A 68 year old grandmother, Karen Klein, in Rochester, New York, who has a part time job as a bus monitor on a bus with middle school students, was horribly abused by four 12-14 year old “bullies”, four jerks who need to be appropriately punished for their cursing and ridiculing of this adult, this senior citizen, who was there to protect them, and deserved proper respect and regard.
The bus on which this horrific incident occurred had a taping system, as likely all school buses now have, due to many examples of student abuse on each other, let alone on the bus driver or other adults supervising the buses of school systems throughout America.
One would think these jerks would realize they are being taped, which shows just how dumb and stupid they really are.
But the question is what is the appropriate punishment for this kind of behavior? Certainly, physical punishment is inappropriate, particularly at their age of 12-14, and would only teach that violence is used to punish wrongdoing.
What seems appropriate is to take away cell phones, computers, and play stations for a period of months; to take these jerks into a prison to show them what happens when one breaks the law; and to make them do community service for 90 hours each this summer; after writing letters of apology and meeting with Karen Klein in person to express their sorrow and apologies.
Having said that about the young boys involved, the question arises what should be done with the more than half a million dollars raised on the internet for Karen Klein, in order to send her on a “vacation”.
It is stunning that so much money could be raised, but it would be totally inappropriate for Karen Klein to keep all the money. Instead, she should keep maybe $5,000 for a “vacation”, and donate the rest to a good cause, such as providing funding for children who need life saving surgery and cannot raise that money, a regular occurrence, or providing extra funding for the Rochester, NY public schools so they can retain a few more teachers and counselors for their students in the upcoming academic year.
And then, there is another element to be considered here, too easily dismissed recently, and that is Republican nominee Mitt Romney, who acted as a “bully”, in a way actually more destructive than what these jerks did in Rochester, NY.
To have bullied a potentially gay student fifty years ago, to the point of having Romney lead a gang of boys who held a kid down, and forcibly cut his hair, is assault, and seems to have had a deleterious effect on this young man, who has since passed away, and seems to have been poorly accomplished in the rest of his life, with no way to know for sure what effect that incident had on his psyche. Romney was not 12-14 years old at the time, but rather 16 or 17 and should have known better, and he never paid the price for his bullying.
This reminds us of the issue of character, and to say he was only a “kid” is not an acceptable excuse, as Mitt Romney grew up to be a symbolic “bully” in the business world, and has an attitude of cockiness and arrogance that has remained with him in the last half century!
Mitt Romney should not be rewarded with the Presidency for his behavior back then, anymore than these jerks now should be treated with excuses now!