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Poll: Is a One-Year Suspension Enough for Bus Monitor Bullies?
The four middle school students who bullied bus monitor Karen Klein were suspended from school last week and sent to do community service. What do you think about this?
The four students caught on video harassing and verbally abusing an elderly bus monitor have been suspended for a year from their school in Greece, N.Y.
As part of their punishment, the seventh-grade students will also have to serve 50 hours of community service with senior citizens, according to CNN.
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The profanity-laced video, posted on YouTube on June 19 and since garnering over 8 million hits, shows the students taunting, poking and using very harsh language against 68-year-old Karen Klein. Klein doesn’t fight back, despite the students’ brutal insults.
Klein told the Associated Press that the students will still be attending an alternative school, and that they “won't be at home doing nothing.” She also told the AP she approved of the punishment, and that she intends to meet with the four students to ask them why they did what they did.
What are your thoughts on this punishment? Is it too much? Not enough? Or should it be more severe? Take our poll and share your thoughts in the comments.
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David J Iacono
8:57 am on Wednesday, July 4, 2012
The point of any punishment should be to correct the bad behavior without using a sledge hammer. The penalty seems appropriate to hopefully turn this into a learning moment that the young offenders won't forget. All expelling these young people does is put them on the streets to commit additional crimes. Punishment should be used to correct bad behavior, not create more problems.
Brian
10:55 am on Thursday, July 5, 2012
Absolutely appalling. Drop the sledge. Send a loud & clear message to both the thugs and their parents! Where are the assault charges? They act like thug wann-a-bees, lock'em up with the real-deal and scare them straight. Oh yeah, post some nice YouTube videos for everyone to see.
Are we naive enough to think this is an isolated one-time incident... yeah right. I guess they need some "counseling" too.
I suppose if Karen is okay with the punishment though, it should be good enough.
Robin Nicole
8:27 am on Friday, July 6, 2012
I am a Rochester native, having spent most of my life there. I'm saying that only because I have a pre-conceived notion of Greece and the people there, so it may jade my opinion. (Anyone from Rochester will understand this. I'm an east-sider. You don't cross the river and the twain shall never meet sort of thing. :D)
That being said, I actually think this is the wrong punishment. Their actions were behavioral, not academic; yet the punishment will harm them academically not behaviorally. There should have been a suspension, but I think 1 year is excessive, especially at an "alternative education" center which is not under the standard school district rules. This also puts the onus and the punishment on the school district, and not the PARENTS which need to be a vital participant in the behavioral and attitude change.
I also think the community service component was lacking. These kids should have to work every single week with seniors, whether it be at a nursing home, senior center, food cupboard, or what have you. 50 hours is less than one hour a week. If the kids did 8 hour Saturdays, they would be done in less than 6 Saturdays. That's lacking.