jjorsett: Her job was to act as a bus monitor and presumably protect kids. She shouldn't be attacked by these little monsters, but she should be replaced by someone who'll perform the function for which they're being paid. And before you say that she is given no authority: if the monitor has no power to exercise control, then what the hell is s/he there for? Is the monitor supposed to be like a UN "peacekeeping" force, i.e. a powerless punching bag placed between warring parties?

That's what a monitor is: A powerless punching bag. They have no authority to do anything except ask please stop picking on little Johnny. They can't "perform the function" as you say because nobody will back them up. (which does beg the question why they're there, but to continue) They can't protect kids if the wrongdoer knows he'll face no punishment. If the monitor has no power to kick them off the bus, report them to the principal*, or hit them in the head with a shovel, how are they supposed to "perform the function"?

*or I should say, the kids know that Principal Noballs is going to do nothing when the monitor reports them, so its the same as having no power.

For $650,000 I'll let everyone in this thread call me fat a dozen times a day for a month.

miss diminutive: For $650,000 I'll let everyone in this thread call me fat a dozen times a day for a month.

Can I call you fat in ways that will make you break down crying every time? A dozen times a day?

If so, we can probably get a sponsor.

sendbillmoney: Yes, yes I would. I'd feel the exact same sympathy that people did when it was me. That's fair, right?

So your definition of "fairness" is whatever crap you had to put up with everyone else should have to endure too? Believe it or not many of us who suffer something unpleasant do everything we can to prevent others from experiencing the same pain. Its called "compassion." Look it up sometime.

FriarReb98: Either way, we can all agree: We now live in an age where if you do something dumb, or bad, or embarrassing, you will end up on YouTube and it will make the news if it's even remotely illegal or newsworthy. How the people who have grown up with YouTube being part of their daily lives haven't figured this out is inexplicable.

Youtube is actually the reason a lot of people do dumb things. They want their videos to go viral and somehow thing making fools of themselves or worse will make them popular. Some people are really stupid. In this case it was just a case of a some kids getting together in a group which often turns them into raging assholes.

Well Armed Sheep: balki1867: There was this kid on my middle school bus who used to get the crap kicked out of him on a regular basis. He was smart enough to sit right next to the bus driver on the way to/from school (they don't do much, but the kids causing the problems were sitting in the back), but the walk from the stop to his house had to be pure hell for the kid. I know his parents went to the school about it at one point and the county basically said, "Once he's off the bus its not our problem." His parents started driving him to school and eventually moved him to another school altogether.

Whenever there's a shoot shooting, I'm always surprised how shocked some people act about that those things happen. That kid was in about as hopeless a situation I could imagine, and everyone knew exactly what was going on.

This. I explained this to my high school home room/biology class just after Columbine while we were having an in-class discussion of what had happened and how people felt about it. I had to go talk to the resource officer, and the councillor. They both found me reasonable. My teacher did too. Some of the kids started calling me "columbine," though. By that point I really didn't give a rat's rear about what any of them said or thought. One of my friends and I were anonymously accused of planning to kill people. They expelled him "just, you know, as a safety precaution. Que have to put the safety of all our students first", and would have expelled me too if my dad hadn't shown up with a lawyer.

I was an orchestra/computer/theater tech nerd in a jock high school (one of my classmates went on to play QB in a Super Bowl). Years later, while watching the carnage at Columbine on tv, I was surprised to hear a small quiet voice inside me say, "Twelve dead jocks. And the problem is......?"

And as usual, the Onion said it better than I could.

GreatBunzinni: NeoCortex42: This.

I had to deal with quite a bit of teasing and such during my years on the bus on par with what this lady went through. I got through it by developing a thick skin and just dealing with it. Nobody made it a national news issue, let alone getting nearly half a million dollars in donations and letters of support and apologies.

Just because it sucked to be you and no one bothered to fix it it doesn't mean that it is acceptable to let others experience the same or even worse problems you've experienced.

Think about it. You only had to endure that because at that time no one else bothered to point out how wrong it was. Now, its your turn to decide if you point out how wrong that is, or if you turn a blind eye and be a part in perpetuating this sort of uncivilized behaviour. Its your choice.

Oh, I agree that what happened was horrible. I think the kids involved should be punished harshly. I just think getting over half a mil for dealing with some taunting, regardless of how harsh, is a bit much. Now if that money ends up being donated in her name to some anti-bullying program or something, then great. But getting that much money for putting up with kids she was hired to be keeping on eye on anyway? I can't agree with that.

Maybe it's a hellish experience in some places nowadays, but it wasn't when I was a child, nor was it a hellish experience for my son when he rode the school bus for a few years back when he was in elementary school.

I really don't care if these kids every apologize, or even if they ever mean it. I hope they experience pain for the rest of their miserable little lives. If that was my kid, I would make sure they remember it. Every single day.

Drivers and bus monitors, by contrast, have in the past rarely been able to do anything in response to bad behavior.

Enormous-Schwanstucker: Dumb: Not giving granny the power to actually do something, anything.

This started in the 80's -- around the time that Yuppies began suing everyone for any reason and, along with the entire medical institution, schools became targets. Soon, schools basically couldn't do anything to enforce their rules for fear of being dragged into lawsuits. Teachers couldn't lay a hand on a kid so by the time the Great Sexual Offender Period arrived, they knew they could get adults in major trouble with no consequences at all for lying or initiating an incident.

My niece was in grade school and came home HORRIFIED because a TEACHER and DARED to grab a verbally disruptive boy and FORCE HIM TO SIT DOWN! This was third grade. The teacher didn't back hand the little bastige, just forced his babbling arse to sit down. Even by then, my niece KNEW teachers SHOULDN'T lay a hand on a student.

When I was in third grade, if you didn't listen, the teacher would slam you down in your chair, make you stand in a corner and/or drag your arse down to the principal, who had the authority to paddle you.

The bus thing never was real good, even though my grade school bus driver had no problems with slamming on the brakes and dragging a kid to the 'punishment seat' where he could keep an eye on him. He also had the authority to kick a kid off the bus. With no cell phones, busses were equipped with short wave radios and he could call the office and request a cop.

Afterwards, he reported PIA kids to the principal, who called their parents and THEIR PARENTS kicked the kids arses. At least, until some time in the 80's, when someone decided to pass laws making it an arrest able offense to swat your kid.

After that, kids just went wild.

When I was in school, especially Senior High, I got tired of all of the noise and fuss on the bus and the inevitable harassment. (No driver could pay attention to everything and safely drive the bus.) So I rode my bike the four miles to school.

I wasn't alone. The bike racks were crowded. Oddly enough, the worst bullies seemed too lazy to ride bikes.

I recall an epiphany I had on the bus one day. There was a bunch of ribbing going on along with the usual baiting, and in the next seat was this cute girl I had been in first and second grades with. She had always been a sweet thing. Someone asked me if I knew her and I said 'I had her in first grade' which promptly led to a whole bunch of suggestive jeering at me, including sexual innuendo. Some boy asked the girl if I'd 'had her' if first grade and her whole face changed as she snarled 'yuck! No!' and added 'I'd never want HIM'.

That led to even higher levels of verbal abuse, sexual innuendo and questions concerning my sexual orientation.

I recall being somewhat stunned by the way this nice, sweet kid I recalled had not only responded, but how her pretty face had twisted into a mask of disgust. We had played together in school. I had fended off the usual occasional dumb kid trying to bother shy little her. We had shared snacks!

Of course, by then, being a teen, she was no longer dressing like a shy little girl, but she was still cute and I had not heard her join in the usual annoying harassment.

The 80's pulled the teeth on a whole lot of authority as lawyers dragged people into court for the stupidest reasons ranging from speaking badly to their kids to assault if a teacher grabbed a kid by the arm.

One guy broke up a fight between kids on his lawn and the Dad of the kid who was LOOSING drove up later and snarled at him, telling him if he EVER TOUCHED his kid again, he'd have him arrested and sue him.

The guy should have just let the kid get his arse beat.

So, now, in the 2000's, we get to reap the results of the freaking morons and idiots from the 80's who sued everyone until ridiculous laws were enacted mainly to keep folks from getting expensively sued.

In trying to protect their kids, they actually made it so much easier for their kids to get injured by other kids as adults stood around, not knowing if they dared to get involved or not.

When you blur the boundaries between right and wrong, chaos can surge in to fill the gap.

ThreeEdgedSword: I don't recall their ever being Bus Monitors on the buses when I grew up. It was the driver and a camera that almost never worked. That was it. When did this bus monitor business start?

I had bus monitors in the mid-80s. Didn't have bus-monitors in the late 70s.