By Jon Mettus
Editor-In-Chief

Karen Klein spent 23 years employed by the Greece Central School District, 20 of those years as a bus driver and the last three as a bus monitor, but last June a video of her appeared on Facebook, and then Youtube, titled “Making the Bus Monitor Cry.”

In the video four middle school boys, because their actions make it impossible to call them young men, are shown mocking the 68-year-old woman. They insult her weight, her appearance and her age. At one point one of the boys says that “they all killed themselves because they didn’t want to be near you,” possibly referring to the suicide of Klein’s son. The harassment brought Klein to tears, which the middle school boys attributed to her missing her Twinkies.

As horrible as this incident is, it shouldn’t come as much of a shock. Today’s youth have a general disrespect for authority, their elders and each other.

Part of the problem is that kids have it easy. Many aspects of their lives are simpler and easier to do than that of earlier generations. Tasks and chores that could have taken hours years ago can now be done in minutes, simply because of the evolution of technology.

Most people have heard the story from their parents or grandparents that they had to walk 10 miles, uphill, in the snow, just to get to school. While that may be an exaggeration the point behind the story still rings true; kids today are spoiled. Anything they want they can get – instant gratification.

When looking at the conduct of kids, it’s necessary to look at how they were raised. Central to the raising of kids are their parents.

“Hopefully [parents] instill values and morals into [their children],” psychology teacher Erin Markey said.
Parents aren’t nearly as hard on kids as they were “back in the day.” It’s not that bringing back corporal punishment would teach kids to be civil functioning members of society, but a little more discipline wouldn’t hurt.

As parents, they are the one of the biggest influences on their children’s lives. It is their responsibility to teach them things like manners, discipline and respect.

In some way or another most kids challenge their parents’ authority, whether it is coming home after curfew, talking back, or something else. For teenagers, this is their way of seeing what they can get away with. They just keep pushing the limits.

Where parents go wrong is when they don’t stick up to their kids – either they don’t want to be the mean parent or they don’t see it as that big of an issue. Then the kids think they have the authority, that they can do what they want without any repercussions whatsoever.

Later in life this leads to the kids having no respect for anyone. After all, if they
don’t even have to treat their own parents with respect why would they give anyone else that luxury?

For some reason strict parents today are viewed as monsters. A mom is seen yelling at her kid in public and passersby think, “What did that poor kid do to deserve that?”

Though parents often fear about being too strict on their kids, not being strict enough has is consequences. If they don’t discipline the child never learns between right and wrong or the idea of respect. Instead, the child grows up with a self-entitlement that he/she doesn’t deserve.