That school bus monitor episode in Rochester is disturbing on many levels, but I think the reason for so much sympathy and money rolling in is because so many people relate to it out of a sense of guilt for harboring similar sentiments, though not overtly acted upon. The teens involved, spoiled and self-centered as they may be, are eerily reminescent of the youths in Golding's "Lord of the Flies." If you recall the boys' savage killing of the sow, it is not much of a leap to a parallel with the aged and obese passive woman who was employed as a monitor. The boys were tormenting her much the same as the wild and pack-led boys in the novel, who had put aside any earlier civilities and thrust themselves into an energetic and depraved slaughter of the pig. The Rochester teens even spoke of stabbing her in her huge stomach. Blood lust ruled. Though they did not physically take her life they did everything possible to kill her spirit, and destroy her humanity. If they were elsewhere, without (presumably) a bus driver, and a number of witnesses besides the camera, one can only dread what course the attack may have taken.
Henry Golding was illustrating a basic theme that evil lies in wait to overtake innocence, despite their having access to good. The young stranded boys could have built an idyllic life for themselves, but the savagery intrinsic to at first a few pretty much ended up corrupting the others, while the few who resisted sacrificed their lives.
So it would seem that the Rochester teens were playing out the role of innocence corrupted by cruel savagery in their search for a suitable victim, one who appears helpless and an easy target. But it's too simplistic to direct the blame against the teens alone. There are too many other factors in play. Apparently, the boy who held the camera had planned to submit the piece to Tosh.O, a disgustingly edgy show not suitable for anyone in their formative years. The danger of viewing such is that it inures the viewer to horrendous events that, once committed to watching them, can only be perceived as funny. The targets of the humor are often the old, the obese, the physically unattractive, the helpless, the unfortunate. If the host and the producers of a quasi-successful TV show laugh at disgracing others, those who are fans find it funny too, once they are "groomed" by society to do so. Howard Stern, now appearing as a humane and compassionate judge, of all things, built his career on a basis similar to Daniel Tosh's. The Stern show regularly and disgustingly ridiculed those he chose as his targets, and he was considered a humorist, at first extreme, but later mainstream. I guess you could say all comedians ridicule, or BULLY, their fellow human beings, where any point of difference or weakness is perceived. And because we've all laughed at jokes about the unfortunate, though we knew we probably shouldn't have, that residual of guilt carries over to the extreme of death threats against the teens on the school bus. We are free to deny our complicity because we know no cameras were rolling when we found the flaws of others worthy of contemptuous scorn.
Karen herself:
First of all, who employed her? What were her duties? Was she to monitor behavior so as to prevent the bullying of some students by others? How effective a monitor could she possibly have been when she was unable to take even a slight step to control the miscreants. Even a 68-year-old, out-of-shape woman could attempt to take names to report their obviously out of control behavior. One would hope that as part of her job, she would have had a cell phone so she could call to say she had a problem. She could have told them that their behavior was wrong, that they should be ashamed of their behavior, that their parents were going to be very disappointed when they were informed. Her whole persona indicated defeat and submission, food for the attackers. Neither her demeanor nor her attire were conducive to demanding respect, and the only way she was going to get any modicum of respect from them was to demand it in no uncertain terms.
Not to criticize her for being in that job, but did she really feel she could do that job? Was she so desperate for money that she would voluntarily subject herself to such humiliation out of the need to make ends meet. Did this happen on a regular basis or was it an isolated event? The students seemed familiar with her, calling her by name. Some of the parents seemed genuinely shocked that their kids would act this way; had she, or anyone else, ever contacted them before? Was the School Board or whoever hired her aware of the conditions on the bus, and if not, why not? Was Karen able to fulfill the conditions in her job description? Where was the oversight?
During the Cold War years, we regularly saw stories of elderly Russian women who were forced to clean the streets and pick up trash so they could support themselves. The moral of it was that Russia treated its elderly population in a deplorable manner. In my opinion, there would be more dignity in cleaning streets than in being the victim of ruthless and criminal behavior at the hands of teenagers.
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