An ordeal that started with video of Karen Klein, a bullied bus monitor in Greece, N.Y., and drew outrage amplified by the viral power of the Internet, saw a hint of closure today when the Greece Central School District announced four of the students involved will be suspended.
A statement from the district reads:
Following individual meetings this week with school and district administrators, each family waived their right to a hearing and agreed to one-year suspensions from school and regular bus transportation.
In addition, each of the four children will be required to complete 50 hours of community service with senior citizens and complete an anti-bullying program. The boys have also issued apologies to Klein.
The incident unleashed a flood of support for Klein, including an online campaign on Indiegogo.com where people can donate to send Klein on the "vacation of a lifetime." As of this writing, the campaign had raised a jaw-dropping $667,334.
Max Sidorov, the 25-year-old Toronto resident who started the campaign, started the funding initiative with an original goal of $5,000. "Lets show her... how kind and generous people can be," Sidorov wrote when he started the campaign.
Klein plans to donate part of the money to support Down syndrome research. She has eight grandchildren, one of whom has the genetic disorder.
Klein told ABC News earlier she did not intend to press charges against her bullies and hoped they would not be expelled.
I agree the punishment was well thought out. I think it will set a good example/standard for the future.
The one year suspension I suspect means that their current school is done with them for a year, they will have to find schooling somewhere else. I'm sure it's a huge burden on the parents BUT it should be a wake up call to ALL parents to KNOW your children a little better. Sorry to say, there are many complacent parents out there.
I dont know if you guys ever heard about the Chowchilla school bus kidnapping, it put that city on the map here in CA. It was my husbands hometown and his busdriver that was in that incident. THAT town to this day still talks about that incident like it happened yesterday due to the devistation of it all. You can google the incident. They are just now letting those guys out of prison after 35 years.
School buses are vulnerable, it's RARE but when something does happen on one, it definitely makes headline news.
I was just talking about this with my husband. I live in upstate NY, so this is close to home and I find it crazy how far it has travelled!
I think the punishment is fitting and love that the kids have to do community service. I think the parents should have to as well though...in my opinion. And I think that parents should also have to attend the anti-bullying seminars...but overall...I think the punishment is good for the kids.
First thing I said when I read about the incident was they needed to be suspended which would show the school system was completely standing up behind the bus monitor.
It sends a clear message to everyone - parents, students and school system employees that this behavior will not be tolerated.
The boys parents said they were appalled at their kids behavior.
For the kids, a moments worth of not thinking before engaging their mouths is going to give them a whole year to really think about what they did.
People in a mob will do things no sane individual would do by themselves.
But that certainly doesn't excuse it.
The article I read said they would go to an alternative campus (discipline campus) for the year..... they are suspended from their regular school, but will still be receiving schooling within the public schools. Most likely, that will also exclude them from extracurricular activities like sports and band....
My favorite part of the discipline is that they have to do 50 hours of community service with seniors!
Cheryl O: I read that they were suspended from that school and any school transportation within the district, for a year. They have to attend an alternative school, because the district can't legally refuse education to students. (And, they don't want the kids to just be out there, not having to attend school.)
I think the punishment was just. Not only simply punished, but also disciplined. They could have just suspended, but they will also (hopefully) learn something prolific during the community service. More bullying behavior should have consequences like this.
I think community service is the best idea. Especially if you heard the things they were saying- talking about how poor she is, etc.
I don't care at all that the parents will be inconvenienced by the lack of bus transportation (some people think it is unfair to the parents) PHOOEY. I'm not saying that the parents put those words into the kids' mouths, but the kids ARE the parents' responsibility, and that's that. ...I also like the anti-bullying class. Very good
I think the vacation fund is genius!!! ...and awesome.
The whole thing sounds good and fair. I'm in favor:)
Thanks for reporting this, BTW. With the fast and furious thing and the healthcare thing taking up a chunk of the news (both things I DO find important, BTW), I didn't hear the outcome on this.
This is an amazing update!!! Thank you for posting!! I feel like it is VERY just!!!
Grandma T, the bus from the kidnapping is in a museum that was on the show "Mysteries at the Museum" (cool show, not sure which channel it's on, maybe A&E or history, but we dvr it). i just watched it a couple weeks ago.
i agree i think it was perfect. like many others i watched the video and was sick to my stomach. it really got me upset to the point of tears.
then i saw on the news one of the dads of the kids, who was just "so shocked, and hurt, and embarrassed" that his kid would do that....and i just wanted to punch him in the face. this is not a nice kid. normal nice kids raised right do NOT act like that. this dad just looked smarmy to me.
and i have to somewhat disagree with Jo W - *however, i will agree that she does not appear to have a good personality for this job. but how many people are going to be lining up to sit on a hot bus watching rowdy kids for a couple hours every day? ideally it would be someone with some authority in their manner and who could really handle teenagers and put them in their place....but most of the time there just aren't that many volunteers to do something like this.
when we were kids the driver would threaten to stop the bus until we quieted down, if it got rowdy. and you can get kicked off the bus (or could in our school, forcing your parents to get you to and from school somehow) for bad behavior...so probably she did have some options.
but i still think it was right to throw the book at them...just because someone is weak does not make it right to treat them like that.
Yes I read about it.
Good.
Good.
Good.
Bravo.
I could think of harsher consequences.
I hadn't heard about this until now, so I googled it.
After reading the story, there was no way I could watch the video. What horrible, horrible things for these children to say. I hope their parents see this as an enormous wake-up call and get the kids (and maybe themselves?) some help. I hope the kids can turn around from this and realize they are being expelled from school society for acting like...well, I won't say what, but we all know.
The school bus is actually the safest way to get our kids to school; statistics show that they are far less likely to have accidents than parents who drive their children to and from school. (This isn't a bash at parents, either, just the truth.) When I rode the bus in high school, Mrs. Wilson was our driver. I think she would just have soon as skinned you alive for any backtalk or problems and she ran a very tight ship. We all respected her.
I'm glad to see that Ms. Klein won't be dealing with these kids any more. Boy, Grandma T, you got me good and mad!
The kids will attend an alternative school in their own school district. They will not be unleashed on society :)
I will be in the minority, but I think a year of suspension is way too much. Violence, drugs and weapons on campus rarely gets a full year suspension, so I think this was over the top.
As a teacher I have seen first hand, a child be one way around their parents and completely different with their friends. I was one who could fool anyone, I wasn't a bully by any means at all, but my mom had no idea who I was outside of the home. Kids are masters at lying! Another issue is the cattle mentality, if others are doing it then I will fall in - a very real reality with kids (and adults for that matter). So punishing the parents, it all depends. Although, the defensive parent that says what their kid did is no big deal or defends them - those ARE the parents who should suffer consequences too.
I too wondered why she wasn't disciplining them as they were doing this. If her job was to monitor the behavior on the bus then she wasn't doing her job - even if it was directed at her. She is a sweet lady, but old enough to know to take control of a situation despite personal feelings.
I do think what happened was appalling and I am glad it received the national coverage it did as to enable a precedent set for future situations like this. Saying that though, I certainly don't feel it dictated a need for over $600,000 in donations or any monetary donations for that matter.
I know I am in the minority on this...Jo W, I guess we're in this boat together.
Every time I hear this story in the news I wonder if I am the only one on earth not drawn up in the hype who realizes she is put on that bus and paid to keep them from doing that? Her job as bus monitor is to control the bus so the bus driver doesn't crash trying to control the little hooligans.
I keep seeing this and although what they did was wrong, wayyyy wrong, she wasn't doing her job at all! Whether due to her life experiences she was incapable or whatever. I see that and can't help but wonder what if that anger had been turned on one of the children on the bus and she just sat there and did nothing?
Meh, maybe it is just be....
I am not clear on what the one year suspension means? From this school? From the district? Do they have to go to a private school so the parents need to pay for it (and they need to be accepted to it as well?)
I just don't get that part. I AM glad something was done to them. I could only watch about 45 seconds of the video before shutting it off and it was like 10 minutes long! I was horrified.
What does a 1 year suspension mean? Like they cannot attend public school? Or they will attend some alternative school?
I know in our district there is a school for kids that are suspended from campus. Usually a few days or a week. They do class work sent there by their teachers, but no talking is allowed. Lunch they sit with spaces between them... Just wondering what it means.
Holy cow! I DID NOT know about this so I searched it. I could only watch 1 minute of the video it was SO AWFUL! Youtube also had video of one of the parents apologizing to Karen. She was so gracious about it. The father was saying how horrible he felt and how he did not raise his son that way and how he had called on professionals to help get to the bottom of it. The bad thing that is coming out of it though is that the father did say his family has been harassed relentlessly. So that is not good. Now people are bullying the bullies. It has to stop somewhere. Let the boys work off their punishment. Two wrongs do not make a right!
I'm concerned that they will just drop out of school. I'm not sure that another school would accept them. They are just suspended from school; not expelled so they are still registered at that school. They would need a transfer. In Portland, transfers are difficult to get.
I was so happy to hear of this. So what if those parents have a hard time finding an alternate school for their kids - that is the consequence for acting like an animal. If you act like that in the real world, in college or at work, you will be kicked out.
I disagree with the poster saying she wasn't doing her job. I'd like to see you do that job. These weren't normal kids, they were kids who saw fit to torture & belittle an old lady. You really think those kids were easy to keep under control? They obviously had no respect for adults or authority.
Yes, saw it, and the resulting financial windfall. Not a bad payoff.
