They'll be in high school by the time they can re-enter the school system--aren't they 7th or 8th graders?

Well, it's charter school, Catholic or "other religious" school, military school, reform school, or home school for those little troublemakers....what fun for their parents! More bills they weren't anticipating! Maybe this will encourage the parents to spend a little more time communicating essential human values to their offspring...?

But throwing them back into the school system, imho, is also a disaster, because they can be seen as "cool" by their friends, which is what they were after in the first place by posting the video.

This was cruel, and signals anti-social behavior. These kids need help, not to just be merely thrown back into the school system hoping they (the school system) will "handle" it, and these students can have negative effects on other kids.

Holding them back and keeping them away from the other students of that class is a good idea in my opinion. They have to start from square one in a new class, and hopefully, after therapy they will start off on the right foot.

I am a firm believer in the "actions have consequences" motto.

They won't necessarily be "held back" though--they'll go to that Catholic school, or that charter school, or that Military School For the Incorrigible, or that high-end private school and the parents will have to empty the college fund to pay for it...or they will pay less to send the kid(s) to the crappy "church school" in a trailer behind the house of worship...or they'll sit in front of their computers and go to "distance learning" home school.

In a year, they'll be back with their little pals, like thugs back on the street after doing a stretch in the Big House. They'll have a patina about them; little toughies who "colored outside the lines" when it came to civility and decency.

I wish there was a way they could mandate some psychiatric treatment for these little bullies. That kind of "Lord of the Flies" shit is just too creepy for words.

Reengagement Center. They'll get a talking-to about conduct, etc., do community service, and the parents are forced to be involved, which is probably a good thing.

Even if school was still in session, the suspension isn't going to help the kids. The community service sure will.

I would think. And to keep their friends from thinking they can get away with this kind of behavior with a slap on the wrist, too. These kids are obviously into the popularity game because they posted it proudly on youtube.

They are separating them from the other kids in their circle by holding them back a year, which frankly, separation is also done for more reasons that academic ones. These kids aren't able to act with the emotional development due their age, and need some guidance to help them develop to their age.

I was a delinquent (and could probably still be labeled that way), but I got married and had kids and so far none of my three daughters are. Keeping them out of school is just a bad message any way you look at it.

From polluting the other kids of their class with similar ideas that viciousness is acceptable is a bad message any way you look at it.

I was a delinquent more than a few times, myself. It's ego driven, and kids that are allowed to let their egos to rule become adults that allow their egos to rule. We all know how well that turns out.

They won't be on the streets for a year.

--imm

I made that mistake my first year teaching: A kid was sent off to alternative school and it displeased me. I told this to an administrator and said she'd learn more in my classroom. I was told the other teachers did a "dance of joy" when she was yanked.

Then a week later an administrator asked how my class was going. I said much better. "So, the kid would have learned more in you classroom. But would the other 29 students have learned nearly as much?"

I shut up and figured I'd mourned over that one individual long enough. Then I did a belated dance of joy for the other 29.

It's one thing to celebrate when the 1 sheep is found, and ignore the joy of having kept the other 99 safe and sound. It's quite another thing to adopt a wolf in sheep's clothing and then merrily watch him kill the 99 sheep because, well, you just have to feel sorry for the maladjusted wolf--he's trying, after all.

They'll be going to "School Without Fun" in essence.

http://www.greecepost.com/features/x1446667255/Greece-school-district-announces-bus-monitor-bully-punishments

They just shouldn't enjoy any social standing among other students for their antics, which is why they posted the video.

I certainly don't wish them harm, but I do think breaking up the social set that caused this crap to begin with is a GREAT idea.

together? The material I have found is not clear. It does say they will be talked to about their behavior, and their parents will be involved, but it doesn't say that they will be isolated from one another.

Would you want all four of them in your classroom if you were a teacher? I wouldn't. I would demand that they get integrated into the school in different classrooms at different times of the day to lessen their involvement with each other. The certainly wouldn't sit together if they were in the same classroom.

The school work but not the social side of school, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. They very easily could have been convicted of criminal assault and battery charges if Ms. Klein hadn't requested that not be pursued.

They are suspended for one year, meaning that they will be held back from moving on with their friends, which is a stiff penalty, and one necessary.

These kids have issues, and if their parents are sensible, they will use that time to get the kids into therapy, which they obviously need.

Sorry, I don't see reason in subjecting teachers to these kid's obvious mean streak anymore than I see sense in subjecting bus drivers to them, either. The parents need to take responsibility for what their children have become, face up to the fact that they are going down a bad path, and help them.

When children get this out of control, it takes tough measures to help them get back on the right path. Going back to school and getting cheered on by their fellows isn't a helpful decision. Hold them back, and knock their egos down a peg.

They are suspended from THAT school. There is nothing to stop them from attending another school in the intervening year. They aren't going to sit on their hands watching TV for a year--they will have to home school or go to private/charter school.

EDIT--I found out what will happen to the kids: http://www.greecepost.com/features/x1446667255/Greece-school-district-announces-bus-monitor-bully-punishments

from a social point of view, and in my opinion, that is good. They don't need to be around the same kids where they did this, as it could send a message that they are "heroes". This way, they start again, and don't have the same social pull, which was obviously what they were looking for by posting this in the first place.

Still, I hope what they learn at the "Reengagement Center" sticks.

This isn't an insignificant issue, by any means.

I was on a bad bus. We rode for an hour each way, and this was to a private school. Things happened on that bus, that I would have been THRILLED to have a bus monitor on. My parents had me dropped off at their business about 3 months after I rode it, because they doubted my safety at being dropped off at home. Why they didn't take me out of that fucking school when I protested about the treatment on the bus, I'll never know. I put a guy in a headlock to the cheers of the bus driver at one point.

The main instigators were football players that had some reknown, but were still too young to drive. Their word was gospel, and everyone else's word was dog shit.

You cannot imagine how bad it can get if you are trapped in a vehicle with assholes. The best day of my life was when the school year ended and my parents sent me to another school.

If you have kids that ride the bus for any length of time, talk to them and make sure they aren't getting abused simply because they are in cramped quarters with hoodlums that take the opportunity to be abusive.

Since Ms. Klein requested criminal charges not be pursued, I have no problem that path not being taken. Fifty hours of community service will seem like an eternity to kids that young, especially during their summer recess.

At least this will teach them that being a bully isn't a good thing.

I hope it also teaches potential bullies that this isn't where they need to go either, because I suspect more than one kid that DIDN'T get caught for this in their social circle probably needed this lesson.

has already gone viral.

in this behavior. I am not going to be pessimistic and throw out the baby, so to speak, with the bath water.

Not the vid has gone viral, the BEHAVIOR has gone viral. THIS is the world we live in. People think this is "funny."

If some benefit can come from this incident, good. In fact:

"The incident unleashed a flood of support for Klein, including an online campaign on Indiegogo.com where people can donate to send Klein on the "vacation of a lifetime." As of this writing, the campaign had raised a jaw-dropping $667,334.

Max Sidorov, the 25-year-old Toronto resident who started the campaign, started the funding initiative with an original goal of $5,000. "Lets show her... how kind and generous people can be," Sidorov wrote when he started the campaign.

Klein plans to donate part of the money to support Down syndrome research. She has eight grandchildren, one of whom has the genetic disorder.

Klein told ABC News earlier she did not intend to press charges against her bullies and hoped they would not be expelled."

viola

MAybe a new reality show where all those fucksnots get sent to an island and vote each other off.

I refuse to be.

speaks to the level of education and culture the US is at. Wonder why if she was a monitor, she had no authority or respect. Those kids have no self respect.