68 year old bus monitor. Bully victim to kids.

[pylon]

One part of this story that is absolutely heart breaking, is this:

One boy’s comment was particularly cruel: “You don’t have a family because they all killed themselves because they didn’t want to be near you.”
Klein’s oldest son committed suicide 10 years ago, according to a report by ABC New affiliate 13 WHAM TV in Rochester.

Again, I do not think a lot of young people can draw the dinstinction between a 4chan/youtube comment section insult, and what is appropriate in real life.

And I do not agree that the embarrassment is punishment enough. These kids should have to go on TV and individually issue an apology in my opinion. It was OK to upload the taunting to youtube, so how is issuing an apology any different. At least they can somehow try and salvage some dignity out of this.

[CaptainCrunch]

Originally Posted by Daradon

As his photo suggests, he's just a tired old man we tolerate.

Well isn't that nice.

[CaptainCrunch]

Originally Posted by Dion

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headline...-quit-her-job/

The father of one of the teenage boys who was involved in the bullying says his “heart broke” to see that his son was part of the abuse, but that the boys have suffered enough with their faces made public in the video.
“My family’s received death threats,” Robert Helms told ABC News. “He’s a 13-year-old kid. It was a stupid mistake and he’s paying for it but I just think it’s a little out of control.”

Pretty lousy example your setting dad if you haven't dragged your kid over to her house to apologize and make amends.

You're boys suffered too much because of some phone calls? Your boys a cruel little snot bag that cruelly bullied an old lady and made her cry.

[Daradon]

Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch

Pretty lousy example your setting dad if you haven't dragged your kid over to her house to apologize and make amends.

You're boys suffered too much because of some phone calls? Your boys a cruel little snot bag that cruelly bullied an old lady and made her cry.

Agreed. Hard to agree with you because we've been chasing each other around, but I do agree. Both need to learn a lesson.

[Mean Mr. Mustard]

Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch

Pretty lousy example your setting dad if you haven't dragged your kid over to her house to apologize and make amends.

You're boys suffered too much because of some phone calls? Your boys a cruel little snot bag that cruelly bullied an old lady and made her cry.

I do think that there is a world of difference between some phone calls and apparent death threats. By no means should the kid be forgiven for what he has done but for people to threaten the life of a 13 year old, no matter how much of a complete tool he was, is crossing the line, much like the kid crossed the line prior.

If nothing else it is extremely ironic actually that people who are deriding the kids for bullying would then themselves take the exact same approach. Obviously she is more of a victim than he is but still who threatens the life of a 13 year old kid.

[CaptainCrunch]

Nobody doubts that phoning in a death threat is stupid, chances are the person is going to be talking to the cops soon enough.

But the phone calls aren't punishment, unless the Dad is saying that these other people are punishing his kid for him.

I have a lot of problem with the lack of apologies that this woman has received, I have a lot of problem with the dad basically shrugging his shoulders and not making his kid take responsibility.

[Phanuthier]

Originally Posted by Red Slinger

I have no idea about the actual character of the kids involved in this incident but I do know that after many years of riding a school bus I never saw or heard anything close to this taking place. I couldn't even imagine something like this happening when I was their age.

...

In my opinion, this is clearly a combination of the parents failure and mob mentality run amock. Fortunately, most kids both in my day and today are better than this. Hopefully, the parents of these hellions step up and dish out the appropriate discipline and make it a lesson they will never forget (doesn't necessarily mean physical discipline).

Thats cause this doesn't happen all the time now. It happens sometimes now, just like it happens sometimes back in your generation. It is exactly what you said it is, its mob mentality added to the fact that kids are stupid.

The issue here isn't how kids treat adults these days, its bullying and how people treat people. Old or young, the stuff said in that video is dumb to say to anyone. Death threats are nothing to laugh at and these kids do not deserve it - in fact, that kind of dumb ass behavior is probably why they think this stuff is appropriate. They deserve a normal discipline (i.e. CaptainCrunch, apologize to the women in person and do her yard work), but the over exaggeration (i.e. CaptainCrunch, have kids follow around and beat them up every day for 5 years) is dumb - and proof that even as adults, some of us are guilty of bullying and mob mentality.

NOTE: I am NOT defending what these dumb kids did - I'm saying the issue isn't something that is only happening to kids these days, or that its some evidence that kids these days are entitled blah blah blah. Bullying has ALWAYS happened - if it didn't happen to you or your school, lucky you.

[CaptainCrunch]

Originally Posted by Phanuthier

Thats cause this doesn't happen all the time now. It happens sometimes now, just like it happens sometimes back in your generation. It is exactly what you said it is, its mob mentality added to the fact that kids are stupid.

The issue here isn't how kids treat adults these days, its bullying and how people treat people. Old or young, the stuff said in that video is dumb to say to anyone. Death threats are nothing to laugh at and these kids do not deserve it - in fact, that kind of dumb ass behavior is probably why they think this stuff is appropriate. They deserve a normal discipline (i.e. CaptainCrunch, apologize to the women in person and do her yard work), but the over exaggeration (i.e. CaptainCrunch, have kids follow around and beat them up every day for 5 years) is dumb - and proof that even as adults, some of us are guilty of bullying and mob mentality.

NOTE: I am NOT defending what these dumb kids did - I'm saying the issue isn't something that is only happening to kids these days, or that its some evidence that kids these days are entitled blah blah blah. Bullying has ALWAYS happened - if it didn't happen to you or your school, lucky you.

Should I start a more liberal green text policy?

[Phanuthier]

Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch

Should I start a more liberal green text policy?

Honestly I have no idea when you are sarcastic and when you aren't. I'd expect something like that to be an exaggeration by most reasonable people... I guess I don't consider you to see things reasonably, sorry.

I do agree about the former parts though... besides what happens behind closed doors, the kid should be on his hands and knee's pleading for forgiveness from the women and he should be doing her yard work for a year.

[Daradon]

He used to be a good poster.

There is obviously no way I got younger.

[Dion]

Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch

Nobody doubts that phoning in a death threat is stupid, chances are the person is going to be talking to the cops soon enough.

But the phone calls aren't punishment, unless the Dad is saying that these other people are punishing his kid for him.

I have a lot of problem with the lack of apologies that this woman has received, I have a lot of problem with the dad basically shrugging his shoulders and not making his kid take responsibility.

Agreed. I'd like to see those pukes standing in front of the school with a sign that says; "I was the one that bullied the lady" Let them suffer the verbal abuse they'd be getting from people and vehicles passing by. Public shame and embarrassment would go along ways to teaching these pukes that bullying is wrong.

[Phanuthier]

Originally Posted by Dion

Agreed. I'd like to see those pukes standing in front of the school with a sign that says; "I was the one that bullied the lady" Let them suffer the verbal abuse they'd be getting from people and vehicles passing by. Public shame and embarrassment would go along ways to teaching these pukes that bullying is wrong.

So basically, you want to teach them by bullying them then?

I don't agree...

[pylon]

Originally Posted by Phanuthier

So basically, you want to teach them by bullying them then?

I don't agree...

Judges in the US have imposed sentences where they have ridiculed people by forcing them to wear sandwich boards on street corners detailing their crimes. This would be no different. And sometimes, until to you are put in the same position, and made to feel the same hurt and emotions, you just won't get it.

I am sure those of that grew up in the parents smacking us era experienced the lesson where if you hit your sibling, your mom would smack your hand hard and ask "How does that feel? You like it, then don't do it to your brother/sister." You cried and had snot bubbles for a couple minutes... but that usually stopped the hitting for a good stretch of time...lol.

If you watch the uncensored version of this video, they were talking about defecating on this woman's face, pissing on her, encouraging her to kill herself, flicking at her arm flap telling her she's a disgusting pig... big words, maybe they need to see how she felt. Giving them a good sit down, a group hug, and taking away their X-box for the weekend isn't going to drive the point home.

If you are against our suggested type of punishment, you must be adamantly against boot camps which judges send juvenile offenders to in the US. Those guys are professionally trained bullies, that demoralize them and will make them cry.

[Phanuthier]

Originally Posted by pylon

Judges in the US have imposed sentences where they have ridiculed people by forcing them to wear sandwich boards on street corners detailing their crimes. This would be no different. And sometimes, until to you are put in the same position, and made to feel the same hurt and emotions, you just won't get it...

I am sure those of that grew up in the parents smacking us era experienced the lesson where if you hit your sibling, your mom would smack your hand hard and ask "How does that feel? You like it, then don't do it to your brother/sister." You cried and had snot bubbles for a couple minutes... but that usually stopped the hitting for a good stretch of time...lol.

If you watch the uncensored version of this video, they were talking about defecating on this woman's face, pissing on her, encouraging her to kill herself, flicking at her arm flap telling her she's a disgusting pig... big words, maybe they need to see how she felt. Giving them a good sit down, a group hug, and taking away their X-box for the weekend isn't going to drive the point home.

If you are against our suggested type of punishment, you must be adamantly against boot camps which judges send juvenile offenders to in the US. Those guys are professionally trained bullies, that demoralize them and will make them cry.

I grew up like that as well... FYI... I obviously won't go into it because its a public forum, but same as probably what I see lots of "old guard" described. I'm in favour of parents disciplining their children by spanking, don't get me wrong; I'm not in favour of dumb mob mentality and bullying to fix bullying.

Boot camps, no problem, because they are being bullied by by people who are there to do a job. Society... is dumb, and it will be abused by mob mentality.

[Dion]

Originally Posted by Phanuthier

So basically, you want to teach them by bullying them then?

I don't agree...

We should treat them with a slap on the wrist? Suspending the pukes isn't going to work and nor is sending them to another school. Both are done today and it has done squat to reduce the bullying that goes on in schools

No one likes to be embarrassed and humilated in front of their friends. Having them feel what it's like be bullied can be a powerful lesson. When my parents were growing up in a small town, retailers often did this type of thing to kids who were caught stealing.

[Phanuthier]

Originally Posted by Dion

We should treat them with a slap on the wrist? Suspending the pukes isn't going to work and nor is sending them to another school. Both are done today and it has done squat to reduce the bullying that goes on in schools

No one likes to be embarrassed and humilated in front of their friends. Having them feel what it's like be bullied can be a powerful lesson. When my parents were growing up in a small town, retailers often did this type of thing to kids who were caught stealing.

I definitely don't agree. Having them feel what its like to be bullied encourages them to be bullies.

Maybe not a slap on the wrist... maybe 50, a public apology, yardwork for the victim women for a few months... bullying sucks and is stupid. Its not a matter of having sympathy, its doing what gets the message across.

[Dion]

Originally Posted by Phanuthier

I definitely don't agree. Having them feel what its like to be bullied encourages them to be bullies.

They have to understand what it's like to feel bullied and the emotions that go with it. How else are they going to realise how hurtful thier actions are?

Maybe not a slap on the wrist... maybe 50, a public apology, yardwork for the victim women for a few months... bullying sucks and is stupid. Its not a matter of having sympathy, its doing what gets the message across.

A public apology and yard work is punishment and not a solution to the problem and it's not going to reduce bullying in schools.

[Slava]

Originally Posted by pylon

One part of this story that is absolutely heart breaking, is this:



Again, I do not think a lot of young people can draw the dinstinction between a 4chan/youtube comment section insult, and what is appropriate in real life.

And I do not agree that the embarrassment is punishment enough. These kids should have to go on TV and individually issue an apology in my opinion. It was OK to upload the taunting to youtube, so how is issuing an apology any different. At least they can somehow try and salvage some dignity out of this.

That part is heart-breaking, but its only ruthless if the kids knew that was the case. When I watched the video I noticed that comment, but it struck me as just kids and their dumb insults. I'm not condoning that at all, saying it could be an unfortunate coincidence?

I do wonder about the death threats as well. Is it a comment like "if I saw this take place that kid would be lucky to get off the bus."? Because thats a far cry from "I'm going to kill him " at least in my opinion. The first one is basically a figure of speech, and while it could be construed as a death threat is obviously not anywhere as severe as the second.

I don't want to enter into the kids these days/kids will be kids argument. I do think that kids are ruthless though and what this looks like here is a case of mob mentality. That doesn't absolve the kids at all, and were they mine they would wish they were never involved. I just know that kids who are junior high aged are basically complete morons. We all know that they leave their brain on the front step when they go into grade 6-7 and you just hope they pick it up again on their way to grade 10.

[MelBridgeman]

http://www.cbc.ca/video/watch/News/World/ID=2248839759

[Regorium]

Originally Posted by Phanuthier

I definitely don't agree. Having them feel what its like to be bullied encourages them to be bullies.

Maybe not a slap on the wrist... maybe 50, a public apology, yardwork for the victim women for a few months... bullying sucks and is stupid. Its not a matter of having sympathy, its doing what gets the message across.

I disagree. Making them feel what it feels like to be bullied generally should make them feel empathy towards their next target. I'm of the opinion that bullies don't know how they make their victim feel. A lot of times, after s*** gets real, the bully will come out and say "dude it's just a joke, calm down."

Public humiliation is actually a great punishment in this particular case. However, I do feel that the parents are shielding the kids from it, when they should be making them take responsibility.