Middle schoolers torment an elderly bus monitor and post it to the internet

[allison443]

One of the father's and the woman were on our news this evening.

The father stated he was very upset with his son and that the child has apologized. He also stated this is not a matter where he will be grounded for a few weeks. It will need to be evaluated by a specialist so that he can get the help/skills he needs. It was totally unacceptable to the father and he again apologized to the woman.

She does not want the kids criminally charged, but that it is done within the school. She has over 400,000 in the account now, so over 25 years of salary plus. She will retire and take a cruise.

Our bus superintendent stated she did what they are taught. She kept her cool and acted as an adult like she should. Yelling and or confronting the children would just escalate the situation, and just because she had great restraint in this matter does not mean in a child was being bullied she would not handle properly. She did her job to the letter of the instructions.

Lastly, there does not seem to be any criminal charges. The boys have been outed and one cell phone alone received 1000's of call and text's threatening the child.

They also interviewed the Gentleman in Canada who set up the account for her, he seemed very genuine and was extremely upset at the conduct of the children.

Interesting to hear the update! Thanks for posting.

 

[LisaR]

One of the father's and the woman were on our news this evening.

The father stated he was very upset with his son and that the child has apologized. He also stated this is not a matter where he will be grounded for a few weeks. It will need to be evaluated by a specialist so that he can get the help/skills he needs. It was totally unacceptable to the father and he again apologized to the woman.

She does not want the kids criminally charged, but that it is done within the school. She has over 400,000 in the account now, so over 25 years of salary plus. She will retire and take a cruise.

Our bus superintendent stated she did what they are taught. She kept her cool and acted as an adult like she should. Yelling and or confronting the children would just escalate the situation, and just because she had great restraint in this matter does not mean in a child was being bullied she would not handle properly. She did her job to the letter of the instructions.

Lastly, there does not seem to be any criminal charges. The boys have been outed and one cell phone alone received 1000's of call and text's threatening the child.

They also interviewed the Gentleman in Canada who set up the account for her, he seemed very genuine and was extremely upset at the conduct of the children.

Thanks for the update!

I assume they are at the end of the school year in that district? Has the monitor mentioned if this was a one time occurrence or has she been putting up with this all year?

 

[Maridw]

Well it looks like bus monitor Karen Huff is getting the last laugh. The local police are looking into it as well as the superintendent of schools. There is an Indiegogo fundraiser posted that has already raised $72,000 for Karen to go on a vacation... http://www.indiegogo.com/loveforkarenhklein?c=home.

And Anderson cooper is going to do some reporting on it....So, the little punks may get their just rewards.

They are up to $429,962. I watched it go up $600 in like 5 minutes. They still have 29 days to go on their campaign.

I watched the video and I too could only watch a minute or so of it.

 

[Tinker'n'Fun]

Thanks for the update!

I assume they are at the end of the school year in that district? Has the monitor mentioned if this was a one time occurrence or has she been putting up with this all year?

It was not a one time occurrence. But I don't believe it was at this level prior from the interview.

 

[lustergirl]

I don't think the driver did anything wrong. The driver is paid to keep his eyes on the road -- discipline is the job of the monitor.

Discipline should begin at home first and these kids would of never did that. Sorry but I have to disagree. He should be the one in control of the bus and what goes on inside of it. You can't tell me that he didnt hear those kids tormenting this lady?

 

[lustergirl]

I admit I haven't read all of the thread. The kids treated that woman just awful. However what I don't get is the role of a bus monitor for teens? Is it to keep control on the bus? If so she wasn't really doing her job was she?

She should have had the boys change seats and separate them. Then reported them to the school.

Maybe I'm missing something as we don't have bus monitors past primary grades. She seemed to be getting paid for doing nothing but sitting there and ignoring the kids.

She is 68 years old. I don't know how much controlling she could do. No for those little punks they needs a rather large man, someone like a football linebacker or wrestler.

 

[lustergirl]

It's exactly what I meant. I LOVE when parents send their kid out to stand on a corner with a sign that reads "I'm being punished because i did XYZ" but invariably there's a backlash right here on the DIS about how that's bad parenting!

This story reminds me of a MADEA movie. She was taking care of a foster child that was getting bullied on the bus. She went and got on the bus and smack the kid

 

[luvsJack]

Discipline should begin at home first and these kids would of never did that. Sorry but I have to disagree. He should be the one in control of the bus and what goes on inside of it. You can't tell me that he didnt hear those kids tormenting this lady?

There could have been a lot more noise on the bus than we realize and we don't know how far back they were sitting either. On our buses the whole point of having a monitor is so that the bus driver doesn't have to take their focus off the road. Of course the monitors we have wouldn't have put up with one word of this mess before action was taken.

She is 68 years old. I don't know how much controlling she could do. No for those little punks they needs a rather large man, someone like a football linebacker or wrestler.

You would be surprised. I have seen very small ladies put the fear of God in some seemingly "tough" kids. I just don't think this lady was right for this job. Not blaming her in any way AT ALL.

This story reminds me of a MADEA movie. She was taking care of a foster child that was getting bullied on the bus. She went and got on the bus and smack the kid

That's what we need in this world! A few more Madeas!! I love Madea!!!!

 

[donaldlovesdaisy]

This story reminds me of a MADEA movie. She was taking care of a foster child that was getting bullied on the bus. She went and got on the bus and smack the kid

That was a great scene!!!

 

[Sabrefan]

I'm really surprised how many people are so quick to blame the parents (as if suggesting their own children wouldn't do this) because I am sure some of these parents were shocked to hear what came out of their childs mouth. The mentality is different when the kids are feeding off each other in this type of environment. They had a behavioral specialist discussing this incident(s) and she said not one of these kids would have done this had they been alone, once they were together they started rewarding each other for the behavior and it escalated.

I've met some people crummy people (adults) in my life, and personally know their parents and wonder where the heck these people came from.
Or I look at siblings that were raised in the same environment by the same people, one ends up a responsible adult, and the other lives in the basement at age 40.

Parenting only accounts for so much of a persons personality. They've documented this numerous times in different studies (for serial killers as an example) yet every time something like this happens people are runnign after the parents with pitch forks. The childs father is a police officer and was extremely upset over what his son had done and said, and you could tell he was shocked and disappointed by his sons behavior towards this woman.

I also get SO tired of hearing "kids these days and this generation" - I have seen so many GREAT kids doing community service through girl scout programs, or boy scout programs, volunteering their time at nursing homes, or animal clinics. I think we need to remember never to stereotype ANY group of people - including "kids these days"

 

[CdnCarrie]

I'm really surprised how many people are so quick to blame the parents (as if suggesting their own children wouldn't do this) because I am sure some of these parents were shocked to hear what came out of their childs mouth. The mentality is different when the kids are feeding off each other in this type of environment. They had a behavioral specialist discussing this incident(s) and she said not one of these kids would have done this had they been alone, once they were together they started rewarding each other for the behavior and it escalated.

I've met some people crummy people (adults) in my life, and personally know their parents and wonder where the heck these people came from.
Or I look at siblings that were raised in the same environment by the same people, one ends up a responsible adult, and the other lives in the basement at age 40.

Parenting only accounts for so much of a persons personality. They've documented this numerous times in different studies (for serial killers as an example) yet every time something like this happens people are runnign after the parents with pitch forks. The childs father is a police officer and was extremely upset over what his son had done and said, and you could tell he was shocked and disappointed by his sons behavior towards this woman.

I also get SO tired of hearing "kids these days and this generation" - I have seen so many GREAT kids doing community service through girl scout programs, or boy scout programs, volunteering their time at nursing homes, or animal clinics. I think we need to remember never to stereotype ANY group of people - including "kids these days"

Yup. Very much a gang mentality. They could be great kids at home.

 

[Sabrefan]

Yup. Very much a gang mentality. They could be great kids at home.

It would be interesting to get the opinions of their teachers or classmates to see if this is typical of these boys or not. It will never happen but I'd be interested to see how they conduct themselves in everyday life.

 

[LuvsDragonflies]

Middle School is a viperous pit of hell.

Thank your lucky stars if your kids come out unscathed.

 

[Snowflakey]

I'm really surprised how many people are so quick to blame the parents (as if suggesting their own children wouldn't do this) because I am sure some of these parents were shocked to hear what came out of their childs mouth. The mentality is different when the kids are feeding off each other in this type of environment. They had a behavioral specialist discussing this incident(s) and she said not one of these kids would have done this had they been alone, once they were together they started rewarding each other for the behavior and it escalated.

I've met some people crummy people (adults) in my life, and personally know their parents and wonder where the heck these people came from.
Or I look at siblings that were raised in the same environment by the same people, one ends up a responsible adult, and the other lives in the basement at age 40.

Parenting only accounts for so much of a persons personality. They've documented this numerous times in different studies (for serial killers as an example) yet every time something like this happens people are runnign after the parents with pitch forks. The childs father is a police officer and was extremely upset over what his son had done and said, and you could tell he was shocked and disappointed by his sons behavior towards this woman.

I also get SO tired of hearing "kids these days and this generation" - I have seen so many GREAT kids doing community service through girl scout programs, or boy scout programs, volunteering their time at nursing homes, or animal clinics. I think we need to remember never to stereotype ANY group of people - including "kids these days"

Perfect Wonderful post - I agree with you 100%!!

 

[Planogirl]

These kids may be fine on their own but they definitely deserve to be strongly disciplines. It's time to learn how to behave now. Cruelty is never acceptable.

I don't see the age of the lady as being much of a factor. I was always a bit scared of my grandmother.

 

[LisaR]

I'm really surprised how many people are so quick to blame the parents (as if suggesting their own children wouldn't do this) because I am sure some of these parents were shocked to hear what came out of their childs mouth. The mentality is different when the kids are feeding off each other in this type of environment. They had a behavioral specialist discussing this incident(s) and she said not one of these kids would have done this had they been alone, once they were together they started rewarding each other for the behavior and it escalated.

I've met some people crummy people (adults) in my life, and personally know their parents and wonder where the heck these people came from.
Or I look at siblings that were raised in the same environment by the same people, one ends up a responsible adult, and the other lives in the basement at age 40.

Parenting only accounts for so much of a persons personality. They've documented this numerous times in different studies (for serial killers as an example) yet every time something like this happens people are runnign after the parents with pitch forks. The childs father is a police officer and was extremely upset over what his son had done and said, and you could tell he was shocked and disappointed by his sons behavior towards this woman.

I also get SO tired of hearing "kids these days and this generation" - I have seen so many GREAT kids doing community service through girl scout programs, or boy scout programs, volunteering their time at nursing homes, or animal clinics. I think we need to remember never to stereotype ANY group of people - including "kids these days"

 

[Ginny Favers]

I'm really surprised how many people are so quick to blame the parents (as if suggesting their own children wouldn't do this) because I am sure some of these parents were shocked to hear what came out of their childs mouth. The mentality is different when the kids are feeding off each other in this type of environment. They had a behavioral specialist discussing this incident(s) and she said not one of these kids would have done this had they been alone, once they were together they started rewarding each other for the behavior and it escalated.

I've met some people crummy people (adults) in my life, and personally know their parents and wonder where the heck these people came from.
Or I look at siblings that were raised in the same environment by the same people, one ends up a responsible adult, and the other lives in the basement at age 40.

Parenting only accounts for so much of a persons personality. They've documented this numerous times in different studies (for serial killers as an example) yet every time something like this happens people are runnign after the parents with pitch forks. The childs father is a police officer and was extremely upset over what his son had done and said, and you could tell he was shocked and disappointed by his sons behavior towards this woman.

I also get SO tired of hearing "kids these days and this generation" - I have seen so many GREAT kids doing community service through girl scout programs, or boy scout programs, volunteering their time at nursing homes, or animal clinics. I think we need to remember never to stereotype ANY group of people - including "kids these days"

I was thinking the same thing. Middle school has always been the worst when it comes to peer pressure. I remember witnessing so many so-called "good" kids getting caught up in the whole "gang mentality" thing. It's a survival tactic. "As long as I'm doing it with them, they won't be doing it to me."

 

[allison443]

Just saw in an article that on Anderson Cooper's show, Karen was offered an all expense paid trip for 9 people from Southwest Airlines and WDW

 

[FergieTCat]

I'm really surprised how many people are so quick to blame the parents (as if suggesting their own children wouldn't do this) because I am sure some of these parents were shocked to hear what came out of their childs mouth. The mentality is different when the kids are feeding off each other in this type of environment. They had a behavioral specialist discussing this incident(s) and she said not one of these kids would have done this had they been alone, once they were together they started rewarding each other for the behavior and it escalated.

I'm not blaming the parents. I am saying that the parents should be responsible for their own child's behavior. Even if this means inconveniencing the parent. Because I'm sure if the parent was inconvenienced (such as in taking time off from work) they would be inclined to promote behavior that was a little less shocking.

As for the "herd mentality". How about children being taught to respect others, whether they are alone or in a group? Or is that asking too much?

 

[luvmy3]

I'd only blame the parents after the fact if they come out and said they don't think their child did anything wrong, or that their child was just following the herd, or that they think they have suffered enough