Group of New York Teens Abuse and Bully a Female Bus Monitor in Horrific Video — Page 3

According to a post a friend mad on FB -- the fund has hit the 1/2 mill point!

Won't that be fun at tax time!

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My feelings on this are that first of all, thank god the kid who made the video did so.

The bus driver should have pulled over, stopped the bus and addressed the issue.

Those "kids" should be punished SEVERELY. Why? a public example should be made of them. This problem has reached epidemic proportions, it's in the media constantly, yet it still goes on. Not enough is being done. If there are severe consequences, perhaps it will make a difference. One small step.

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Had I been one of those kids. Fiirst off I would have been beaten to an inch of my life. I would have been dragged bruised and bleeding to this woman's house and made to apologize. Probably have been forced to do her yard work for a year free of charge, and been made to go on air and apologize to everyone who was upset at viewing it.

Hopefully she will get the money, sure a lot will go to the government but she will have a very nice nest egg to retire.

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Reading through, catching up with the thread this afternoon.

The fundraiser ... my feeling is that if it were a scam, it would be the stupidest scam ever in history pretty much. The guy who started the fund for Karen would be villified as much as those four boys, if not more so, if he kept the money. Everyone knows who he is, it (the fund) is all over the media, Karen knows about it, etc. So I think it has got to be legit.

I've wondered about the taxes she might have to pay on the money too. There is a petition at change.org asking President Obama to waive the income tax on the donations to her. (I'm really dumb about this stuff -- does the prez have the power to do this?)
Here's the link:

http://www.change.org/petitions/president-barack-obama-waive-the-income-tax-on-the-donations-to-karen-the-bullied-bus-monitor

I've been watching the total go up with nearly every refresh of the screen -- amazing: it will have hit 300,000 by 4:15!


Has anyone here tried to donate? I did try: three times, but when I hit the final "donate" button (after putting in all my info) nothing happens. I don't know if their server is crazy busy, but I've given up. (for now)

Updated at 4:15 300,820! (And mostly small donations.)

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Updated On: 6/21/12 at 04:11 PM

From the school district's website. I've linked it in case anyone wanted to poke around their site. They say many things here that are right, and to those in education, not suprising: not being able to talk about it, going through a process -- as well as trying to temper the bullying in response. Someone very carefully thought this response out.

"Updated District Response to YouTube Video

The Greece Cenral School District has been touched by the outpouring of support for Karen and we share the countrys outrage over the behavior displayed on the videos. We are deeply sorry that Karen was subjected to that kind of treatment.

Based on our internal investigation, and the interviews conducted by members of the Greece Police Department, we have identified four Athena Middle School students as participants in the incident. Certainly the behavior of the students on the video is a clear violation of our districts Code of Conduct and will not be tolerated. Disciplinary action to the fullest extent appropriate under New York Education Law will be taken against all involved. However, as we stated yesterday, it is not appropriate for the district to discuss the specific disciplinary consequences that will result for any individual student.

I need to stress that we have a specific process that we must follow before imposing discipline on students. Discipline for public school students in New York State is handled under specific procedures set forth in the New York Education law. In the event that a district is seeking a suspension of more than five days, the district must prove the students violation of its Code of Conduct in a due process hearing before a hearing officer. If the student is found guilty, the hearing officer makes a recommendation for an appropriate period of suspension to the superintendent of schools. Each case is determined based upon the actions engaged in by the student as well as consideration of a students prior disciplinary record.

As is shown by this unfortunate incident, bullying is not a new issue to those who work in schools. The Greece Central School District has a strong bullying prevention model that includes a district response team, training programs for staff and students including the Olweus Bullying Program, Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports and a Bullying Reporting Process. In March, we also hired a special counselor to train all staff in bullying prevention models. In fact, she is holding a previously scheduled training for administrators as we speak.

The behaviors displayed on this video are not representative of all Greece Central students and this is certainly not what we would like our students to be known for. We have worked very hard to educate students on the damaging impact of bullying and will continue to do so.

We have received thousands of phone calls and emails from people across the country wanting to convey their thoughts. People are outraged by what has happened and they feel the students should be punished. While we agree that discipline is warranted, we cannot condone the kind of vigilante justice some people are calling for. This is just another form of bullying and cannot be tolerated.

We all need to take a step back and look at how we treat each other. It is our job as educators and parents to teach children and lead by example. We encourage parents to use this as a springboard to begin a dialogue with their children about bullying, respect and consequences. As a school community, we will continue to take the lead in bullying education and we encourage all students and employees subjected to bullying and harassment to report it as soon as it occurs and to take a stand if they are witness to bullying in their lives."
In case you wanted proof

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"Goth, yeah, that thought crossed my mind -- what's to keep others from trying the same thing to avoid taxes."

Although a good tax lawyer could help her.

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it's a shame that the most the school will do is suspend the students for more than five days, if all necessary court procedures are taken. For some students, being suspended is not a punishment, but a reward, as then they don't have to go to school.

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Maybe Mitt Romney can advise her where she can hide her money so she won't have to pay taxes. Cayman Islands perhaps?

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Jane -- I think you read that wrong. For any punishment LONGER/more severe than 5 days (which could be expulsion to a 20 days) needs to go through legal procedures. The same is true at my school -- if the principal want to punish further than 5 days out of school, it must be approved. There is nothing in that comment that suggests exactly WHAT punishment they are seeking.

So what the adminn is saying is that they are definitely going for something more severe. Most schools also have minimum attendance requirements per term (esp since those boys will be in HS next year) and the suspennsion will likely cost them credit.

They also have to go by the written rules on the books. They cannot change things just because this may be worse then what is covered by the handbook. Dems the rules.

What do you think they should do? Schools have very few options: suspension and expulsion. It does become part of their records -- and follows them to college.

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ABC World News w/Diane Sawyer

Covering this story has the lead in: See what the parents have to say.....

Karen spoke -- broke down a bit. They menionted the fund. The father of one of the boys (that seemed truly distraught) talked about him crying himself watching the vid, and not understanding how his son could have done this. (Not denying it, but seemingly aghast.) The boy that shot the video also seemed remorseful, but no explanation as to why he chose to film it.

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Updated On: 6/21/12 at 06:42 PM

Now on Inside Edition

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