A disturbing video has gone viral on social media showing two boys fighting a 9-year-old girl on a school bus in Homestead Florida. The girl’s parent allegedly reported to Coconut Palm K-8 Academy that her daughter was the target of several bullies, but they allegedly failed to intervene or stop the bullying that had been occurring leading up to the disturbing beat down. Bullying on the school bus is unfortunately a problem that is becoming all too common in recent years.
In a survey conducted by the National Center for Education Statistics of 1.4 million public school students, it was found that 17% of students felt unsafe on their way to and from school. This included transportation like buses and other modes of transit. Of those who reported feeling unsafe, 19% reported that this was due to bullying. The number of bullying incidents on school buses is growing, and it is important to understand why this is occurring and how to stop it.
One factor in the increase of school bus bullying is the lack of supervision. With an average school bus having only one adult on board, it can be difficult for that one adult to monitor the behavior of all of the children and recognize signs of bullying. Additionally, the journey time on school buses is often very short, meaning that they do not have much time to intervene if they do recognize something wrong. With no clear authority figure present, students can take advantage of this freedom to act however they please, often leading to bullying behavior.
It is important to take bullying seriously and to take steps to address it. Usually the way to do this is to report any incidents of bullying to school administrators. Making sure that the school is aware of the problem can help to ensure that it is treated with the seriousness it deserves. Additionally, schools should work on training bus drivers to better recognize the signs of bullying and intervene appropriately.
Sadly in this case at Coconut Palm K-8 Academy their administrators allegedly failed to act proactively on the reports from the girl’s mother before she was physically harmed by the bullies, and in turn failed to protect a student. Hopefully those two boys in the video are permanently expelled from the school for their disgusting behavior. Maybe that will help them become better people, since obviously their at home parenting has failed.
