ANALYSIS
Bullied on the Bus: Cost-Effective Strategies for Prevention
Te nation watched in shock recently as four middle school boys barraged 68-year-old
bus monitor Karen Klein with verbal abuse, jabs about her weight, attacks on her family and chuckled as they made violent and graphic threats. We also watched as Klein remained quiet, taking the abuse and failing to respond to the
By Katie Johnson
students. Tis incident may have very well gone unnoticed and unreported, had not one of the young teenagers posted a 10-minute video of the harassment on YouTube. As the video went viral and support poured in for Karen, many school districts and par-
ents began asking themselves, could that happen on our buses, in our community, at our school?
LESSONS LEARNED Tere are valuable lessons to be learned from this incident to help prevent future situa-
tions from escalating in schools. Do school administrators have any clue what is happening to students, bus monitors
and/or drivers on the way to and from school? And perhaps more importantly, are bus monitors and drivers properly trained with the
right information on how to respond if students are abusing or bullying them? Do the bus monitors understand their roles and responsibilities for responding to the bullying or ha- rassment of students? What type of role do the monitors provide toward the safety of the students on the bus? In the recent “Bully” documentary, one of the students featured was tortured and bul-
lied daily on the bus, but due to a lack of awareness and reporting, school administrators and parents were clueless about the situation. How can we ensure these incidents do not continue to go unnoticed?
❝ Bullying incidents reveal drastic disconnects
and gaps existing between school administrators and policy, and what is happening on buses… ❞
A FAILURE TO REPORT Tese incidents and others clearly reveal drastic disconnects and gaps existing between
school administrators and policy, and what is happening on buses, in locker rooms, in hall- ways, at sporting events, online and numerous other locations where bullying and abuse is taking place. In recent studies, 65 percent of victims said bullying was not reported by them or others
to teachers or school officials. Even when a bullying victim had suffered injury, 40 percent of the time the students said the bullying was not reported. In fact, studies show that only one or two out of every 10 incidents are being reported, leaving 80 to 90 percent of inci- dents unreported and leaving school leaders in the dark. Tere are a number of reasons these incidents remain unnoticed, including students’
fear of retaliation from their bully, embarrassment, etc. Transporters may also feel their reports will be ignored, or they may feel reporting will only make the situation worse. Many times students don’t know where or who to turn to, they don’t trust the administration or law enforcement or may have not real anonymous reporting options.
70 School Transportation News Magazine October 2012
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