Four US students who gained infamy after a video of their verbal abuse towards a bus monitor went viral have been suspended from school for a year.
Footage of the 12- and 13-year-olds taunting Karen Klein has been viewed some 8 million times.
The school system in the New York state town of Greece says the students must also complete 50 hours of community service with senior citizens.
Mrs Klein, 68, said she did not want the boys to face criminal charges.
She told the Associated Press last week that others should not harass or threaten the students.
"That's not the way to go about things," she said. "They're just kids."
Suicide jibe
An internet campaign to send her on holiday has now raised nearly $670,000 (£427,000).
The online fund was set up by a Toronto man on the crowdfunding website Indiegogo after he saw the video on YouTube.
The clip, Making The Bus Monitor Cry, shows Mrs Klein appearing to break down in tears as she is subjected to a litany of insults.
The barbs include profanities, physical ridicule, taunts and her being told to shut up.
Some ask what her address is, telling her they want to steal from her and perform sexual acts.
One boy tells her she does not have a family as "they all killed themselves because they didn't want to be near you".
Mrs Klein's son killed himself 10 years ago.
In addition to the suspension, the students will not be allowed on a district school bus for a year.
They will be transferred to an alternative education programme, as the school district is required to educate them, and will be able to reapply to their original school at the end of the year.
The boys and their families have admitted wrongdoing and agreed to the suspensions without a hearing.
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-cana
OP: Good. I say be even harsher, send them to boot camp for a year and have them clean toilet floors with toothbrushes.
Footage of the 12- and 13-year-olds taunting Karen Klein has been viewed some 8 million times.
The school system in the New York state town of Greece says the students must also complete 50 hours of community service with senior citizens.
Mrs Klein, 68, said she did not want the boys to face criminal charges.
She told the Associated Press last week that others should not harass or threaten the students.
"That's not the way to go about things," she said. "They're just kids."
Suicide jibe
An internet campaign to send her on holiday has now raised nearly $670,000 (£427,000).
The online fund was set up by a Toronto man on the crowdfunding website Indiegogo after he saw the video on YouTube.
The clip, Making The Bus Monitor Cry, shows Mrs Klein appearing to break down in tears as she is subjected to a litany of insults.
The barbs include profanities, physical ridicule, taunts and her being told to shut up.
Some ask what her address is, telling her they want to steal from her and perform sexual acts.
One boy tells her she does not have a family as "they all killed themselves because they didn't want to be near you".
Mrs Klein's son killed himself 10 years ago.
In addition to the suspension, the students will not be allowed on a district school bus for a year.
They will be transferred to an alternative education programme, as the school district is required to educate them, and will be able to reapply to their original school at the end of the year.
The boys and their families have admitted wrongdoing and agreed to the suspensions without a hearing.
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-cana
OP: Good. I say be even harsher, send them to boot camp for a year and have them clean toilet floors with toothbrushes.
I also don't consider words to be violence, FWIW. For me, it has to be physical.
Oh wait....
Here is what words can do: Words can kill. Words can take an ordinary fifth or sixth-grader and make her want to commit suicide with every fiber of her body. Words can make a girl never want to get up in the morning. Words can make you cry. Words can make you hurt yourself in ways physically harmful bullies could never dream of. Words can make you starve yourself. Words can make you kill yourself.
YOUR words are hurtful and disgusting, right here, right now. As someone who was verbally and emotionally abused for MOST of her life? Fuck you. Seriously, no, just, FUCK YOU and your dismissiveness, FUCK YOU and your discounting MY abuse and everyone else's abuse who has ever been verbally or emotionally abused or bullied. Fuck off.
And yes, jsyk, they probably would have been punished as or more severely for physically harming someone. At my school, a student physically harming a teacher or staff member was EXPELLED, period, end of, no ~evul~ alt. ed. schools, nothing. So yeah.
Also, you know, fuck you.
I'm sorry that you suffered and that you're being triggered by an insensitive, clueless asshat.
Also just, while I'm here, you have been amazing in this post, srsly. Just wanted to say that. :)
The bullies are young and can turn their shit around and I hope they and their families get some counselling.
Are you for real with this shit, seriously. It's called VERBAL FUCKING ABUSE. Violence doesn't necessarily have to be physical jfc.
Also, no one really cares whether or not you believe words to be violent. Or have you not be here during the wave of gay suicides that were precipitated by verbal bullying?
I also don't consider words to be violence
wow, fuck you, too.
You can shake off physical violence, but a group of students over ten years can totally shatter an individual and nearly ruin their promise.
If individuals have strong, stable foundations , words don't matter. But at this point, school is where we form our personal foundations to a large degree. Being unable to form a stable, strong personal foundation that values itself is hard if you are prevented from having a positive opinion of yourself. There are very few people that can maintain that in the face of systemic paychological bullying.