BRATS ON THE BUS

We suppose nearly everyone has heard by now about the pack of tweenagers who harrassed and verbally abused a 60+ year old lady who was acting as a "bus monitor" up Greece, New York way.

As usual there are all kinds of peole saying the kids should be jailed, etc.; in fact just about any punishment besides the one I would have gotten when I was that age had I done anything remotely like what is shown on the video (shot by the miscreants on their cell phone cams, and that's another problem).  In fact, it was knowing of a certainty that we would face the severest punishment should we disrespect an adult in such a manner that went a very long way towards ensuring we never did any such thing.

Oh, there were mean little boogers on the bus in my day, too. Back in the day, the "Special Ed" kids rode on the bus with everyone else, and sometimes the mocking they got was nothing short of intolerable.  One such kid, a girl whose "nickname" was "German Nut", was told by a particularly mean little shit that he had heard that she was a boy. She insisted that she was too a girl, more and more vehemently each time this kid teased her. Finally, this sawed-off hellion said "Prove it!"

And she did. She pulled up her dress and pulled down her panties and said "See? See?" as the entire bus cracked up.

Today the police would probably have to get involved, but in my day all that was needed were two Special Ed counselors, the Principal, and the Board of Education. Not the people who sat on the school board, of course; but the Board that was applied to kids who did stupid things and which made them smart. Smart so bad that sometimes a kid who got it could sit on a coin and tell you whether it was a dime or a penny. 

If I had pulled that stunt, I'd have gotten the paddle at school, and when I got home I would have gotten ten to fifteen lashes of a leather belt laid on hard right on my bare ass. AND I'd have been grounded for a good four weeks, and if I complained Dad would have tuned me up some more with the belt.

With the knowledge of what awaited us for such gross misbehavior, all any bus driver needed to do to maintain order was to stop the bus and yell "simmer down!" and in extreme cases note the names of the offenders; who knew that he or she would inform the principal of what went on.

We had a notorious bus driver when I was going to school, and all you guys from Huber who check in here to see what old nutty Perfesser Allen is raving about now will remember Benny Keck, who enforced corporal punishment right on the bus.

And yet the very people who are bemoaning this behavior and advocating bringing in the criminal justice system are the very "progressive" idiots who banned or greatly reduced the use of corporal punishment to begin with.

Now if any of you parents of these kids is wondering what to do, here's your answer:

March your kid into his bedroom, order him to pull his pants and underwear to his knees, shove him over the bed, and pull out your belt. Loop the belt so that the end and the buckle are in your hand and then deliver five lashes to the buttocks. Pause, ask if they are gonna do something like that again, and then regardless of the answer lay on four to six more. If he threatens to call child protective services, smack him across the mouth and deliver three to four more lashes.

Then impose restrictions on his freedom as you deem appropriate (no handcuffing to the bed, that is abuse) and enforce them. Trust me, he'll get over it, especially if you use "positive reinforcement" when his behavior improves.

Honestly, treating kids like they're made out of gold and can't be touched is a recipe for exactly what went on aboard that bus in Greece, New York. 

 And you will find, if you ask, that these people - these "child psychologists" and such - who look on corporal punishment with such disdain are largely a pack of foofers who never ever raised a child of their own, but think that they've read enough books to tell you how to raise yours. Ignore them.