COMMENTARY | Two videos of a New York school bus monitor being bullied by middle school students have gone viral. The incidents are under investigation by both the school and local law enforcement officers, according to The Blaze. The lengthy videos are difficult to watch for several reasons. Bullying education is apparently not successfully altering the behavior of public school students if the disgusting videos are any indication.
The obnoxious remarks by the middle school students “bully” the school bus monitor about her weight, discuss rape, what it would feel like to push a knife through her stomach and make disparaging comments about her hair and her face. The behavior of the youngsters beg one to question how they were raised and what type of foul language and taunting is permissible in their own homes. Have parenting norms gone so awry that children have no fear of repercussion for such horrific behavior from mom and dad?
Administrators at Greece Athena Middle School in Rochester obviously felt it was worth spending taxpayer funds on a school bus monitor for a reason. A quick glimpse of the bus surveillance tape or a conversation with driver would have alerted the school principal to how out-of-control the situation was on the bus.
According to WHEC-TV News school bus monitor Karen Huff Klein has worked for the district for more than 20 years. Klein surely deserves sympathy for the verbal torture she endured for what is probably a very small paycheck, but she obviously cannot perform the duties of a school bus monitor. The videos clearly illustrate that the majority of the middle school students on the bus do not respect Klein nor does she have any control over their actions. The school bus driver is never heard or seen on the videos, noting the driver’s inability to help control the bus or aid a co-worker being poked and crowded by a group of students.
Although the wretched and bullying behavior of the middle school students should rest squarely upon their own little shoulders, the school is at fault as well. A staff performance review or random bus surveillance tape viewing should be occurred and would have detected what is likely an ongoing problem which endangers both the beleaguered bus monitor and the students as well. District spokeswoman Laurel Heiden stated the school’s “bullying response and prevention team” was activated and students identified in the videos will be disciplined, The Blaze reports.
Caution – The bullying videos contain foul language.