Karen Klein (School Bus Monitor)'s Bullies Apologize

[complain jane]

A few of the kids issued an apology via a statement read on Anderson Cooper.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/21/karen-klein-bullying-video-bullies-apologize-to-bus-monitor_n_1617404.html

She says she hasn't actually received a personal apology from any of them.

[bluestateguy]

1. A forced apology, whoop dee do.

When these hoodlums go to high school, this video needs to be sent to every college they apply to.

[freshwest]

4. Forced = Fake. And another few minutes of fame.

[Blue_Tires]

19. some attorney or PR rep drafted the statement

and all the kids had to do was sign (if that)

[H2O Man]

24. well said

[AJTheMan]

2. See and the sad thing is that this kind of behavior is so rampant in our schools.

Kids treat each other like this all the time. They torment any others that they perceive to be different.

[freshwest]

3. +1

[Skip Intro]

5. Sick kids. I've seen youtube vids of all kinds of violence on shool busses.

Sadly, this is tame by comparison.

Search youtube for shool bus fights, etc. You'll be amazed.

The kids in this particular story should have their asses beat without mercy. Yeah, I said it.

[Systematic Chaos]

8. If I were the father of one of those 'kids'...

...the first thing they would come home to is a bedroom with nothing in it except a mattress on the floor, complete with basic bedding, and an alarm clock. They would find their closet containing only about a dozen of the most mismatched and pathetic looking outfits you could imagine. I'm talking thrift store crap like lime green polyester shirts and slacks formerly owned by 87-year-old men. Shit that would make him look like he just stepped out of a "Where's Waldo?" book.

Every other piece of furniture, game, toy, decoration, etc. would be donated to charity. All of it.

There would then be an ass beating (and I do mean literally the ass, nowhere else) which would render the boy barely able to sit for a week. Any complaining or talkback would subject him to another ass whooping. And just to make it clear, I firmly believe that even spanking a kid a single time should be a punishment of absolute last resort.

This punishment would continue for a minimum of six months, during which time there would be no contact with friends whatsoever except during school hours. Any deviation from being at school or at home unless accompanied by a parent would yield yet another ass whooping and further time added to the empty room and complete lack of privileges.

I wouldn't have too many qualms about completely disowning a kid of mine who would treat someone that way. The punishment I just outlined above would be getting off light.

[magical thyme]

12. ok, now I'm laughing...

"I'm talking thrift store crap like lime green polyester shirts and slacks formerly owned by 87-year-old men."

Back when I was in late high school and still forced to wear clothes my mother picked out...yes, indeedy. Lime green polyester shirt and slacks. New from expensive store. And we we well off. And it wasn't intended as punishment. What an ungrateful spoiled brat I was for hating it. Talk about cringe-worthy ...

[Systematic Chaos]

15. I'm 43. My brothers were 16 and 18 years older than I was.

I was a huge Baby Huey-like kid, though, so my mom got me through some of the earlier grades up until the mid 70s wearing my brothers' ancient hand me downs -- the crazy 60s styles pants and shirts, just with the inseams on the pants cut way shorter.

When clothes were beginning to get a little more conservative, I was still going around in plaid pants and paisley shirts.

I loved it though. I thought it was wicked cool, even if all the other kids tried to make me the butt of jokes. Fuck 'em.

[leftynyc]

17. It sounds like you had parents

that raised you to have a good self image and not let others define you. I tip my hat to them.

[blueamy66]

29. Amen.

Too many parents these days coddle their little darlings.

Sounds like your punishment fits the "crime" and would be successful.

[treestar]

31. If you were the father of those kids, they would't have done the bullying

That's the problem. Those kids' parents probably won't punish them much, if at all.

[freshwest]

6. Note only the boys filmed said anything, the hateful girl said nothing.

Amount to $400,000 and going, and she's getting free airfare and a trip to Disneyland for 9 people which ought to allow her to take some of her family. It's still not enough, until these kids learn, if they can, or are labels sociopaths to warn others in the future. I am glad to see the quick response of people wanting to do something good for this woman.

[unreadierLizard]

7. Bullshit!

Expel them, do something, I don't care! Make the little bastards PAY!

I've had it with this society and being soft on bullies. I've had it with parents who think that it's okay that their son/daughter turns out to be a bully because "kids are kids".

Where's the discipline? Where is it? I was bullied relentlessly for 10 years of my life, and I would not wish it on my worst enemy.

Why is more not being done? Why no discipline? Respect? WHERE IS IT?!

It's obvious the parents of these children were negligent in raising their children. A visit from CPS should put the fear in them.

[Raine]

10. Agree. These bullying kids will one day work in corporate America. One may even run for President

just like Rmoney. Bullying must be stopped, everyone's future is endangered by these kind of sick children who grow up to be even sicker as adults.

[coalition_unwilling]

9. To quote my long-lost musician friend Burpo in a great song

he wrote (called "That Apology Thing&quot :

Say you're sorry when you hurt somebody
That's what we are taught.
You're just sorry
You got caught.

[FloridaJudy]

11. Apology?

If one of those little toads had been my child, he'd be mowing that woman's lawn and taking out her trash for the rest of his life!

[laundry_queen]

26. Exactly.

Not to mention all of the in-person apologies to her, and in writing also, not only to the poor woman, but to everyone in the family for embarrassing them with his/her behavior. Cleaning that lady's house for the rest of her life too, and doing her grocery shopping. And what the heck, giving her pedicures too. And as another poster upthread said, everything that child owned would be gone, except for bare necessities. Said child would be required to volunteer at soup kitchens and food banks. No tv, ever. And every week, he/she would have to come up with a list of 10 things he/she could do for the nice lady, her family and his/her family to make it up to them.

[blueamy66]

30. And hopefully the kid(s) will actually LEARN something from these experiences.

Maybe something will "click" while volunteering and trying to make it up to this poor lady.

[ChazII]

33. +1 The only other item I would add

would be to have the students volunteer at a children's hospital. Working with individuals closer to their own age who have real humanity might help the punks to become more humane.

[MicaelS]

13. I'd like to see all of these little shits gettinng a caning..

Just like they do in Singapore. I'd give them 3 strokes on their bare buttocks. I'm not kidding in the slightest.

[Vinca]

14. That woman's a saint.

The little bastards deserve a good year of working in a nursing home . . . well supervised.

[Brickbat]

16. What is this "Wesley" and "Joe" crap? Name 'em and shame 'em.

[Brickbat]

21. I guessed they might. Not surprising at all. I'd like to see mainstream news sites name them as

well.

[MicaelS]

22. They're too worried about getting sued. n/t

[obamanut2012]

18. Faux, forced apologies don't count

Ms. Klein had even said she didn't want apologies, because she knows they wouldn't mean it.

Too bad, kids.

[slackmaster]

25. Weak sauce. They'll be dealing with the consequences of their bullying for the rest of their lives.

It's on teh Interwebz.

[complain jane]

27. I totally agree

This doesn't even make a dent in the damage these stupid kids did.

[XanaDUer]

28. kick nt

[FedUpWithIt All]

32. I am not a witch hunt type of person. I have to believe that they must have learned something...

from this experience and i hope it was something positive.

"I feel really bad about what I did," Wesley, one of the boys in the video, said in a statement issued to the show by police. "I wish I had never done those things. If that had happened to someone in my family, like my mother or grandmother, I would be really mad at the people who did that to them."

"I am so sorry for the way I treated you," Josh, another one of the boys, said in a statement. "When I saw the video I was disgusted and could not believe I did that. I am sorry for being so mean and I will never treat anyone this way again."

It sounds like mob mentality got the better of them and the clarity of the situation hit them once they stepped outside of it and even had others help them break it down.

Kids, as a rule, have never been known for thinking things through before acting, impulse control and individualistic behavior (regardless of what they believe of themselves)

I will say that Karen Klein impressed me even more than she already has with this...

When asked if she thought the boys were bad kids, Klein responded in a surprising way.

"Not really, not deep down," she told Anderson Cooper.

[cherokeeprogressive]

34. The irony here is that they may just be the best thing that ever happened to Ms. Klein.

Who will now live the rest of her life quite comfortably, thank you very much... I don't know what it is today, but yesterday the fund set up in her name was over $550,000. Unless that is, she's dissuaded from keeping the money by people like some I've seen posting on DU who think she should give it to charity. Fuck that. As far as I'm concerned, she earned it by doing an obviously thankless job.

The most hateful, hurtful, and destructive force in The Universe is a small herd of human adolescents in an enclosed space. Actually working amongst them is akin to unconstitutional cruel and unusual punishment. I'm sure this isn't the only time she's seen rudeness from one or more of the herd.

Live well Ms. Klein and hold your head high. You earned it.