It was revealed this week that four seventh-grade students from the town of Greece in upstate New York -- who harassed a 68-year-old school bus monitor -- have been suspended for a year.
The school department of Greece -- a Rochester suburb with some 96,000 people -- said the four boys will be transferred to a special alternative education program, because the district is legally required to give them an education.
A video of this incident posted online shows Karen Klein -- the bus monitor -- ignoring profanity, insults, and threats from the students. Klein eventually breaks down in tears, as a result of the nasty bullying.
A fund drive that began with a goal of $5,000 to help Klein take a nice vacation has raised more than $667,000, as a plethora of Americans feel sympathetic toward her for the abuse she endured from the boys.
Why were these boys so mean toward the bus monitor? The fact is that the parents of these four boys failed to instill in them the importance of treating others with civility and respect. If their parents had done so, these boys would not have acted so crudely and disrespectfully toward the bus monitor.
The Greece school department took appropriate and reasonable action in suspending the four boys from attending their school for one year. This punishment will undoubtedly discourage the boys from bullying a school bus monitor -- or anyone else for that matter -- in the future.
In the meantime, the parents of the boys need to speak to them and inform them of the importance of being polite and respectful -- and not abusive -- toward other people.
Indeed, it would behoove the boys' parents to refer to the Golden Rule in conveying to them how they should behave: "Do unto others as you would have others do unto you."
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