A vile school bus video goes viral and victim may get a well deserved vacation
The video of Greece, N.Y., middle schoolers verbally attacking an elderly bus monitor is disturbing and the language is abhorrent but condemnation of the kids has been instant and universal. An Internet effort is under way to collect money to send monitor Karen Klein on vacation.
These kids in the video are oafs. I hope their parents aren’t and will make these kids own up to their repulsive behaviors. Do not listen to this video with kids in the room. It is disgusting.
Here is the video:
According to the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle:
Greece police and school officials have questioned some students believed to have taunted and harassed a Greece Central School District bus monitor. A video of an incident, which happened Monday, is making the rounds online. It has gone viral with more than 100,000 hits by Wednesday afternoon.
Greece Police Capt. Steve Chatterton said Greece Central School District officials contacted police Wednesday morning regarding the 10-minute-long video, which contains explicit language and was posted on YouTube. The video shows several middle school students verbally abusing a female bus monitor while riding a school bus.
he school district said the bus monitor is Karen Klein, who has worked for the district for 23 years. She was a bus driver for 20 years and a bus monitor for the past three years. Klein, a grandmother of eight who lives in Greece, said she learned of the video Wednesday morning via Facebook and watched it at the district’s bus garage.
“It was like ‘wow,’” she said. “I can’t believe it happened … It was just plain mean. Nobody should have to put up with that.”
Klein said she didn’t report Monday’s incident to her supervisor because the school year was nearly over. She also said she did not feel threatened and that the kids “weren’t always that bad.”
Klein said she didn’t want the students to face criminal charges, but would like to see them “grounded all summer, or maybe all year.”And, Klein said, she would love an apology.
Klein also said she is hearing impaired and didn’t hear all of the taunting until she watched the video. “I was trying to just ignore them, hoping they would go away and it doesn’t work,” Klein said. “Trust me, they didn’t go away.”
Dozens of people have sent friend requests and notes expressing sympathy and support, she said. She also received several bouquets of flowers from strangers who were moved by the images. District spokeswoman Laurel Heiden said the district has received numerous emails and phone calls from as far as Australia regarding the incident. District officials said they learned of the incident and video Wednesday morning, and that at least two other similar videos were previously posted online.
–From Maureen Downey, for the AJC Get Schooled blog
Tell us what you think about the site
Customer Care »
Vacation stops, manage subscriptions and more
AJC Services
Sections
Other Editions
Visitor Agreement | Privacy Statement
© 2013 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
107 comments Add your comment
mystery poster
June 21st, 2012
9:43 am
As disgusted as I am by the horrific behavior of these monsters, I am equally moved by the generous outpouring to the fund to give her the vacation of a lifetime. I just made a donation, and as of this posting people have donated nearly $150,000 to help. That’s nearly 10 years salary. I know that money cannot make up for this, but I certainly hope it helps to salve the wounds. Maybe she can finally retire and not have to tolerate this BS anymore.
Maureen’s article mentioned the site but did not provide a link:
http://www.indiegogo.com/loveforkarenhklein?contribution_success=true&a=725745
mystery poster
June 21st, 2012
9:48 am
Warning.. the f-word appears twice in the donation site.
Also on the site are the phone number and email address of the school district and the principal, should you wish to let your disgust be known.
Cassidy
June 21st, 2012
9:52 am
I had seen parts of the video on the news, but just watched the entire video. What is really a sad commentary on these kids is that they were so proud of themselves that they taped the bullying and then posted it for the world to see – no remorse at all.
Jerry
June 21st, 2012
9:58 am
Truely bad kids grow up and go to jail. Look at what our jails look like today.
Atlanta Mom
June 21st, 2012
9:59 am
“These kids in the video are oafs. I hope their parents aren’t ”
How do you think the kids got this way to begin with?
Tracy
June 21st, 2012
10:03 am
They should be beat until they bleed. They threatened to stab her and violate her home.They should be prosecuted. I hope they go to jail and a big man gets after their butts, literally. I also think they are perverts because they keep saying sexual comments to her. THIS IS ELDER ABUSE and IT MUST STOP.
BT
June 21st, 2012
10:04 am
If she is a bus monitor, i bet this is a special ed bus and that is a whole different ballgame. If that is the fact, their behavoir well be excused as a manifastation of their disabiltiy. In other words they can’t help their behavior so it will be excused!!
Jerry
June 21st, 2012
10:29 am
In this specific case — it doesn’t appear these delinquents will have any charges, but be assured they will probably have a future as defendants in court and in a jail cell. Look at who the general population is in American jails today to see who the general population looks like.
Mirva
June 21st, 2012
10:29 am
Believe me, NOTHING will happen to these kids. Their parents will rally behind them and demand that school officials PROVE their child was involved. If proof is offered (and it won’t be enough for the adult to say what happened), then these parents will blame the bus moniter ( she wasn’t nice to them, one time she said something mean to their child). Other parents will rush to the doctors office and get their child diagnosed with some “disorder” that will excuse their behavior.
If this had not been posted online and the bus moniter just complained, administrators would have blamed her for the bad language the children used and suggested that she was too old or perhaps not “relating ” well enough to the youth of today. Isn’t there a way for her toa make the bus ride more fun for them? Could she incorporate technology to help them engaged? People who don’t teach have NO IDEA what it is like in schools today. Greece, New York is not a hood. It’s a suburb just like many around here. Trust me, this is happening in schools and busses all around here.
Disgusted
June 21st, 2012
10:30 am
BT, many buses have monitors, not just special ed buses. Guaranteed this bus has a monitor because the troublemaking little punks have probably been at it all year long. These are little brats who obviously have either not been brought up right, and have been allowed to do and speak as they please since they were toddlers. Yes, it is true that good parents can have “bad seeds,” but obviously then these parents have not chosen to address their problems as effectively as they could. There was a time in this country when if you were stupid enough to act up in school, and your parents got wind of it, no questioned asked, you got your butt beat but good when you got home.
Keith
June 21st, 2012
10:30 am
I see a beaner on the right.
Disgusted
June 21st, 2012
10:35 am
Guaranteed, the cowardly administration of this school will do squat. I am furious over this.
mystery poster
June 21st, 2012
10:38 am
The address, phone number, and email addresses of the school administration are posted on the fundraising site for the bus monitor. I recommend making your displeasure known to them.
HoneyFern School
June 21st, 2012
10:41 am
Unfortunately our traditional schools (public, private, charter – all) are a reflection of our society. What is on TV? This is what happens when we spend so much time in front of screens. We seem to be de-volving in terms of civility and basic human respect.
Good for the Internet; apparently this lady is going on a hard-earned vacation. The school will have to do something with all of the attention given to this story.
Parent
June 21st, 2012
11:10 am
I’m so sick of hearing it’s the norm. No it’s not. If it’s the norm, then we as a human race have become very sick. This is just 4 punk a$$ losers getting away with bad behavior. Period.
erin
June 21st, 2012
11:13 am
I understand the father of one of the kids is already making excuses for his kid’s behavior.
It’s sick. It’s disgusting, It’s horrible. The parents of these little punks should be ASHAMED. Problem is, they, they won’t be. Or like the one kid’s dad, they’ll make excuses. And nothing will change.
mystery poster
June 21st, 2012
11:17 am
@Parent
I have to agree with you. The reason these things become so sensationalized is exactly because it’s NOT the norm. I truly have to believe that most people are kind. I think that is evident in the fact that kind-hearted people have already donated nearly 10 years’ salary to this poor woman.
southside teacher
June 21st, 2012
11:23 am
They need to be removed from the bus for the coming school year, and their parents required to not only transport them, but spend the entire day with them. Trust me, they did not learn this kind of cruelty at school! It would be an eye-opening experience if they actaully had to sit in the presence of their little hooligans without electronic nannies. Perhaps then they would stop making excuses for this kind of behavior. I just spent an entire school year listening to similar nonsense, and the admin response was non-existent beyond laying it at my feet. So, yes, I can believe that little will be done here.
BJ Van Gundy
June 21st, 2012
11:38 am
Children that have chosen to use language that, while vulgar and socially unacceptable for adults as well, is reserved for adult usage, should be prosecuted for Assault as adults.
However, if that is going beyond already determined legal acceptability… maybe we should have a review of the laws regarding parental responsibility for a child’s behavior and extend it from just property damage sort of responsibilities to this sort of crime.
Cassidy
June 21st, 2012
11:48 am
When I said that I thought this was fairly normal, I did not mean that I thought it was okay. I’m just saying that it happened on my bus twenty years ago so I’m not surprised at the video. I hope it is not normal, but I think the actual targets of bullying have a different perspective than others. Nothing will happen to these kids and, even if they were punished, it would just make them worse. If this is how they talk to adults than you can only imagine what they do to other students.
justbrowsing
June 21st, 2012
12:00 pm
Kids these days have little understanding of consequences. They push many of the wrong boundaries because they do not receive appropriate consequences for their actions. As a result, you get extreme behavior that is often dismissed and only becomes an issue when it is publicized- it also often gets worse. I watched a student’s behavior grow brazenly worse as he was spoken to first, then given ISS second- It was not until his 3rd offense in the same week that he finally went home.
Ashley
June 21st, 2012
12:09 pm
Children from my generation were respectful to all adults……The adults use to proclaim if you act up in the neighborhood or curse at grown folks they could whip your behind. Of course that was just a figure of speech, but you got the message. Kids realize that they can push the boundaries of bad behavior with hardly any consequences, of course when you have parents who bellow “that’s not my child or he/she wouldn’t do anything like that, it’s like beating a dead horse, along with the fact that there are parents and guardians whose behavior toward other adults is just as reprehensivible. No person should be abuse the way this grandmother was, the punishment should be swift and unforgettable. Sadly until some adults learn to to teach their children manners and respect this type of behavior will continue.
Maureen Downey
June 21st, 2012
12:10 pm
@Erin, Not sure the dad is making excuses from what I read:
mystery poster
June 21st, 2012
12:38 pm
So his family has received death threats.
Kind of like the ones the kids gave the bus monitor.
Karma, dude.
Bernie
June 21st, 2012
12:39 pm
SEE @ 8:37 am – If YOU would PULL your head OUT of the place where it is DARK and STINKY, you would be able to really “SEE”, many more things you need to “SEE” around you!
erin
June 21st, 2012
12:41 pm
OK, I misheard, then … I’d heard the “little out of control” part, not the part about the family getting death threats. Sorry for the confusion.
Still, those making those threats aren’t helping. What the kids did is despicable, but so are those making the death threats. Two wrongs don’t make a right, but it sure would be nice for the kids involved to be punished and punished severely.
Hillbilly D
June 21st, 2012
12:43 pm
They need their little butts busted but of course, that’s not politically correct. They know nothing will happen to them, so they do as they please.
Janet
June 21st, 2012
1:16 pm
I just watched this and am in tears. Unbelievable. I don’t know what else to say.
They say that online cruelty is popular because it’s anonymous and they can’t see the pain they are inflicting. Well, here they could. And it only made them more cruel. They ENJOYED making her cry. It’s like they don’t even recognize that she is a human being.
It is TERRIFYING to me how we are raising kids today. I would be so devastated as a parent if my child did something like this. I did my share of bad things in middle school, but this is disgusting and so needlessly cruel. I can’t wait to hear what their punishment is going to be.
mystery poster
June 21st, 2012
1:21 pm
I have been watching the “Let’s Give Karen a Vacation” fundraiser, and it is up to over $221k as of the time I post this. That’s nearly 15 years’ salary.
What's Best for Kids?
June 21st, 2012
1:26 pm
15 years’ worth of salary. Huh. I bet she would have settled for the kids being kind to her and showing her respect from the beginning so that she could enjoy her job and say she made a difference for kids…kinda what most educators want: a little respect (and that includes a decent salary) so that we can make a difference for kids.
mystery poster
June 21st, 2012
1:37 pm
@What’s best.
I know, the money can’t make up for the lack of respect she had to tolerate. However, it does me good to know that there are so many kind-hearted people who feel for what this woman went through.
There are many incredibly poor areas in Upstate New York (think rural GA poor). I’m sure that she can put the money to good use.
(also, I had her salary wrong, its really about 14 years’ worth).
Shel
June 21st, 2012
1:47 pm
It was very difficult to watch this, but while I heard the horrible things said to her I couldn’t help but wonder why she didn’t do something about it. She is not helpless and her job is to monitor the behavior of these kids. I hear all of you who say that this behavior is typical and that no one will do anything about it, but it starts with her. What would have happened if it were a student who was bullied on the bus? Would she have stopped it? I feel terrible for her, but think maybe she should take the money from the fundraiser and retire. For those of you who are about to blast my opinion, please think about how you would feel if those kids were bullying your child and this woman was letting it happen.
AlreadySheared
June 21st, 2012
1:53 pm
So here’s a thought experiement. Instead of being a school bus with middle-schoolers, this is an army bus in basic training where the recruits are terrorizing a tearful drill sergeant. Anyone think that there is a chance of my alternate scenario occurring?
Of course not! The difference is not the people, it’s the institution they are members of. Discipline and respect for authority are centrial to the military, and a wide variety of consequences await recruits who don’t get this. In public schools, however…..
Maureen Downey
June 21st, 2012
2:03 pm
@Shel, The incident was Monday. I just checked the school district site and school ended the next day for summer break. Wondering if she didn’t want to bother reporting on the last day?
She did say she was hard of hearing — which is problematic for a bus monitor — and didn’t actually hear all that was being said to her by the kids. It may be the recording device was closer to the kids and that we were able to hear what was said in more detail than she could
Maureen
catlady
June 21st, 2012
2:13 pm
Unfortunately it is like this in many schools. When my elder daughter was at Cedar Shoals in Athens years ago, she took an AP history class. As part of that class, she audio taped the teacher reviewing for the test so she could listen again at home. I was listening along with her when–BAM!–there was this loud noise in the background and screaming and cursing. She did not even flinch. I stopped the tape and asked what the noise was, and she said, “Huh?” We listened again and she “heard” it–said it was normal. A kid across the hall had gotten made and had thrown a desk against the wall. It was so commonplace she did not hear it!
At my son’s middle school (also in Athens) he witnessed the resource officer trying to calm a student down. The student knocked the officer down and STOMPED ON HER and the principal blamed the resource officer!
Stuff like this convinced me that I needed to spend even more time at my kids’ schools. And, after seeing what I saw, I knew I had to get them out of there.
It seems to me that some of us involved in this blog are “getting schooled” about what really goes on in many schools and on buses. BTW, here in my realitively quiet school system, my kids quit riding the bus when my son had a knife held to his throat (the video showed it) and the perpetrator was not expelled because “he has a chance to be the first one in his family to graduate from high school.”
And folks, it is NOT the teachers who “allow” this to happen!
Jamie Grant
June 21st, 2012
2:16 pm
This is what happens when parents become friends with childeren and not parents! If I were to ever act in this action, my mother would have had a hole in the back yard ready for me!!!! My Uncle would have made me sit in front of a mirror with a bar of soap in my mouth for hours and my father would have demanded I apologize to this woman and I would spent the rest of the lonley summer cutting her yard, babysitting her grandchildren, going to the store and carring her bags or whatever she wanted me to do.. My parents would have made me loose the best time of my life during the summer to prove a point that ugliness to anyone makes you a dark, nasty and pretty pathetic person. I feel sorry for the kids more so than Karen because you will have to answer to someone one day! Mommy and Daddy can’t protect you in the real world! As a mother (and I am sure happy not yours), I would have beat my child to a pulp then you would sit with this lady on the bus for the rest of your time in school. God bless her for not making it more than it could have been, cause with a good lawyer, you would have been up the creek. Your parents should be ashamed and truley embarrassed!
Old timer
June 21st, 2012
2:18 pm
And that video explains why I never would drive a bus or volunteer to be a monitor…..
TheGoldenRam
June 21st, 2012
2:21 pm
There is a very interesting dynamic playing out with this story. It’s so quickly shifted from the initial sadness and outrage of watching another innocent victim of bullying, to the staggering power of the Internet. I do IT work for a living. A lot of it is security. I have to constantly explain to people the trade-offs between ‘level of secure-ness’ & freedom. It’s always a balancing act. I’ve been doing this stuff since I was a kid. From the bulletin board days preceding the ‘internets’. Give me, or people like me, enough time and we can defeat all but the most robust of security measures. Here’s the key. It’s about motivation and profile. Most people(and businesses) correctly assume that they are not the defined target of attacks. They are generic targets of malware/spyware/viruses/exploits/etc.. We all are.
However, what happens in this day and age when you decide to paint a big target on your forehead?
That’s what is playing out now. Not only has the Internet harnessed the generosity of the world by raising $100’s of thousands for the nice bus monitor lady, but it has rallied many tech-savvy avengers to her defense. Or rather it has mobilized a small army of digital vigilantes. As I’m typing this, details about these student’s names, relatives, online accounts, addresses, parent’s employers, parent’s coworkers, phone numbers, cell numbers, bank names, utility account #’s, pictures of them, there houses, their family, etc, etc, ETC,, are streaming across the Internet. You have members of groups like 4chan and Anonymous, who would normally be content on attacking some governmental servers or ‘evil’ Fortune 500 company, turning their wrath on middle school bullies.
That’s the cautionary warning in this tale. Your pretty smartphones might let you plug into the rest of the planet, but if make a really big mistake, the scale of your problems has the potential for being HUGE. I can just imagine some nerdy hackers, themselves once victims of bullies, making their new hobby annihilating the online existences of other high-profile bullies. These bullies will be immortalized on sites like Google. Their future employers will find this info with a click. Does that not speak to the terrifying efficiency of the Internet?
I love technology. I think the transition to a digital age is the most profound period in the history of humanity. I love the possibilities it offers to fields like education. People just need to remember that the incredible power and positive potential for the technology carries with it profound dangers.
Middle school bullies bearing smartphones beware.
TheGoldenRam
June 21st, 2012
2:33 pm
P.s. When I told my retired 3rd grade teacher momma about how people had rallied to this lady’s cause and were on pace to race $250K+ for her, this is the response I received.
She asked, “If I were to volunteer as a bus monitor here in town, which school do you think has the worst students?.”
Nice mom. hahaha..
gamom
June 21st, 2012
2:44 pm
Kudos to the bus monitor for demonstrating enormous restraint. These kids need to go before a judge and required to do community service with deaf elderly people. And should not be allowed the privilege of riding on the bus
Kawla
June 21st, 2012
2:54 pm
The Dad says his kid made a ’stupid mistake’. I would not call it a ‘mistake’ – that was calculated bullying meant to hurt.
mystery poster
June 21st, 2012
3:04 pm
@Golden Ram
Thank you for an interesting perspective on the technology driving this.
Dr. Craig Spinks/ Georgians for Educational Excellence
June 21st, 2012
3:44 pm
Local and state BOE members should regularly visit classrooms and ride school buses ” incognito”. Unfortunately, the Truth about student misbehavior is too incredible for YouTube videos and words.
William Casey
June 21st, 2012
4:56 pm
As Dean at Chattahoochee HS in the ’90’s I occasionally road on “problem” busses. Never had a problem because I had the authority to suspend those misbehaving. Interestingly enough, my most effective authority was to ban them from the bus. This inconvenienced the parents and got their attention.
Truth in Moderation
June 21st, 2012
5:19 pm
“6 Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. 2 “Honor your father and mother,” which is the first commandment with promise: 3 “that it may be well with you and you may live long on the earth.”[a]
4 And you, fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath, but bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord.”
Ephesians 6:1-4 NKJ
Personally, I blame the FATHERS.
Digger
June 21st, 2012
5:22 pm
A society turning upside down. ‘A Clockwork Orange’, anybody?
Janet reno,nv
June 21st, 2012
6:18 pm
Iam a school bus driver and have a aid on my bus this really ticks me off that this happen.What I don’t understand is why the driver didn’t do something to help her aid,I would of stopped this and called the office and asked for help (if she had a 2 way radio should of been on it ) Is there cameras on board? Do they have a sitting chart or a rooster? If not that should be part of the daily routine.These kids should be kicked off the bus next year, just maybe the parents would do some thing after having to drive their little angles to school for awhile.The parents are to blame for their childerns actions. Mrs. Klein enjoy your vacation,if you had been my aid that would of stop.
Cissy
June 21st, 2012
8:44 pm
Truth: What fathers?
That’s half the problem.
Truth in Moderation
June 22nd, 2012
12:04 am
@Cissy
You are correct. Everyone makes choices. Fathering a child is a choice. Being a responsible parent is an obligation. Free “love and sex” isn’t free, is it. The children and society at large pay the price. Sow to the wind, and you will reap the whirlwind.
Dr. Monica Henson
June 22nd, 2012
4:00 pm
Banning an offending student from riding the school bus is a powerful tool that is not employed with nearly enough frequency by administrators. It leaves the parent no choice but to get involved in the situation. Creating an issue where the parent is punished along with the student also sets in motion the mechanism where punishment at home will probably occur, where it might not have otherwise.
Immediate suspension pending transfer to the alternative school for a punitive placement should be imposed on every one of the offenders. If school is already out, then the suspensions would go into effect at the beginning of the upcoming school year. Wonder how the bullies would fare against a much tougher peer group than they attended school with this year in the general population?
As shocking and disgusting as those students’ behavior was toward the elderly monitor, I am certain that it came as no surprise to their classmates once the video went viral. Imagine how they probably treat kids their own age.