Little Bullies, Big Problem: Karen Klein Case Highlights Moral Malformation of our Youth

By Jennifer Hartline
7/2/2012
Catholic Online (www.catholic.org)

Our kids are not learning what it means to love their neighbor, what it means to love, period. Whose fault is that?

What happened to Karen Klein should be seen as an indicator of the emptiness of moral character that is spreading among children like a lethal virus. Far from just a bad moment in time, it reveals a real decay in personal fibre and humanity. The bad news is, these are kids. The blame for their moral malformation and subsequent terrible behavior can be laid squarely at our feet -- the grown-ups. The good news is, these are kids. There is hope for them. The "mold" isn't totally set yet and there is time to try to recast them. Only if we are honest enough to connect the dots and admit that the ugly picture is our own doing.

The bullying of Karen Klein reflects a deeper malady

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WASHINGTON, D.C. (Catholic Online) - Perhaps it would be helpful if all the adults took a refresher course in Connect the Dots. "Start here... this dot leads to that dot leads to the next dot leads to the next... do you see the connection? Do you see the picture starting to emerge?"

Once we've reminded everyone how to connect the dots, we need to put it in reverse. People need to see that the problem they're dealing with today can be traced back, choice by choice, action by action, to something they did (or didn't do) years ago. Something they've repeatedly done or haven't done, day after day ever since.

This is the blessing and the cost of freedom. Our choices and actions are ours and so is the responsibility. Yet we're not in it all alone. The blessings of wise decisions and meritorious actions are often shared by those around us. Likewise, the consequences of bad choices and immoral actions are suffered by everyone around us as well. Here comes the theme again: our lives are connected.

For instance, we're all feeling the pain of widespread, bad parenting and indifference to discipline and morality. Exhibit A: the middle school kids who gleefully tormented 68 year-old Karen Klein on their schoolbus. Klein works as a school bus monitor in upstate New York and last week she was subjected to the heartless cruelty of a group of kids who thought their escapade so funny that one of them videotaped the whole thing and put it on YouTube. On Friday, June 29, 2012, after the nationwide outcry, the four seventh graders were suspended from school for one year.

What happened to Karen Klein should be seen as an indicator of the emptiness of moral character that is spreading among children like a lethal virus. Far from just a bad moment in time, it reveals a real decay in personal fibre and humanity. Those kids are our future, God help us.

So what has happened to those kids? The school says they are investigating. So far, it seems no disciplinary action has been taken. Ironically, some of the bullies became targets themselves of some angry residents in their community, forcing local police to expend time and resources protecting them. Nice how that works, isn't it? They commit a shameful act of cruelty and abuse, no one stops them or disciplines them, but then when other people get angry and threaten them, they get all kinds of police protection. Makes them seem like the victim. (Too bad no one cared enough to protect Mrs. Klein.)

With crystal clarity let me say there can be no condoning the threats against the kids. Violence toward these young bullies only perpetuates the evil. They do not "deserve" to be harmed, nor do their families "deserve" death threats. They are children -- badly behaved, poorly formed children -- in dire need of having to endure some serious disciplinary consequences for their actions.

For starters, every single one of the kids involved should be expelled from school immediately. Since it was the end of the year, they should be expelled for the upcoming school year. Their behavior was atrocious and until they learn differently they're not fit for public school. Next, the principal and their parents should get together and find a suitable service project to which the kids would devote at least 500 hours of their time over the next year. Serving the elderly and disabled should be the central theme. Physical labor should be required. (If any of this inconveniences Mom and Dad, too bad.)

That would be a good start. But only a start. Back up several dots -- the real problem goes much deeper. Mere punishment will not effect the change these kids desperately need. Neither will all the dollars and hype being poured into anti-bullying programs. It's not social malformation we have to correct but moral malformation.

They seem to lack any ability to have empathy for another person, or any ability to show compassion and kindness. They lack any sense of right and wrong. They lack even a smidgen of control over their negative impulses. They took delight in being cruel and such a tendency cannot be minimized. With due respect to the father of one of the boys, this was not simply a "stupid mistake". This was a deliberate and callous act with violent undertones. On the video one of the boys can be heard mockingly describing what would happen if he stuck a knife in Mrs. Klein.

The bad news is, these are kids. The blame for their moral malformation and subsequent terrible behavior can be laid squarely at our feet -- the grown-ups.

The good news is, these are kids. There is ...

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1 - 7 of 7 Comments

The Mommy Psychologist
10 months ago
As horrible as this situation was, it proves what social psychologists have been studying for years. It demonstrates the power of the group over individual behavior. I talk about trying to make sense of this incident here:
http://www.themommypsychologist.com/2012/06/22/how-do-you-bully-a-grandmother/
Robert Burford
10 months ago
"Those kids are our future, God help us" I remember high school and the bullies that attacked me at that time. I would always speak out when a geekie kid was picked on and luckily I had bigger stronger friends to back me up. I agree it is too easy to blame the parents in connecting the dots. The real dot connecting occurs in our society today by the laws and regulations that rule our conduct. Spare the rod spoil the child? We leave discipline up to the schools and hamstring the schools because they have little tools to discipline a child. Not everyone can homeschool. We look at the parents but it is also the rules that we use to live. Today society believes the have a right to premarital sex, and it is okay for same sex parents to :marry". We believe in self determination of the individual but do not believe in the self determination and rights of a fetus. "The consequences of bad choices" are not just the parents involved but society that has evolved. We are responsible for both.
jh
10 months ago
Again, as clear as can be, Jennifer. We reap what we sow, and we adults are responsible for our children.
Tanya Holland
10 months ago
Jennie, you have outdone yourself. This has absolutely GOT to be read by all humanity. You nailed it.
JoAnn
10 months ago
"Fruit doesn't fall too far from the tree." Where were the parents when these children were supposed to be taught respect for their elders and love of thy neighbors. Like I said, "The fruit doesn't fall too far from the tree.
Rodger
10 months ago
Excellent insight into where a society is destined when God is spurned and any moral compass is deemed not only irrelevant but offensive. At the time I retired from the public classroom some years ago, we had already reached the point where the classroom teacher was held accountable for a child's misbehavior, not the child or parents. Wherein disciplinary action was taken toward a child, the teacher was subject to correction and possible lawsuit. Lack of self discipline, the promotion of self, the creation of a cult of indulged children is pressing us toward a society defined by chaos. The writer of this article makes a very accurate prediction, unless we somehow turn around and break this liberal mindset that is being forced upon us, there will be no future.
Sum Nemo
10 months ago
It is too easy to blame the parents for the situation presented here, but the reality is that the job of child-rearing is generally a "crap shoot". It is not uncommon for a child to come out of the best of cirumcstances, a "wholesome", Christian environment, as the devil incarnate while there are those children who come out of hell as living saints. Then there are those in between. However, rather than go into the blame game whereby we try to find somebody to accuse (Whether it be an amoral liberal, an oppressive conservative, ...) why not simply acknowledge the fact that there is sufficient blame to go around for everybody? My frustration as a parent was the fact that I was fighting an entire culture, Christian and non-Christian. I could tell my son that money is not everything, that peace "is not merely a distant goal that we seek, but a means by which we arrive at that goal" (Martin Luther King, Jr.), the "Golden Rule", sexual virtues, love your enemy, or others when our culture was teaching him otherwise, particularly when it comes to bullying behavior. I spent a great deal of time teaching my son the virtues of the New Testament, but American lay Christian culture, based upon our behavior, is generally indifferent to the virtues taught in the New Testament. But, rather than argue the problem philosiphically for decades, to to an even more basic level we find the simple vitue of respecting others missing in our culture, and Christians are equally as guilty of this as non-Christians; and if you do not believe me, visit an online Christian forum and read the name-calling and the harsh rhetoric. But, as mentioned, the reality is that there is sufficent blame to go around. There are a great many societal problems manifested in this situation, but the key to correcting this situation must begin with me. How about you?

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