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Kick Bullies off the School Bus!

By Patricia Backora

The crabby old dumbskull who drove us to Hog Pen High couldnt have cared less. I always sat in the front side seat, cringing in terror, as showers of soggy spitballs flew at me from the back, splattering the glass partition between me and the front exit. The driver knew those sobs had been torturing me every single day but he did nothing about it, never even whispered one word against it. He didnt give a damn that his bus was being trashed by trashy kids who acted worse than wild animals. The only thing that seemed to bother that old guy was my complaints. He didnt care two spits that I was threatened with serious bodily harm each and every day. He ignored the knife and club utch brought onto HI! bus, like it was none of his beeswax. utch was always shoving and cursing me. "very foul insult he could think of hed hurl at me day in and day out. #ne day he hit me with a big club hed made in woodworking class. $ snotty bitch girl said, %Hit her again&' (ainey !pacey was a mean, ugly, nasty bitch who looked like a (ottweiller. Id never done anything to !pacey, or said one word

to her. ut she said I had lice, and other cruel things. If utch had listened to her and I had gotten hit again, chances are Id either be dead or disabled. )ay the *ord repay those two in kind, either in this life or in the world to come +(om.,-.,/0 - Tim.1.,12. utch, the ringleader of the bullying, wasnt all that big, but what he lacked in si3e he made up for in sheer psychotic meanness. ack then I didnt know much about the ible, but when I looked in his eyes, I felt like I was looking into the face of satan, there was so much hate and malice in utch. (ainey !pacey had the same satanic meanness in her face. $ll I wanted to do was lay low and survive for 4ust another day without ma4or in4ury. I often came home crying, and sometimes feeling suicidal. -156 I was $*7$8! simmering with anger because there was no way I could fight back or run away from the pain, shame and humiliation they put me through. (over )c9unn wasnt much kinder. He said I belonged in a mental institution 4ust because I seemed a little upset about the bullying. !omeday hell have to answer to 9od too, and that will be only fair. People reap what they sow +9al.:.62, so who am I to interfere with 9ods law of sowing and reaping by remitting ;<("P"<T"=>#? sins committed against me +@ohn -A.-B2C ecause 9od only forgives when people repent and Im no better than He is, I definitely dont believe in unconditional forgiveness of unrepentant abusers who D<#7 what theyre doing is wrong and only do it because they expect to get away with it. ut I do believe in turning them over to 9od for final 4udgment. )y nerves were shredded. I was too paraly3ed with fear to do much about the situation. 7hen youre stuck on a bus to and from Hog Pen High with <#7H"(" T# (;<, the bullies have a good half hour to terrify you. )any times Id wish I was a big muscleman who could give at least one of those punks a good hiding. $ll Id ever wanted was to love and be loved, and to be an angelic girl who made others happy and received happiness in return. ut those bastards crushed my tender heart, the way they forced me to feel bitterness, fear, mistrust and hatred. ullying kills the tender, gentle soul who might have been. ullies steal much more than your lunch money. They rob your soul of life, love, and 4oy. ullying is $*7$8! a crime of violence. !ometimes against the body, always against the spirit of a person.

I lived about three miles away, and no sidewalks to ride a bike on. Dids had <# right to health and safety protection back in the E:As, and it doesnt seem much better now, from what I read on the Internet. Dids are still killing themselves to get away from their torturers. The school bus is Hell on 7heels, but the bus driver, he dont give a damn. Dids usually scream like baboons in heat while theyre torturing the =esignated Fictim. This distracts the driver and prevents him from concentrating on the road. $part from the damage done to the victim, tolerating this needless noise constitutes a health and safety violation. ?unny how if the same thing happened to adults on the 4ob, thered be hell to pay. If some secretary had her chair booby>trapped every day, or was threatened with knives or clubs, shed press charges against the assailant which would be taken seriously in any court of law, 4ust because it was adult>on>adult violence. How many ;**8 "<$ *I<9 teachers who ignored my suffering and blamed )" for it would have graciously take the kind of insults I was sub4ected to day in and day outC It would have been beneath their dignity to suffer what I went through even for five minutes& Half a century later weve seen enormous strides in medicine, space exploration and computer science. ut innocent kids are still suffering and dying 4ust because nobody wants to get down to the nitty>gritty of tackling %every schools dirty little secret'. <obody wants to call bullying what it is. a H$T" G(I)" of psychological or physical violence& $ny school district which turns a blind eye to serious, long>term, dangerous abuse of vulnerable kids should be sub4ect to litigation by those affected by it. Threat of financial loss and bad publicity should be enough to make the school crack down on this hate crime. If I had my way, $merica and other countries would raise up a grass> roots campaign to promote a $< TH" ;**8 I**, which would expel hardcore bullies from public schools and strip them of the right to a free public education. ullying should be made a prosecutable H$T" G(I)", and prosecuted as slander, assault, and unlawful torture. @ust like there were civil rights marches back in the E:As, people should picket against school and workplace bullying, especially where its a persistent problem which authorities refuse to resolve. "ven if the whole damn school ganged up on 4ust one individual, that dont make it right. (ight and wrong should not be decided by ma4ority opinion. $ si3able ma4ority of antebellum !outherners may have felt it was okay for slaveholders to treat their black slaves any old way they pleased, but the voice of the ma4ority can be wrong.

"very pack of wild dogs has its ringleader, usually the alpha male who asserts his authority by being tough and aggressive. utch was the ringleader on the bus, and the turmoil and racket only started when he acted up and egged the others on +that doesnt excuse what they did2. The bus ride wasnt too bad on the rare occasions he was absent. $ few months before I Huit that damnable Hog Pen High, I tried riding the other bus and found out I only had to walk about a mile to get to my house. I had no trouble on that one. That proves conclusively that utch must have been the one stirring up all the trouble on the first bus. ut some kids dont have a choice. There is only #<" bus they can ride, the bus from hell. Their parents work and cant drive them. They dont know any other kids who live nearby who could give them a ride. Theres no regular city bus transit service to drop them off near their school, because they live in a small town or rural area. If they try to ride a bike to school, it could be vandali3ed or stolen by the bullies, or perhaps the weather is way too rough to permit bike riding. If I had my way, bus bullies would get one or two warnings, no more. "ndless %second chances' only give the bully extra chances to do more harm. If the bully didnt stop acting up, the bus driver would notify their parents that from then on, their kid was P"()$<"<T*8 banned from riding the bus. =o this with the ringleader, and watch how fast his followers shape up. "specially when they look out the window of the warm bus and watch their hero tromping through a foot of snow or driving rain, grumbling all the way. !o it wouldnt be much funC T#;9H "$<!& They would have brought that misery on themselves& In cases where walking to school alone would be dangerous, the parent +or other adult they designate2 would be reHuired to accompany their child on foot if they couldnt drive them. 8ou 4ust watch that parents lackadaisical attitude about their kids bullying behavior turn around, once it cost them lost work time or money, or even their 4ob. to get their bumped>off>the>bus brat to school& <obody cares until TH"I( precious money is at stake& )oney is king. Id go a step further and reHuire GGTFs and microphones to be embedded in all school buses to monitor potential troublemakers. Id recruit volunteer us )arshals to ride to and from school with the students. ig, beefy drill sergeant>types with handcuffs to restrain kids who are physically aggressive and threatening others. If someone started serious trouble on the bus, the us )arshal could first restrain the thug, then use his cell phone to call the cops, who would meet the

bus at a convenient stop. The troublemaker+s2 would be hauled off to @uvenile Gourt to face 4ustice. The legal principle of Loco parentis could be used as the basis for a lawsuit against a bus company or school district which has allowed serious harm to be done to a bullied child. Loco Parentis means I< TH" P$("<T! P*$G". In the parents place the bus driver assumes responsibility for !$?"*8 transporting your child to and from school. If he deliberately neglects that responsibility and his negligence puts your child at risk of physical or psychological harm, the bus company should be sued, or even the school district if the school bus is under their management or authority. ullies live by the *aw of the @ungle, where might is right and the meek are weak dead meat. 9angs gather to tear apart one lone victim, 4ust like a pack of dogs proves how tough they are by ripping up a tiny kitten. Its high time bus drivers, teachers and school officials started acting like responsible adults instead of mealy>mouthed ;**8 "<$ *"(!, and let trouble>making dirtbags know that bullying is 4ust as illegal at school or on the bus as cigarette smoking. IIIIII http.55waronbullying.tripod.com

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