Okay, by now I'm sure you've all seen the video or read the reports about the elderly school bus monitor who was ruthlessly taunted by her middle school charges. I have not seen the entire video and probably will not; you only have to watch for a couple of minutes to get the gist of the thing.
I have a couple of thoughts:
1. Someone commented on a web site that this exact same thing happens on school buses every day, except with a fellow schoolkid as the person being tormented, and a couple of other people commented that no, this level of tormenting doesn't happen to kids, to which I say, "HA!" Those people obviously never rode the schoolbuses I did in the seventies, when the level of verbal evil being perpetrated upon kids by their fellow students was truly astounding. The only difference between then and now? Back then, I don't remember "f*ck" being flung about. I don't know if I even knew the word back then, and if my fellow students did, they weren't using it, because of the knowledge that they would surely go up in flames if they ever uttered it.
2. Where was the bus driver? Oh, wait, probably the same place MY bus drivers were back in the day, driving the bus and ignoring anything and everything going on behind them. The only way to get a reaction from the bus driver? Throw something at the back of her head.
3. Why did this lady sit there and take it? Obviously, she couldn't beat the shit out of the thugs like I'm sure she wanted to (or maybe that's just me), but why didn't she ask the driver to pull over? Why didn't she call dispatch or the school and hold up her cell so they could hear what was going on? Once the ride was over, why didn't she tell someone what had happened? Why didn't the driver tell someone what had happened? (Oh yeah, that's right, drivers only react to being beaned in the head.)
4. She was the monitor for the bus. What, exactly, was she monitoring? The number of times the little darlings could hurl "f*ck" at her during one twenty-minute bus ride? And since she refused to stand up for herself, it makes me wonder what she was doing when the little darlings were tormenting their peers or beating the sh*t out of them in the back of the bus. Isn't that what monitors are supposed to prevent? Or had she remained silent for so long when they went after each other that they finally got bored and turned on her?
That's my half-assed thoughts, upon viewing a couple of minutes of the video and reading some of the news reports. Investigative journalism, RockyCat-style! What's your thoughts?
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6 comments:
I haven't seen and likely won't watch the video. I read the story on CNN and that's enough.
School buses are horrible. Horrible. Any day I rode the bus, I came home in tears. Because there were too many kids to do two to a seat, we had to go three to a seat. I was/am fat and one boy in particular (Robert Hixon, I am looking at you) tormented me endlessly.
I was gob smacked when my mother tried to convince me and herself that Robert "liked" me. No, I know hatred and malice when I see it.
Luckily, I was in a situation that allowed my grandmother to drive me to school. When my mother remarried, we moved within the same school district but a different bus route.
This happened between 1966 and 1970. The language might not have been as openly vulgar as it is now but it was still pretty foul.
This is another reason why I was never a teacher. I hate the little bastards too much. College, maybe. But anything under 18? No way.
I am once again speechless at how evil children have become.
It is nice to know that she now has close to $200, 000. There are more good people out there than bad.
Becs, yeah, I remember that old "He only teases you because he likes you!" line. HA! What bullsh*t.
and I came at the tail-end of the baby boom, and our bus was so crowded that I usually had to stand in the aisle. Fun! Not. (I'm also thinking that must have been insanely unsafe, but hey! It was the seventies.) (And as far as I know, schoolbuses STILL don't have seatbelts).
and Birdie, as of this morning it's over 335K, so maybe this lady knew EXACTLY what she was doing. :)
I think I must have been raised in a bubble. No bullies that I can remember, not much craziness on the bus. We weren't evil little bastards like the kids I hear about now. We also didn't have bus "monitors" either. Somehow, we managed to behave with civility all on our own. Like I said....a bubble.
Kate, you were a lucky child.
Buses were evil. I routinely got verbally bullied, punched, and once in a special episode of Bus Torture, got my hair set on fire. Yep, Set On Fire. We never had monitors (obviously). I learned some new dirty words (unusual, because Dad was a construction worker and I thought I had the waterfront covered on "dirty words in common usage.") and also learned how to make myself go deaf to things around me. I can sleep anywhere now thanks to that skill.
I drive my kid to school every day and it is unlikely, given her school district's financial problems and our location in the city, that she'll ever ride a bus. Whew. One more parenting bullet dodged.
But yeah. The bus "monitor" seemed to think it was her job to just sit on the bus and observe abuse without intervening. Maybe she was following some sort of policy -- witness and report verbal abuse, only stop the bus if there is physical violence. (Some school districts have such policies.)
- bridgett
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