Karen Klein School bus attendant reduced to tears by students' taunts

[puzzld]

The students who bullied a bus monitor in a suburban Rochester school district in a video that quickly went viral have learned their punishment.

The Greece school district announced on Friday that the four students involved in the incident will be suspended from school and regular bus transportation for one year.

In addition, each student will be required to complete 50 hours of community service with senior citizens and will complete a formal program in bullying prevention. The district is legally required to provide the students with an education.

This means the students will be transferred to a special center in the district. This program keeps middle school students on track academically.

http://www.9wsyr.com/news/local/stor...JL6KhACVg.cspx

[bowieluva]

They should just all accompany her to Disneyworld but not be allowed to go on a single ride.

[Fleta]

What is it about an old person crying that just tears my heart out? Sooooooo sad.
But it is pretty redic that this woman gets all this cash while there are so many causes out there. Fantastic for her, genuinely, and I hope she enjoys a great vacation and comfortable retirement. But seriously, THIS is the cause people choose to support?

[White trash bitchy blonde]

I'm just thinking about the miami guy that lost most of his face. It would be amazing to see this women donate just a little to him. Not that she has to but wouldn't it be awesome?

[Nancy Drew]

Why her, though? Why not you, or me, or Katie Holmes with the millions she's getting from her settlement?

[Ron_NYC]

Why her, though? Why not you, or me, or Katie Holmes with the millions she's getting from her settlement?

WTBB hacked ND

[Nancy Drew]

WTBB hacked ND

To disagree with myself?

[Ron_NYC]

To disagree with myself?

You don't know how deep this goes.

[rachy]

Ms Romig said her mother plans to contact her accountant and pay her bills before making long-term plans for her unexpected windfall.

‘She has a lot of ideas including making a donation here and there,’ Ms Romig said. ‘My nephew has autism and my niece has Down syndrome, and with those types of disabilities the kids are going to get picked on too, so she wants to help both causes.’

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...nded-year.html

her granddaughter that has down syndrome is so cute,i saw her picture on facebook.

[ToniVenezia]

Does anyone else find it strange that this woman was the school bus aide, the one who was supposed to keep the kids from misbehaving, yet she didn't do anything to keep the kids from misbehaving. I'm sorry she was mistreated that way but I find the whole thing a bit weird.

[kevansvault]

Does anyone else find it strange that this woman was the school bus aide, the one who was supposed to keep the kids from misbehaving, yet she didn't do anything to keep the kids from misbehaving. I'm sorry she was mistreated that way but I find the whole thing a bit weird.

We don't know the whole story, or the length to which she might have responded to the prior to the start of the video we all saw. She might have strict orders not to get up/move around/do anything...you never know. In some school systems, a bus monitor is literally an adult who's mere presence is supposed to deter behavior like that. Not for those little assholes, unfortunately.

[bowieluva]

Also, being a teacher or anything for junior high sucks really bad nowadays. EVERYTHING staff does to punish kids, parents contest. You give them extra homework, parents protest.

[White trash bitchy blonde]

Bus monitors are probably just the cheaper version of installed security cameras on the busses. Not saying that this is for sure the case but I imagine that all the monitor does is basically just add a little more security for the bus driver.

Also, they did say that she couldnt hear a lot of what was being said to her until she saw the video clips at the police department.

A little off topic here but my 11 yr old was on the web a little while ago and he said 'mom, this teenage girl killed herself over bullying', I mean he was shocked which just reinforced in my mind that I have not talked to him enough about this stuff. My oldest knows for sure and I thought that I had covered this already with my middle son but I think I had this convo with him at an age that he didnt feel that it applied to him or his life so he was kinda blah over it.

I love that since he is getting older, he is understanding more and more.

[ZoMyGoddess!]

Also, being a teacher or anything for junior high sucks really bad nowadays. EVERYTHING staff does to punish kids, parents contest. You give them extra homework, parents protest.

co-signed

there is hardly anything that I can do to "punish" a kid without going through administration first.

even the whole, write "i will not do....blankity blank" 100 times is considered "corporal punishment"

one time, i had one class that got super talkative after they were done with their test. So i threatened them with 5 points off their test grade and wrote their names on the board with each statement they would make out loud.
THAT, because i was taking points off a test and writing their name on the board was considered CORPORAL PUNISHMENT. like seriously. no.

hardly anything we can do.

[g r ee n ey e s]

co-signed

there is hardly anything that I can do to "punish" a kid without going through administration first.

even the whole, write "i will not do....blankity blank" 100 times is considered "corporal punishment"

one time, i had one class that got super talkative after they were done with their test. So i threatened them with 5 points off their test grade and wrote their names on the board with each statement they would make out loud.
THAT, because i was taking points off a test and writing their name on the board was considered CORPORAL PUNISHMENT. like seriously. no.

hardly anything we can do.

I think it speaks volumes when you told us about how there were some kids writing inappropriate songs about the teachers.. I can't imagine the frustration of having to deal with kids misbehaving and not being able to correct it in some way.

[White trash bitchy blonde]

My first grade teacher spanked me.

My dad turned up missing, grandpa committed suicide, i had a kid at 18 and had to grow up early.

SEE WHAT YOU DID TO ME MIRS BAGWELL?

[g r ee n ey e s]

When I was in private school they were allowed to spank us with a paddle if we did something wrong. Parents had to sign a waiver if they wanted their kids in that school. Not that I condone it, because I am sure even that could be put to the test if a parent thinks their child is being abused.

[ToniVenezia]

The upstate New York school bus monitor who was bullied by four seventh-graders says she's satisfied that they're being suspended for a year.

Speaking one day after the boys' punishment was announced, Karen Klein told The Associated Press on Saturday that she wants to meet with the boys who tormented her.

"Oh yes, I would like to talk to them!" said the 68-year-old, speaking from her home in Rochester. "I want to ask them why they did it."

What the four boys did was captured on video, mercilessly taunting Klein as she sat on the bus, gradually breaking down in tears.

On Friday, the school system in the Rochester suburb of Greece suspended the four middle school students for a year, keeping them from regular bus transportation.

How does Klein feel about this punishment?

"It's fine with me," she told the AP.

Klein said they'll still be going to an alternative school ? "they won't be just sitting at home doing nothing."

But the best part of her ordeal going public, and the resulting school action, "is that they have to do community service ? for senior citizens," she said, her voice rising with emotion.

"I'm so glad everyone out there knows about this," she added, sounding upbeat as she spoke to the AP minutes after returning from Boston and a much needed, four-day vacation that followed the flurry of attention raining on her from across the country.

Klein, who is hard of hearing, spoke by telephone with the help of her adult son and daughter, who repeated questions that she then answered herself.

Another benefit of the video of the incident going viral, she said, "is that it's putting people into action, making them talk to their children, making them teach them what they should not do."

The cellphone video posted online by a fellow student drew millions of viewers. The video shows Klein trying her best to ignore a stream of profanity, insults and outright threats.

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.

Among the mounds of messages she received this week were letters of apology from three of the boys and their families.

She said earlier in the week that she didn't feel the youths were sincere.

But on Saturday, Klein said she accepts the newest letter she received several days ago ? from the fourth boy.

His parents dropped it off with flowers.

"He said he was sorry, and that he didn't mean to do it," Klein said. "And I think he means it."

Sounding relieved, she said that none of the students will be showing up on her school bus in the fall ? should she choose to return to work.

The support she's received wasn't only verbal.

A fund drive that began with a goal of $5,000 to help Klein take a nice vacation raised more than $667,000 as of Friday.

She hasn't decided yet whether to return to her job

"I don't know, I just don't know," she said, adding, "I'm going to invest and I don't need to work."

But Klein, a grandmother of eight, including one with Down syndrome, said she'll donate part of the money to support research.

And she wants to pay off all her bills.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/0...n_1640416.html