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.
Not in J school but every editor/reporter I ever worked with phrased their personal questions in that manner.
Same with the “Some Believe” and all similar phrases. It’s standard procedure. It’s biased, leading and wrong, but it’s totally common across the media. Now if “Some say” is followed by hard examples as in ...
“Some say the sky is blue. We asked Prof. Joe Jones, who showed that...”
That’s another thing. But “Some say” without attribution is ALWAYS an agenda driven question.
The kids are being punished far too harshly and it is being ignored that the Bus Monitor was incapable of doing her job and had no business working on that bus.
Quite right.
They are being punished not for their actions but for the publicity it gathered.
Not that the little punks don’t deserve it.
So refuse to answer a question that starts with, “Some say...”.
“”Just another example of cowardly officials who are incapable of exercising good judgment, and who overreact to any public pressure.””
Afraid you’re not living in the real world. We’ve seen decades of bad decisions being made on the part of school officials and you complain when ONE finally makes sense!
Do you even know what is being tolerated IN the classrooms without any form of discipline or even firing of teachers? Does the teacher in NC get to return to her job after berating the student for criticizing obozo? Yes - she does.
I don’t know anyone who would have been surprised if Karen had been the one who faced disciplinary measures because that’s the way this world works today! Thank goodness, there was some common sense applied to this episode!
You say no punishment has been given for “equally bad or worse behavior” - is that a reason to continue to allow this behavior to be acceptable? How many cases of out of control kids/adults do we have to see before everyone says ENOUGH is ENOUGH??
And because the incident became a youtube sensation, the kids had no chance of receiving punishment commensurate with their behavior. Those cowardly officials had to appease the loudest of those in the mob.
And in other categories of bad behavior, or other categories of perpetrators, the same sort of cowardly officials would give far too lenient a punishment.
I totally agree.
The problem is the average person is ‘starstruck’ that a reporter deems them worthy to give an opinion and blabbers away. They become the center of attention and it makes them feel good/important/special. The politician will answer to get his/her spin out there. Reporters know this and count on it. Thus the abundance of “Some say” questions.
Reporters are the lounge lizards of the media world. Treat them accordingly.
I’m sorry, but this is just bizarre. A good whooping back behinfd te shed in the old days would have done more good and te kids would still have a life.
The kids wre cruel. Whodda thunk that could happen?
Actually I am familiar with such “schools” as I had the opportunity to tour one in California. These schools have severely emotionally disturbed children that can not handle a regular achool environment. These are kids that pose a threat to themselves and/or others. It is a locked facility, kids are kept in one classroom all day, going out only for recess. These kids are in for the shock of their lives and I think the school district has definitely overreacted. How about commutity service of 250 hours and writing a 50 page paper on the effects of bullying with footnotes and bibliography required. These kids definitely have poor parenting at home to behave in such a manner. The parents did not do their homework re: this placement and should have gone to fair hearing re: placement alternatives. Shame on those parents.
Only because they are members of a 'minority'.
... and it is being ignored that the Bus Monitor was incapable of doing her job and had no business working on that bus.
Don't blame her. Jobs are hard to find. Take it if you can get it.
I would point the finger at the person or staff who decided to hire her, knowing what kind of 'kids' she would have to deal with. Then again, perhaps she was the only one who applied for the job.
Calling it bullying is just a diversion.
The problem is godlessness.
Call it a reform school if you want, but it’s an alternative school, such as are currently available to many school districts in the U.S.
By the way, I believe the school district is going to have to pay to send the kids to the alternative school, since they are required by law to provide for their education unless they could successfully expel them, which would be far too harsh a penalty given the circumstances. Since you don’t save any money by having one or two less students in a classroom, the money to send them to the alternative school will come from the taxpayers, rather than from foregone expenses.
For that reason, the community service they’re required to perform should conceivably be something that saves the school money, like summer maintenance projects, or serving as scorekeepers at ball games, lining fields, cleaning under bleachers, etc.
Ms. Klein suffered, and is being compensated for it by donations. The school district is paying in terms of both money and administrative time, both of which detract from the regular business of the school. I’ll bet a couple hundred hours of administrative time has already been expended on this matter, with more to come. Current laws, both state and federal, tie public schools in knots that most people remain blissfully unaware of.
Yikes, my sticky keyboard makes me look like a fool. Off to Frey’s for a new one.
I would much rather attend reform school for a year than face what my parents would have given me.
Based on your post, I think you are just as incapable of using good judgment as those school officials. A years suspension and reform school is far too severe for what these kids did, unless they have many other similar incidents that have not been reported.
You seem to want to punish these kids for all the other misbehavior by other kids that was not punished.
Those vile children deserve everything they have gotten. Either you never watched the video or, sadly, the things those kids were saying didn’t make you want vomit.
Interviewer: "No."
Interviewee: "A knife?"
Interviewer: "No."
Interviewee: "Pepper Spray, or a Taser?"
Interviewer: "No, and No."
Interviewee: "Can I at least hit them ?"
Interviewer: "Absolutely not."
Interviewee: "Can you validate my parking ticket before I leave?"
“Reengagement Center.” (??)
Sounds like a term out of Atlas Shrugged or Orwell’s 1984!
Expulsion id not ‘too harsh a penalty. These little darlings did not experience ‘sudden bully syndrome’. They have been like this for a while.
Their punishment should have STARTED with expulsion. The compensation the woman got came from private donations, not the school/district.
“IMO” - It’s pathetic that people on this site defend this crap. Actions have consequences. They screwed up big, they pay big. Personally I think they got off light, but I’m good with it overall. At least they weren’t served milk and cookies.
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