Do Orange Jumpsuits Come in Junior Sizes?

Riding on the School Bus was never something I wanted to do. As a child, I attended private school from kindergarten to 4th grade. We did not have transportation provided to us. The private school I attended was an all girls school. We were not only taught academics but also manners and how to act respectfully toward others. Some would think this archaic, but I appreciated it and know that it laid a wonderful foundation for the person I became. When my parents moved away from the city the summer of my 4th grade year, I knew that I would be riding the School Bus come fall. This didn't disturb me at all as I had been surrounded for the last 5 years with students who acted like human beings. There was no such thing as talking back or mouthing off to a teacher or anyone in authority. We acted like civilized people. I will never forget the second day I rode home on the bus from elementary school. As I sat there, I felt something pinching the backs of my heels. It was two sixth grade girls who crawled on the nasty, dirty floor of the school bus under the seats until they reached mine and pinched me. I had no idea why until I got off the bus.  As I stepped off the bus I said "Thank You," as I had the day before to the bus driver. Today they echoed behind me in a mocking voice, "Thank you," and laughed. I had been convicted  of the crime of being polite to the bus driver. I hated the bus from that day until I stopped riding in 8th grade when we moved out of the district. 
I'm sure by now most of you have seen the video of the elderly school bus monitor who is being tormented with a barrage of insults and taunts from several middle school boys. The video goes on for over 10 minutes. I couldn't stomach any more than 3. They never let up and the entire time they are laughing with pride at themselves and how cool they are. People, of course, are outraged! As well they should be. They have even started a fundraiser to send the monitor on a wonderful vacation. At the writing of this post they have raised more than $140,000 and still counting. That's great, and I'm glad she's getting something out of this, but it doesn't solve the problem. 
Now, this is the part where I'm sure I'm going to get some criticism, but that, my friends, is exactly part of the problem. Parents have raised a generation of kids that they never disciplined or taught them how to behave because they were afraid the child wouldn't like them or be their friend or, they were afraid of what other people would think of them or worse yet, it was just too much trouble to follow through. I am great friends with both of my girls and I love them dearly, and they love me, BUT you can ask either of them, and they will tell you that when they were growing up, I would not hesitate to call them out if they were misbehaving. I didn't care who was watching, their friends, my friends, teachers, whomever. My kids don't hate me for it. They know I cared enough about them to make them behave. I tell this story all the time, and you may choose to believe it or not, but when my girls were going through the middle school system, I was also working as a high school and middle school secretary. I remember the teenage girls that were sent to the office  on a dress code violation. Most of them looked like they had just come off the night shift of street walking rather than attending school.  They were always given the option to call their parents for something else to wear. That meant that their parents would have to leave their jobs to bring them clothes. One particular day, a girl was sent down to the office with a skirt on that looked more like underwear. There were no administrators available. That left her with me and my particular brand of consequences for the offense. I instructed her to wait while I went to the back of the office. I returned with a gym suit and told her to change.  She had a horrified look on her face. She told me she didn't want to wear the gym suit. I responded to her that she should have thought about that before she left the house that morning dressed as she was. I refused to let her call her parent. She opted to wait in the office until an administrator would give her a different option. I went home and told both of my girls that if I ever got a call from an administrator at work that they were wearing anything close to what that girl was wearing in my office that day, that I would not bring them a change of clothes and for the next week they would wear a Pilgrim dress to school including the hat. I'm sure a lot of you are thinking, She wouldn't do that! The difference? My girls knew that I absolutely would do that without question. (By the way, neither one of them has ever violated the dress code.) People will argue that teenagers act the way they do because they're teenagers and middle school is a rough time for everyone! I totally agree that middle school is rough, but we are still human. We should still have compassion for each other. Nothing excuses what those boys were doing on that bus!! When I was working a middle school office, every juvenile delinquent loved me! They would come into the office every morning to say hi. The girls would ask me if what they were wearing was okay, and they wouldn't even think of using profanity in my presence. Why? Because they knew I would not let them be that way, not because I was a mean old bitty that worked behind the desk but because I cared about the kind of people they needed to be. I'm not a miracle worker, and I am not writing this to say I have all the answers, but we have got to start raising children to respect the people around them, and, just as importantly themselves. 
What would I have done in the situation? As the bus driver, I would have pulled over as soon as I could do so safely. I would have called every boy up to the front of the bus and told them to get off of the bus. I would then have stood on the side of the road with the boys, called the Principal to come and get them and then continued my route. As the principal, I would have taken the boys back to the office and had them wait in my office while I called each one of their parents. We would wait there until all parents had arrived, and then we would all have a private screening of the video that had just been shot of their cruelty. If technology was available we would watch on the big screen. Then each boy would be suspended starting at the beginning of the first two weeks of the following school year at which time they would return to school on the third week and they would be wearing an orange jumpsuit (They might as well get used to the color. It will probably be their attire for some of their adult life if they continue on the path they are on) with the words BULLY emblazoned on the back for a week. For immediate justice, they would spend the summer washing school buses and finally, they would never be allowed to ride a school bus again! Sound rough, huh? Maybe it would make them think about what they've done, maybe not, but at least they would know that their choices have consequences, and bad choices breed bad consequences!