The four middle school students from Greece, New York, caught on camera verbally abusing and tormenting a 68-year-old bus monitor have been suspended for a year and will be required to complete 50 hours of community service, school district officials said Friday. Recorded by a student with a cell phone camera on what was the second-to-last day of school, the brazen bullying went viral and spurred international outrage.
Karen Klein, their target, says although they should be suspended from the bus and extracurricular activities, she does not think they are bad children, deep down. Klein, who has been a bus monitor for some years, says children will behave in differently when in groups.
“Following individual meetings this week with school and district administrators, each family waived their right to a hearing and agreed to one-year suspensions from school and regular bus transportation,” the Greece Central School District said in a statement. The punishment of a year long school suspension was harsher than recommended by Ms. Klein herself.
During next school the year, the students will be transferred to the district Reengagement Center. They will also be required to complete 50 hours of community service helping senior citizens as well as being ordered take part in a formal bullying prevention program.
In the video, the students taunt their bus monitor with a stream of profanity, insults, jeers and ridicule. Some boys demanded to know her address, saying they wanted to come to her house to perform sexual acts and steal from her.The bullying continued unabated for about 10 minutes in the video, as a giggling student jabbed Klein’s arm with a book and made fun of her weight.
