she have really done differently? She could have yelled at them, but you know high school kids, they would have just though it was funny and kept going. She could have thrown them off the bus, but that would have just gotten her in trouble with the parents and school. So please, if you know what she should have done, the by all means, tell everyone here. Its so easy to sit there on your high horse and say she didnt do her job.
People want four kids to pay for the sins of many. These aren't the only kids to do this kind of thing just the ones that got on the Internet for everyone to see. It happens every day to many children and adults but nothing happens with them no money or punishments. The things that should be taken from this which would be better parenting, more education on bullying hate crimes etc., and people seeing what is really happening out there won't be taken at all. Once these kids are punished the world will go back to being busy with themselves and forget and not do anything to change anything until the next bus lady shows back up on the Internet. I mean that is what they paid money to this lady through "donations" for in the first place so they could feel better about not doing anything substantial. The most ironic part is how the public became a mob of it's own calling names and taking apart the kids in turn. These kids were wrong but so is everyone punishment to them just makes us feel better about ourselves.