Bullying the Bus Monitor

First wow, just wow. Also, kids making fun of fat people is nothing new, however with the new technology now we all get the front row seat of watching an elderly woman get teased in a disgusting way by a group of boys on a bus she is supposed to be monitoring.  There are several things that came up for me while watching most of this video, because honestly, I couldn't waste 10 minutes of my life watching a group of bratty and ignorant boys lacking compassion, continually bully this woman while she sat there and did nothing. 

First of all, I would be so ashamed of my child if I found out they were treating another human being like this, child or adult, does not deserve to be treated like this. When will people learn that bullying happens everywhere, to many, of all ages and sizes.  I think about how a child learns to act this way. Growing up in a house where bullying and teasing is acceptable behavior, where they themselves are teased and look for someone who they can emotional beat down to feel a false sense of superiority, and also mob mentality; get a group of people together with insecurities and they feed off each other becoming repetitive and more obnoxious and aggressive. "Dumb-ass, fat-ass." "Maybe she is an elephant." "She's gonna pick out which kid she's gonna rape next." "Karen wants herpes." "Fucking hearing aid." "What's your address so I can piss all over your door." "I'll fucking take a crap in your mouth."

Secondly, if this woman is the monitor of the bus, why are these kids aggressively berating her with her sitting and doing nothing?! People can not be hired for jobs where they are put in a position to oversee and are in charge of keeping an environment safe and calm, especially concerning children, when they don't have the ability to maintain some level of authority. The Jezebel article ends with addressing this very issue with: "What should an adult do in a situation like this? Yell? Scream? Issue threats? Klein didn't scold, reprimand or exert any authority over the kids. Was it the right thing to do, or did it exacerbate the problem? It certainly seems like the boys got into a very aggressive mood, trying to provoke and hurt her, and Klein's passive defense ended up playing right into the predator/prey dynamic. She is absolutely not to blame for the incident, but while watching, I was trying to imagine what, if anything, could have been done to diffuse the nasty environment in which kids were clearly testing — and pushing — limits."

Um, I know I'm not the only one who grew up, bickering with my sister in the backseat of the car and being told assertively, "Don't make me pull this car over!" I mean, it's not that complicated, right? She's the adult, the monitor no less! Go tell the bus driver to pull the bus over. There needs to be some sort of procedure in place so children are held accountable for their actions, and so there is no hesitation to try to teach children who are clearly lacking on so many levels of social skills and just common decency that this is not acceptable behavior.

To anyone reading this who has been bullied or is being bullied, I'm sorry. Share your story with someone, our experiences help us connect with other people who have or are going through something similar.  To anyone who is bullying, which comes in so many forms, I'd like to leave this last image for you.

Comments welcome below or email me shapedbymylife@gmail.com