School Days, Cruel Days

It’s been all over the news and the talk of the internet. A bullying incident on a school bus was taken to a whole new level. The victim wasn’t another student, but a bus monitor. It happened in Greece, New York.  68-year-old Karen Klein was taunted and bullied by four middle school boys while another student recorded it on a cell phone. Watch more.

Since that piece aired on the Today Show, the money raised on the internet for Karen Klein has surpassed $600,000. That will certainly help with her retirement, but money can’t erase the humiliation she endured. And it makes no statement about what should happen to the boys.

• Where do you think these boys learned to behave that way?
• Are adults setting a bad example? Not just at home, but with all the snarky criticism of everything on the internet and the constant bickering among politicians?
• What about the person who took the video and the other kids on the bus?   What should they have done?
• Would these boys have been so cruel individually? Or did they only act this way because they were in a group?
• The boys have since apologized to Karen Klein in writing.   Do they owe her any more than that?
• What would be an appropriate punishment for the boys?

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