If You Can't Do Your Job, Get Off the Bus

By now I am sure you've all heard about bullied bus monitor Karen Kline.

(If not, Google is your friend.)

I didn't watch the entire video but I saw and read enough about the story to know those 7th graders are assholes.

I don't usually refer to kids as assholes but these kids?

Assholes.

I can't help but wonder if their parents are assholes, too.

I wonder a lot about those kids' parents. I would love to chat with them.

How did these seventh graders acquire the attitude that this kind of behaviour is acceptable?

Last I read all students involved in this hazing were suspended for a year.

I don't know if that is appropriate punishment - I'm really not sure what an appropriate punishment would be - but it's a start.

Unless of course Mommy and Daddy let their kid spend the year skateboarding and playing video games.

But to be honest, I'm not really into giving these kids anymore attention than they've already been given.

And it's pretty much a general consensus that what those kids did was horrible and disgusting.

Speaking of disgusting.... Ms Kline has apparently been awarded a $700,000+ windfall out of all of this. Plus countless offers for free vacations.

I'm sorry. What?

What on earth qualifies this woman to received three quarters of a million dollars?!?

And why on earth are people so okay with her getting all this money?

I know my opinion is not a popular one, but come on, people!

First of all this woman was NOT doing her job and does not appear to be able to do her job.

As a bus monitor she should have had control over the situation or at the very least NOT just sat their taking the abuse for over 10 minutes.

She is supposed to be in a position of authority.

And she didn't have an ounce of it.

Not one ounce.

And because she was unable to properly do her job, she now gets a cool quarter mil?

Okay.

Even if we disregard her inability to perform the duties of her job, why does she deserve all that money?

I don't buy the 'emotional scarring' BS.

She is a grown woman. She was not powerless. And, from what I read, this was not a new problem.

Karen Kline was put on that bus to STOP behaviour like this.

And she didn't even try.

What those kids did is horrible. No question about that.

But I lost all respect and sympathy for Ms Kline when I read that she was happily accepting every cent donated to her 'vacation fund.'

Not only did I lose respect and sympathy but I got pissed off.

I read stories about how she was absolutely NOT accepting the apologies of the students who harassed her.

I saw pictures of a smiley, happy Karen Kline just flabbergasted by the generosity of strangers.

And I heard she was going to be a good little Grammy and buy cars for her grandkids.

Then I thought about all the kids who deal with very real bullying every day.

The kids who are powerless. Who definitely will have emotional scarring. Maybe even physical scarring.

And I thought about all the parents who have lost children to bullying.

And I got so angry for them.

Where's their quarter million?

Where's their free vacation?

Where's is their public outcry?

That money should have been donated to an anti-bullying organization. Or to a better bus monitoring program.

Or to cats and dogs with dyslexia.

That money should have gone to anyone, anywhere other than a woman who didn't do her job.

Karen Kline should NOT have accepted that money. She should have paid that generosity forward.

She should have cared more about the kids on that bus that she was supposed to protect and the kids all over the US that are dealing with this every single day.

She should have put 'the cause' before her greed.

And she didn't.