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AP
In this image taken from AP video, bus monitor Karen Klein speaks during an interview June 21.
One-year school suspensions were handed down Friday to four seventh-graders who were accused of bullying a bus monitor in Greece, N.Y., in a case that led to hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations to the 68-year-old woman.
The Greece Central School District said the four boys and their parents agreed to the punishment, NBC station WHEC of Rochester reported.
The bullying was captured on video, posted on the Internet and triggered widespread outrage, but was followed by an effort to raise a little money to send Karen Klein on a nice vacation. That might turn out to be a real nice vacation: By Friday afternoon, the “Lets Give Karen – The bus monitor – H Klein A Vacation!” campaign on Indiegogo.com, a site devoted to raising money for various causes, had raised $667,000.
"This is definitely the highest-grossing and fastest-grossing campaign we've ever seen," Indiegogo.com spokesperson Rose Levy told msnbc.com last week.
WHEC reported that during the one-year suspension, each student will attend an alternative program at the district’s reengagement center. They will also be required to complete 50 hours of community service with senior citizens and will also have to complete a formal program in bullying prevention, respect and responsibility.
Donations for bullied bus monitor soar
The YouTube video that started it all emerged in the middle of last week. It goes on for 10 minutes and shows the four boys repeatedly harassing Klein on the last day of school.
The online campaign raising money to send a bullied New York school bus monitor on vacation has surpassed its goal – by more than half a million dollars. NBC's Lester Holt reports.
All four students have since sent written apologies to Klein through the Greece Police Department. Klein has also met with some of their parents, but not the boys themselves.
This article includes reporting from NBC station WHEC of Rochester, N.Y., and msnbc.com staff.
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Leave a Comment:
Those bratty middle schoolers should have to 'volunteer' at a nursing home of bedbound patients, such as changing the sheets and other bedding of incontinent patients for at least 30 hours a week for the rest of the summer. Then they should have to wash that bedding. Of course all this under direct supervision. They should also have to speak to other schools about what they thought was funny, but really bullying and what trouble they got into. Youth bootcamp would be another option, the kind that makes you say 'Yes, Sir' to authority. Shame all those kids being so disrespectful to the bus monitor!
They should be made to spend that year suspension taking care of Ms. Klein...cleaning her house, doing yard work, taking out the trash, and whatever she may need on top of their already assigned community service. She should never want for anything and these hoodlums should be at her every beck-and-call. The parents should incur some sort of penalty as well to get their attention and wake them up to the [obviously] sorry job they have done raising these children so far. I hope they do not allow the children to move forward in their schooling either...they should be stuck a year behind their friends to make the punishment a true suspension.
That is first called slavery then secondly how would stopping there schooling help any are you that ignorant to think that stopping somones education could help them or punish them you are an idiot in my opinion
Don't mean to spoil her day, however New york state wants their share, NOW
Whatever happened to respecting elders as well as authority? Oh yeah....now I remember, we cant give out ass whoopings anymore because "its wrong". Well its wrong when its for every little thing but for something so disrespectful like this it shouldve been done and if shes a grandmother who knows how these kids treat their mothers/women in the future. Depressing...
Throw em to the wolves!!!!
Give respect...get respect. That is what I was always taught from a young age. It's almost as if parents these days don't stress how important respect is. I think these punks should have some sort of discipline that makes sure this never happens again and their peers learn from this. 50 hours of community service and classses is not enough. There is nothing wrong with a parent slapping the @!$%# out of their OWN kids ass.
I think the punishment is a bit excessive. I think suspending them from taking the bus for the year instead of regular school would have been a better option. I'm glad they apoligized for their behavior and may others learn that being a bully is not ok.
They should make every single one of those kids, for summer vacation, clean every single bus in the school district.
They wouldn't know how
Had I done what these little bastards did when I was their age, my A$$ would still be on fire and that's no lie
They are going to get left back. When they're friends are going to the next grade, they will be a year behind.
I AM SO TIRED OF HEARING ABOUT THIS. people get bullied everyday. who cares about this lady who got bullied by some middle school kids. over 600,000$ because of it?! rediculous. you people are stupid for donating that much money. get over it. i wish i could take a video of someone making fun of me and get over half a million dollars because of it. seriously though, grow up. This is like the 5th article about this.
YOU are a heartless SOB
You're just a sad little person. Jealousy is the refuge of a small, wasted life.
Of course when I was a kid we got paddlings and whippings. I started teaching in the 1970's and it was getting bad then but it got worse every decade and never got any better. I quit at the highest salary I ever got at $50,000 a school year back in 2000 and have never regretted it. I was blessed enough to get a job as a librarian to work until I was 54 and my mom got sick with Alzheimer's and dementia so I had to quit working and take care of her until she died in 2008. Now I am too old to work, because of injuries and too much weight. I am 61 1/2 and will be 62 in a few months where I will be applying for Social Security. I have been treated far more worse than that lady was treated. I will never get as much money as she got. I wish her the best. So far as the children. The problem is out of control and no one seems to know how to solve it. If they can get away with doing wrong they will. Kids take wrong doing to another level. LOL
I'm not sure the "crimes" are worth a yr suspension, much less $667,000. for a vacation. Guess its this great new world of Political Correctness, and money will solve it all world we are in.
They didn't get suspended for a year, Richie. They got sent to an "alternative" program. Now.........Talk to mea about political correctness again. P.S. Hope your mom encounters a few of these little angels soon.
It was worth it to the many people who donated their money.
Ass beating is what they deserve
How about 50 hours of community service picking up trash along side of the highway, not something like sitting in an air conditioned room answering a phone or something lame. Make sure the punishment makes an impact.
In all reality, how is this a punishment? These kids probably cheered when they heard they didn't have to go to school for a year. If the parents are worried about thier kids education, they can enroll them through online classes.
A real punishment would have been to make them not only go to school, but do community service. Like hard time community service.
They should have been charged with assault--just like an adult would be. They should ave have spent some time in juvenal hall and found out what bullying really was.
The article never said anything about them threatening her or hitting her so i see no reason why it would be assualt and another thing is that why would calling somone names get u sent to jail or suspended I see politicians all the time calling each other names but where is there year in jail or so called good year of suspension for somthing minor as bullying yes I know what you all think that bullying is going to end the world well its not the thing is if you are that weak to be affected by bullying mentally not physically then you will not be able to be successful in society if you cant stand up for yourself you are pretty much useless
The one bully named Josh said he was sorry....no he wasn't or he wouldn't have said it!! Geeeezuz...what a moron!!
Sucks being a teenager. There is so much pressure to conform and behave poorly, like the damn Germans following Hitler. And you just gotta tell 'em "you'll get over it, you won't be an ass forever"
I was under pressure to conform as a teenager, too.
But I never in a million years would have treated anyone the way this lady was treated.
I was taught right from wrong.
One year to to stiff, what is that going to teach them, bad call, what they needed to due is enroll them in some type of sensitivity class, by doing this they might actually ruin there young lives, with as much attention being focused on dropout rates this should be the last thing they do, to them it might actually seem like a vacation
this is a bad idea..
Kudos to the school district for not sweeping this under the rug, I do hope had it not gotten national coverage that they would have stepped up then too. Also glad the parents didn't make excuses too. This is unacceptable no matter if it is done to adults or other children.
What's with the "alternative program" mess? If you are really interested in teaching a lasting lesson to these little punks and their cronies, suspend them (period) and put them a year behind their classmates. Punishment needs teeth! The reason the little runts do these things is that they know there will never be any real, lasting consequences for their hatefulness. Political correctness is killing this country at a rate that terrorists can only dream of.
These brats should have to wash the bedding of incontinent patients in a nursing home or such for a whole year! They are little delinquents!
Nascar: They won't be out of school....if you read the article, it says they will be going to an alternative program at a re-engagement center for the year, PLUS the community service, etc. I think the parents should have to attend parenting classes too....obviously, they failed to teach their children how to behave!
Perfect !!!!!!!!!!!! Should have been some community service at the school, too, like cleaning bathrooms, but this is good.