Bullied bus monitor shows what NOT to do

The news and video of the 68 year old woman who was viciously verbally abused by a group of middle schoolers on her bus has been making the rounds.

First off, of course, bullying is nothing new. I spent ages 15-18 in an all-white town called Frazee, Minnesota, and there was plenty of bullying of kids by other kids -not because they were a different race or religion, but just because the little punk assed liked to bully other kids. Girls on girls typically - oh, girls are vicious.  If you were shy, if you were overweight, if you were plain, they would make your life a misery. (At least, one clique of them, in the same grades I was in.)

At least one teacher was also bullied out of the profession. An English teacher, there were 3 girls in one of his classes that did their best to make his life a misery - pouring super glue on his chair, mocking him in class, all sorts of things. If I recall right, they were never suspended or disciplined in any way, and he finally just quit.  (And this was a rural town of 1,000 people or so...not an inner city!)

Anyway, so we've got this 68 year old woman on a bus. She is not some joe schmo adult bumming a ride, she was a bus monitor. It was her job to make sure the kids didn't bully the other kids. (And why would a bus monitor be needed unless this was rampant behavior?)

So why in the world did she put up with this bullying? First time one of those punks said an unkind word to her, she should have stood up and said, "I know your names, and the next child who speaks will never ride this bus again."

Then, if they continued their bullying, she should have had the bus driver stop the bus and tell the kids to get the hell off.

Don't just sit there and take it! These weren't kids bullying smaller kids who can't retaliate for fear of being beat up. This was a grown woman on a bus, someone in authority, who surely had the auhority to get kids suspended from school if they misbehaved.

Which begs the question - did she have that authority? What was her training as bus monitor? Did she have any training, or did the school just think the mere presence of an adult would prevent bullying?

There is no way that situation should have lasted for one minute, let alone 10. All it goes to show is that if you - an adult - let kids pick on you...they will never stop. (Same lesson can be learned by kids.)

Now, I'm not blaming the woman totally. She's 68, probably the nicest woman in the world, extremely shocked to be treated as she was by those punk-assed kids, all of whom will hopefully never be allowed to ride a school bus again. And if you're caught by surprise, never expecting kids to be so vicious...what can you do?

But she never had control of the situation - and she should have gotten control. The school needs to teach these monitors what to do in situations like that. And arm them with pepper spray or stun guns as well. I"m totally serious.