Help Karen Klein: Support Bullied Bus Monitor

[rootX]

What is a bus monitor's job description? Does it not include stopping bullies? Or reporting it to authorities? The kids are in the wrong, but so are the woman and bus driver in my opinion. Letting those hooligans go unpunished is not about being nice. It's about not doing your job.

She should've talked to the principal. The principal could have called each one of those kids one by one. Doesn't work? The principal phones the parents. Still doesn't work? The kids get suspended. There are punishments for those who refuse the law.

I fully agree. Even if it's not in their powers to stop bullying, they can do everyone a favor by reporting the unruly children to those who can stop bullying.

 

[DaveC426913]

Appreciate your comments, but she was not incompetent.

How do you know that?

I am not suggesting incompetence of the sort that loses someone their job. I am simply suggesting that, if her job is well-defined, and she was unable to execute it, then she couldn't do her job. What does procedure say a bus monitor is supposed to do in such a situation?

As a matter of fact, it is entirely possible that there is no procedure for such a situation, in which case the school board is culpable.

 

[gravenewworld]

How exactly are you supposed to control animals that attack in a pack like that? Yell at them? They'll just laugh at you. Write them up with a pink slip two days before classes are over and tell the principal? They'll just laugh at you again, and school administrators wouldn't care. There are tons of videos of obnoxious teenagers out there provoking adults into getting into shouting matches with them because the kids know you can't do anything about it except yell, and they just laugh and provoke even further.

What they really need is the fear of god instilled into them with a good *** whooping, right in front of everyone where they can be publically humiliated and videos can be made of them crying while it happens so it can be put onto youtube. I'd guarantee you they'd quit being brats then. But you aren't allowed to touch someone else's precious little angel Johnny because he's 'special' to his parents without being sued.

 

[DaveC426913]

How exactly are you supposed to control animals that attack in a pack like that?

Consider the implications of your question: Are you suggesting a bunch of tweens on a bus are literally uncontrollable by any means? That would imply that the act of putting them on the bus in the first place is putting them and everyone on the bus in harm's way.

Of course they are controllable. It's a question of having adequate procedures in place. If the procedures are not in place, then someone is seriously negligent in looking after their safety.


A quite simple procedure (and one I'll bet is in place) is:
Pull the bus over. Call the authorities.

 

[wuliheron]

The woman makes $15,000.oo a year and ya'll debate procedures and whether she is doing her job or not. I feel so sorry for you if you think it is so hard to find competent slaves and masters these days.

 

[DaveC426913]

The woman makes $15,000.oo a year and ya'll debate procedures and whether she is doing her job or not. I feel so sorry for you if you think it is so hard to find competent slaves and masters these days.

non sequitur.

I don't follow your logic. So, people who make $15,000 a year don't have job requirements? Granted the requirement may be only $15,000 worth, but where is it said that they aren't obliged to be able to meet them? If not, why bother making the position at all? Why not just put up a scarecrow?

I think you are attributing some form of judgement to "us" that we are not doing.

 

[Evo]

non sequitur.

I don't follow your logic. So, people who make $15,000 a year don't have job requirements? Granted the requirement may be only $15,000 worth, but where is it said that they aren't obliged to be able to meet them? If not, why bother making the position at all? Why not just put up a scarecrow?

I think you are attributing some form of judgement to "us" that we are not doing.

We don't know the restrictions on what the driver and monitor can do.

 

[DaveC426913]

We don't know the restrictions on what the driver and monitor can do.

They can stop the bus and call the authorities. That is certainly proper default procedure in the absence of any other procedures.

Like I said: I do sympathize with her, and it renews my faith in humanity that people showed such an outpouring of concern over such an awful thing.

But the dispassionate, rational side of me keeps asking what was supposed to have happened in that situation.

 

[Chi Meson]

I think it is pretty clear that she had no clue what to do in that situation.

I would guess that a mandate required that there be an "adult monitor" on the bus, and the district filled those seats with warm bodies at the lowest possible cost. That's kind of the way things work. I substituted very briefly in 4 different schools, in Virginia, 2 in Oregon (1 public, 1 private), and in Connecticut (Parochial). They all had one thing in common: no training, no outline of expectations, no list of protocols for any form of emergency. All of them (with minor exception for the Private school in Oregon) proceeded in a "here you go" fashion by handing over a sheet of paper with room numbers and times.

Training costs resources, and is not cost-effective if the pool of candidates recycles quickly, which is what will happen if the candidates are untrained and unprepared.

 

[Evo]

They can stop the bus and call the authorities. That is certainly proper default procedure in the absence of any other procedures.

Where is that "proper default procedure"? Stopping the bus and calling the "authorities"? Who are these "authorities"? Police wouldn't be dispatched because a few kids are calling someone fat. Please link to where you are getting your information, I'd like to read it.

 

[AnTiFreeze3]

Emotions are relatively easy to play with. I don't know if any of you frequent the website "kickstarter", but the majority of the projects that are funded there are either:

1.) Great ideas or products that deserve money, or
2.) Essentially worthless ideas or products accompanied by emotionally engaging videos that make you feel like your money is doing something productive.

So yes, we can get upset at people throwing away their money for a cause that ultimately boils down to inept school workers and a lack of definitive procedures, but at the same time, you're getting upset at other people for not going through their lives completely emotionless. Unfortunately, most people don't analyze something like this before giving away their money.

 

[wuliheron]

non sequitur.

I don't follow your logic. So, people who make $15,000 a year don't have job requirements? Granted the requirement may be only $15,000 worth, but where is it said that they aren't obliged to be able to meet them? If not, why bother making the position at all? Why not just put up a scarecrow?

I think you are attributing some form of judgement to "us" that we are not doing.

For $15,000.oo a year you'll be lucky if her job requirements include much more than keeping the kids in their seats and preventing them from beating each other up or threatening the safe operation of the vehicle. My guess is she could take down names and report them to the school administration, but otherwise she can't do squat. If it were a public bus the driver could just pull over and demand they get off, but it isn't a public bus and these are children.

 

[OmCheeto]

hmmm... I sequestered my post this morning, but now that I've had a few moments to think about it:

http://www.empireonline.com/images/features/100greatestcharacters/photos/5.jpg
Subtitle: Why Om was never asked to babysit more than once.

This post was inspired by, of all persons, another LisaB, that Om has known for 20 years:

[PLAIN]http://home.europa.com/~garry/weneedreallawsthatallowumlogicalactions.jpg[/CENTER] ​

 

[lisab]

This post was inspired by, of all persons, another LisaB, that Om has known for 20 years:

We walk among you.

 

[Number Nine]

Why didnt she just stand up and say 'shut up you insufferable little punks'?

It's very likely that such a thing would have cost her her job.

 

[wuliheron]

What a joke. Waitresses and waiters routinely have to deal with outraged customers who blame them if the cook screws up. It's part of the job and if they can't deal with it they'll be fired. The same with customer service or whatever. No different then a politician or movie star having to put up with paparazzi getting in the face everyday. They can't call the police every time jerks get in their faces. That it sometimes gets out of hand goes without saying and unless society wants to start demanding an end to such things it will continue, especially for low paying jobs and those in the lime light. Even cops get paid to be as tolerant as reasonably possible when people get in their faces. Blaming the victim, the authorities, or whatever is pointless when it is a widely accepted cultural practice and denying it is a widely accepted cultural practice is equally pointless.

 

[DaveC426913]

What a joke. Waitresses and waiters routinely have to deal with outraged customers who blame them if the cook screws up. It's part of the job and if they can't deal with it they'll be fired. The same with customer service or whatever.

There's a difference between one insult and a tirade of bullying - especially in an enclosed space when there's nowhere to retreat to. Get enough kids together with enough gumption and it can even become a swarming (not that this was, but there's a danger to be considered).

I'd say this definitely falls squarely into the middle category. It was much more than one insult, it lasted an extended time, and it was at the hands of multiple aggressors (4), and there was no immediate way to retreat.

Oh yeah, and there is the issue of actual assault. The kid did poke her. Granted, it's not a slam dunk but assault is "... an act intended to cause an apprehension of harmful or offensive contact that causes apprehension of such contact in the victim. ..."
One can be charged with assault with ever making physical contact.No matter how you cut it, this is way different from any waiter staff or customer service.

 

[AnTiFreeze3]

... No matter how you cut it ...

Speaking of cutting, not only did one of the kids poke her (which was kind of weird), but they were, even if it was in a joking manner, talking about cutting her open with a knife, and asked where she lived so that they could break into her home.

Not that you can accurately determine whether any of that was serious or not, but it was said nonetheless.

 

[Evo]

The thread is drawing too many crank posts. Closed.