FIRST TAKE


Bad Publicity or Good? Last month, I wrote about how social networking


is changing the landscape of student transportation as well as the school bus environment. Change isn’t necessarily a bad thing as it can bring to the public light the real goings-on in the school bus. We had just gone to print when news “broke” out of Rochester, N.Y., about bus monitor Karen Klein being verbally as- saulted by students during a route. Caught on video taken by another student on his


By Ryan Gray ryan@stnonline.com


cellphone, Klein can be seen crying as she was pelted with rude, obscene comments about her weight, clothes, hearing aide and low income, among other things. Te details of this bullying incident car- ried by CNN, “Te Today Show,” “Good Morning America” and dozens of other broadcast television and print media outlets were all too familiar to many student transporters across the country. It polarized a nation, so much so that an online fund started by a Canadian man to help Klein take a much-deserved vacation far surpassed the goal of raising $5,000. At this writing, Klein was set to receive more than $675,000. Such a windfall is truly amazing for anyone, especially Klein, who report-


edly earns little more than $19,000 a year as a bus monitor for the Greece Central School District. She remains undecided about returning to her job this month, as certainly she could take one heck of a vacation. But she has said she also plans to take care of her family as well as give away a lot of the money to truly needy charities. While Klein’s response to her new income should come as no surprise


to fellow student transporters, neither should it surprise many that she has little sympathy for the juvenile delinquents who tormented her in the video, and likely had done so on a number of occasions throughout the school year. Frankly, Klein doubted the sincerity of the apologies, and who could blame her? Te death threats made to the four students in question are certainly not to be condoned, but the year-long suspensions handed down by Greece CSD in June could be a positive sign that, a bit late, school districts are finally taking seriously the damage caused by verbal harrass- ment, a.k.a bullying, on the school bus. Te Klein case is an example of the kind of incidents that for far too


long have been buried by school administrators, principles and perhaps some student transporters. Te resulting national attention on the Greece district school bus was, on the surface at least, certainly not the ideal, and it certainly did some disservice to thousands of student transporters who work long and hard every day to create the most positive environment for schoolchildren. Yet, it’s about time the general public realizes that, while statistically the


safest on the road, the school bus ride can too often be a painful experi- ence for bullied students, school bus drivers and monitors alike. ■


Publisher: Tony Corpin Editor: Ryan Gray


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Denny Coughlin, Consultant; Judith Dupille, Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles; Dick Fischer, Trans-Consult; Ron Love, Delaware DOE; Randy McLerran, National Bus Sales; Pete Meslin, Newport-Mesa Unified; Nancy Netherland, Migrant-Seasonal Head Start; Robert Pudlewski, Consultant; Alexandra Robinson, NAPT; Launi Schmutz, Washington County Schools


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8 School Transportation News Magazine August 2012


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