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  • Posted by Rocky_Road 12 years ago in reply to this comment.
    At least they got it back without pins stuck in it, and with a curse!

    Hatfield and McCoy scenarios can really suck....
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  • Posted by 12 years ago in reply to this comment.
    I have a friend where a neighbor altercation resulted in a similar situation. Basically, the neighbors in the feud started following my friends' daughter and harassing her. it ended in a court battle!! and restraining order!! and my friends moving from their neighborhood to mine. lovely people. the first day in their new house as the movers were putting everything in, my wheaten trots over and goes in the house, up the stairs and steals their daughter's favorite stuffed animal and brings it to our yard. they came over and asked for it back
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  • Posted by Rocky_Road 12 years ago in reply to this comment.
    You may be onto something, and you just reminded me of something that happened to me as a kid: my parents were feuding with another family down the block, and I rode past their house on my bicycle one day. The family's youngest daughter was in her yard, and the next thing I know, her father was chasing after me down the street. He catches me and starts screaming something about my saying something bad to his daughter. It wasn't true, but it was my word against his daughter's. Scared the bejesus out of me, and he bruised my arm where he was jerking me off my bike....

    In short, a clever kid can stir up a whole lot of trouble, and easily get away with it!
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  • Posted by 12 years ago in reply to this comment.
    with scanty evidence, I am going out on a limb and say this little guy may have been dishing out and just got it right back. The parents' over-reaction is telling.
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  • Posted by ObjectiveAnalyst 12 years ago in reply to this comment.
    Quite right! Thank you. I will correct. The syntax is clearly broken without proper punctuation... One of my shortcomings... I am far too hasty... :)
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  • Posted by Hiraghm 12 years ago in reply to this comment.
    I was merely responding to "however does one fight bullying by acting as one?"

    The lack of comma after "however" confused me somewhat.
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  • Posted by ObjectiveAnalyst 12 years ago in reply to this comment.
    Hello Hiraghm,
    I'm okay with teaching the bullies a lesson so long as the adults remain in control. I would prefer to see them sent to a boot camp or some counseling and taught in a controlled environment where escalation to violence is not an option. I do not feel that frightening the entire busload of mostly innocent children was fully thought through...

    Absolutely. Parents are at a disadvantage today. Even the unsubstantiated expression of abuse by a child in the wrong ear brings the weight of the entire system down on parents today. There is a line between discipline and abuse. Some feel spanking is abuse. Others think simply yelling in an intimidating fashion is...

    The world has changed so much since my childhood. When I was a kid even the neighbors parents could discipline you. It was never as frightening as what my father might deliver. He taught me to take what I deserved and move on. He said I would deserve and receive good or bad in this life equal to my own actions and the sooner I learned that the better... I respected him early on, but later learned to love him for the tough love I needed...
    Regards,
    O.A.
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  • Posted by ObjectiveAnalyst 12 years ago in reply to this comment.
    Thank you khalling. I wondered if you meant more in your original note of that. The video didn't load fast enough when I read the story the first time... So I thought there were just the two original mugshots... The parents should have notified the principal. He/she should have interviewed the entire busload of children one at a time in his/her office and maintained the children's anonymity. One would expect that some of the children would identify and corroborate... Corrective action could then be taken, by intervening with the parents and handing out suspension... Of course the parents of the aggressor almost always defend their children as not guilty... Some people's kids...
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  • Posted by ObjectiveAnalyst 12 years ago
    I understand the frustration of the parents; however, does one fight bullying by acting as one? The lack of authority for schools to hand out appropriate discipline is at the root of the problem. In my day the bus driver would intervene without fear. The driver would hold all students on the bus until the principle came on board and the aggressors were identified. Corporal punishment was allowed. I was fortunate to have felt the sting of the paddle fewer times than I probably deserved. If the school hadn't disciplined me, my father surely would have. Arresting the parents based on what has been reported seems excessive, but it is also excessive to get on a bus and start screaming indiscriminately at young children... This story needs more detail.
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  • Posted by Hiraghm 12 years ago in reply to this comment.
    By teaching them what it feels like to be bullied.
    The *real* problem is the lack of authority for PARENTS to hand out appropriate discipline.
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  • Posted by $ stargeezer 12 years ago
    I hate to say it, but I'm a little on the fence for a couple reasons. First of all, nobody has a right to jump on a school bus and start yelling at kids who might or might not have been responsible for the bulling of the other kid. How does the driver know if they aren't crazy people who are going to pull a gun? Or start hitting whatever kid they think is the "bad one"? There's just no telling these days.

    Secondly, these parents really, really seem to have lost their noodles. A bus load of little kids and you are going to act like some avenging angel and defend your precious little muffin by scaring a whole bus load.kids. Just how mature were they??? IF my kid had been on that bus and been terrorized like that, it would not have been good for them.
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  • Posted by 12 years ago in reply to this comment.
    it's a fun story with serious consequences. that is why I voted for LS's mug shot comment
    I would never make a good bully, sigh.
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  • Posted by richrobinson 12 years ago in reply to this comment.
    I almost feel dumb for having an opinion without knowing all the facts. What did the kids do? How did the other kids respond? What did the driver do? Did they talk to other parents first???
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  • Posted by richrobinson 12 years ago in reply to this comment.
    The one variable is the bus driver. It appears that the driver did nothing when the kids were being "bullied" and did nothing to stop the parents from yelling at 8 year old kids. My guess is the drivers are so afraid of getting in trouble or sued that they tend to do nothing.
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  • Posted by Rocky_Road 12 years ago
    I once did something similar, when a kid smashed my front windshield tossing a steel ball bearing out of his bus window. I wasn't arrested, and the kids around the perp pointed him out.

    Not a satisfying ending, though...the kid's principal refused to discipline the kid, and justified this by claiming that my car insurance replaces glass without any deductible. He refused to give me the kid's name, or phone number.
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  • Posted by Rozar 12 years ago
    I don't think they did the right thing. Blanketing a whole bus full of children with cuss words and yelling is as bad as blanketing a community with gun laws because of a few people's actions.

    If there is a law preventing people from getting on a school bus without permission yeah they should probably be arrested.

    They could of handled this situation way more tactfully.
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  • Posted by 12 years ago in reply to this comment.
    I can go the other way too. we have read articles in the Gulch where bus drivers did not have control of their bus and stood aside and did little to stop real assault occurring. the fact that kids were crying, leads me to believe the average age on the bus was fairly young. If this was the case, two angry parents using intimidating tactics and abusive language to a majority of innocents is pretty rash. Most eight year olds are are smaller than most adults. But, what if their eight year old came running off the bus physically hurt, bruised- that's more of a game changer. a parent would want to find out immediately who did what to whom and when and should not have to wait for the school or bus system to weigh in. it's an interesting debate. I can argue it from either side.
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  • Posted by richrobinson 12 years ago in reply to this comment.
    Good point. I accepted the word "bullying" without knowing what they meant by that. I have a mental image of bullying from when I was young. Bigger, older kids would push around someone smaller. People are so thin skinned today who knows what happened. If it was a case of bigger kids physically pushing around smaller kids I would be okay with it. If it was name calling then they over reacted. Either way the police over reacted.
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