Posted on 06/30/2012 10:06:19 AM PDT by Kaslin
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 is legally required to provide all students ages 5 to 16 with an education, therefore, during the 2012-13 school year, the students who have been suspended will be transferred to the district Reengagement Center, located in a non-school facility. This alternative education program keeps middle school students on track academically while providing a structured opportunity for students to take responsibility for their actions by completing community service hours and receiving formal instruction related to conduct and behavior that prepares them for a productive future. The program includes a strong parent involvement component.
Each student will be required to complete 50 hours of community service with senior citizens and will complete a formal program in bullying prevention, respect and responsibility. In accordance with district policy, if at 30 weeks into the school year the students have completed the conditions of their discipline and are in good standing at the Reengagement Center, they can apply for early readmission to Athena Middle School.
Too much, too little, or just enough? A year’s a stiff sentence for 10 or so minutes of verbal harassment, as nasty as it was, but the school district’s under immense pressure to be strict with the little cretins. And this incident’s playing out, of course, amid growing awareness culturally of how bad the effects of bullying can be. Crack down on this bunch and you send a national message given the spotlight on this case.
Because I know you’re wondering, the donations for Klein now stand north of $668,000. Per the Times, more than 30,000 people have contributed from all 50 states and 82 countries. Two days ago, she finally met the man who came up with the idea. Here’s the vid from WGRZ.
“This punishment is definitely too severe.
Not severe enough. They’re little sociopaths who don’t even have the potential to be rehabilitated. They know the proper way to treat other people, but chose to be animals. What kind of person does that? A sick, evil one. The kids probably torture defenseless animals, too.
You are correct. The parents will also be punished in this instance by not having the convenience of a school bus — but should have been made to do community service also.
I’m glad that we’re seeing the suspension banhammer finally being used for an offense other than bringing an aspirin tablet to school or pointing a French fry at another student and saying “Bang!”
Did you watch the video? These kids weren't little angels who decided one day to just say "Hey, let's insult, denigrate, threaten, demean, put our hands on and disrespect an old lady today until she cries." They were practiced. They were bold enough to do it, record it, AND post the recording. That's bad enough...but she was also an authority figure. Those kids were bold enough to insult, denigrate, threaten, demean, put their hands on and disrespect a person who was in a position of authority over them. How well she represented that authority is irrelevant.
If they had punched her in the face would you make the same argument that this could have been the first time they punched someone in the face so they should not be severely punished?
You watched a video and then made all sorts of assumptions about these kids in general. Sometimes generally good kids get in a group and do an especially dumb thing. Most kids have the potential to become part of bad group behavior.
Unless these kids have a history of trouble making in school situations, this punishment is too severe for that one incident. It’s not too encouraging to see so many supposed adults on this thread jump to all sorts of conclusions and assume these kids are bad to the core when very little information about them is available.
I guarantee things like this happened before youtube showed them to the entire world, and that they were handled differently than this incident. Factoring in the emotional reaction of the public in general is not a good addition to school discipline problems, or the criminal justice system.
Perhaps this will make some kids & their PARENTS think twice about letting their little darlings behave so badly.
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Hopefully, it will make some parents think twice about sending their children into godless government ( socialist-entitlement) schools.
Please remember that other children witnessed this abuse. The other children know that at any moment the viciousness of these feral abusers could be directed at them. And...Not for a moment do I think that these bullying kids are the only kids like this in this school. They were just stupid enough to get caught.
Unlike adults who can quit, move, or take legal action, all the other children who witnessed this abuse on the bus ( and very likely elsewhere within the school environment) are **trapped**. They are abandoned by their parents, the teachers, the principal and all the adults in the community who should be protecting them.
Can you imagine the hopelessness of the children **forced** by the government and their parents to put up with these threats of emotional and (possible) physical violence day, after day, after hopeless day???? These kids are TRAPPED! Not only is bullying abusive for the one who is attacked, it is an emotional threat to all who witness it!
Wow! ...Yet...I bet in September this school, and thousands of other prison-like schools across the land, will be filled the brim with kids. Free government babysitting is powerfully addictive and the addicted parents will fully believe the the prison guards ( oops! teachers and principal) that **this time** it really is”fixed”. ( eye roll!)
Ask yourself, the next time you drive by a government school, “Does this look like a prison? The next time you see a school bus, ask, “Does that look like prison work gang transport?”
IF WE TREAT CHILDREN LIKE PRISONERS WE WILL SEE PRISON PATHOLOGY!
“Feral abusers” - what a perfect name.
You’re so right about the OTHER victims here. The other kids trapped by thugs, who witness it every day. I’d like to hear what they think about the punishment.
There is no way this was a first time offense towards the bus monitor.
I have personally seen two different video of her being bullied.
This pattern of bullying was established by the kids for some time against her.
But you have absolutely no facts about their prior behavior in school situations.
This is true my FRiend.
Just going on my instincts as a teacher of 7th graders for 30years.
There is one thing I would like to remind everyone on the thread.
Most 7th graders bear no resemblance to the actions of those kids.
If given proper guidance they are wonderful.
Every year my 7th grade homeroom adopts a group of military personnel and send them cards and gifts.
One year it was to the wounded soldiers at Walter Reed.That year many FReepers were involved,and if I am not mistaken quite a few thread were up about the incident. Seems like some libeal slime sent a soldier named Josha a card under the guise of a child saying they wished he had died.
Another year it was to the guards at GITMO (we heard the prisoners were getting more cards then they were). A third year we sent to a platoon of soldiers (I had taught one of the guys in the platoon)
No, most 7th graders are great kids. They just have to be carefully taught,
My main comment on this thread has very simple and very limited, and that is that this punishment was too severe for this one incident. If there is a pattern of bad behavior that was also taken into account, then it might not have been too severe. But I have seen nothing that indicates the punishment relates to anything other than this one incident.
I am amazed at the number of adults who are willing to proclaim that these kids just have to be guilty of all sorts of other transgressions, and that they just have to be some of the worst kids ever to darken the halls of a middle school.
And all the products of these adult imaginations and prejudices become all mixed up in what verdict they render for these kids. Not much clear thinking going on; just a lot of pontificating based on pre-conceived notions and disgust with the general lack of discipline in most schools.
...but that is not saying the school board does not have that knowledge.
Where I teach, we have students that have gone on home instruction after repeated, with a capital R, violations of school rules.
One or two kids have been remanded to alternative school but that was done through the judicial system.
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