Wait a minute. What about all the children who were bullied on that bus? I bet they'd like a vacation. They can't simply decide to quit riding the bus. How about $600,000 for an effective bus monitor who can educate bullies? Both the bullies and the bullied need counseling.
I wonder where these obnoxious youngsters learned contempt for people who are poor or fat? It seems that these cruel kids are voicing attitudes that are widespread among adults. Charlies M. Blow agrees with me:
Bullies on the Bus
By CHARLES M. BLOW
New York Times
June 22, 2012
...Those boys are us, or at least too many of us: America at its ugliest. It is that part of society that sees the weak and vulnerable as worthy of derision and animus.
This kind of behavior is not isolated to children and school buses and suburban communities. It stretches to the upper reaches of society — our politics and our pulpits and our public squares.
Whether it is a Republican debate audience booing a gay soldier or Rush Limbaugh’s vicious attack on a female Georgetown law student or Newt Gingrich’s salvos at the poor, bullying has become boilerplate. Hiss and taunt. Tease and intimidate. Target your enemies and torture them mercilessly. Maintain primacy through predation.
Traditionally inferior identity roles are registered in a variety of ways. For Klein, she was elderly and female and not thin or rich. For others, it is skin color, country of origin, object of affection or some other accident of birth...
Click HERE for the original video of the bus incident.
Donations for bullied New York bus monitor surpass $600G
By Joshua Rhett Miller
June 23, 2012
FoxNews.com
Brutal bullying more common than you think?
An online feel-good fundraising effort for a bullied bus monitor has surpassed half a million dollars — and is growing.
As of early Saturday, more than $605,000 has been donated to Karen Klehn, a 68-year-old grandmother of eight who appeared on a 10-minute video earlier this week being berated and bullied by four seventh-graders on a bus operated by the Greece Central School District, near Rochester, N.Y. Klein has also been offered a trip to Disney Land with nine guests by Southwest Airlines, FoxNews.com has learned...
Karen Klein Should Give the Money Back
Chris Kelly
Huffington Post
06/22/2012
Something's been bugging me about Karen Klein, the school bus monitor from Greece, New York, who was taunted by children in a video on YouTube, and now seems to have been given half a million dollars by nice strangers who feel bad:
What happened to her never should have happened.
Someone should have been monitoring the kids on that bus.
And clearly it wasn't Karen Klein.
I hope she gets the $500,000. I hope she gets more. I hope she goes to the Walt Disney World Magic Kingdom Park, Orlando, and has her picture taken with Woody and Jessie the Yodeling Cowgirl.
But I can't shake the feeling that she should also take $15,506 and give it back to the people of Greece, New York, who paid her to monitor children on a school bus.
A job she -- while clearly a human being who didn't deserve to be treated like shit -- was also incapable of performing.
Again, not saying the children were right and she's wrong, or she was asking for it, or there's any excuse for making people cry just to see if you can. There's a special ring of hell for people who do that, and it's not Rochester, but you can see it from there.
They're bad and she's their victim.
But why was she there? What did she think her job was? What did the parents who put their children on the bus think?
Because, for $375 a week, to ride the bus twice, she doesn't appear to be preventing very much bullying.
Again: She's a nice lady, a grandmother apparently, and the things that were said to her were horrible, but that's okay, because she says her hearing aid doesn't work that well. Which circles us back to the question of what she saw as parameters of her assignment.
And what she, and the parents who hired her, consider "monitoring."
Here's how Mrs. Klein, a former school bus driver herself, described the ugly incident that never should have happened to the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle:
"I was trying to just ignore them, hoping they would go away and it doesn't work."
No, it doesn't work. It also doesn't work when children are bullying other children. That's why we put monitors on the bus.
To protect the children.
Again. (And again, and again.) Karen Klein is a person, and no one should be cruel to her. A bad thing happened. She should have never been on that bus.
Karen Klein bus monitor abuse video: Youtube video of woman bullied by children goes viral
June 21, 2012
Faith Karimi
CNN
A profanity-laced video of middle school students in upstate New York verbally abusing a bus monitor is sparking an outpouring of support as strangers worldwide rally to her side.
In the video, the students taunt Karen Klein, 68, with a stream of profanity, insults, jeers and physical ridicule.
Some boys demand to know her address, saying they want to come to her house to perform sexual acts and steal from her.
The bullying continues unabated for about 10 minutes in the video, reducing Klein to tears as a giggling student jabs her arm with a book in one instance.
"Oh my God, you're so fat," one says.
Klein, a bus monitor for the Greece Central School District, said she tried her best to disregard the harassment. The students involved attend Greece Athena middle school. "I tried to ignore it ... I didn't hear some stuff and tried to shut them out," Klein told CNN affiliate WHAM.
She said one comment from a boy aboard the bus was especially painful. He tells her that she does not have family because "they all killed themselves because they didn't want to be near you."
Klein's oldest son took his own life 10 years ago, according to the affiliate.
...The video prompted an outpouring of support and a fundraiser by an international crowd funding site that had gathered more than $100,000 by early Thursday.
"Let's give Karen a vacation of a lifetime. Let's show her the power of the internets and how kind and generous people can be," the fundraiser's organizer said on the website. The organizer did not respond to CNN requests for comment on the website. The school district said its bullying team and the local police are conducting an investigation.
"We have discovered other similar videos on YouTube and are working to identify all of the students involved," the school district said in a statement.
It did not elaborate on whether the additional videos are related to Klein's case.
"While we cannot comment on specific student discipline, we can say that students found to be involved will face strong disciplinary action," the school district said.
The students involved are minors, according to the school district. CNN does not name minors involved in alleged crimes unless they are charged as adults.
Officials involved in the investigation will hold a news conference Thursday.
Showing posts with label bullying. Show all posts
Showing posts with label bullying. Show all posts
Thursday, June 21, 2012
Friday, June 8, 2012
Florida High School Student, Barred From School Bus After Reporting Bullying Of Special Needs Student
Stormy Rich, Florida High School Student, Barred From School Bus After Reporting Bullying Of Special Needs Student
HuffingtonPost.com
05/28/2012
Stormy Rich, an 18-year-old Florida student, says she was punished after reporting bullying of a special needs student on a school bus, and standing up to those bullies when the school didn't take action.
Rich, an Umatilla High School student, was riding on a middle school bus because she had earned enough credits to avoid a first-period class, getting to school later by taking the bus for the neighboring middle school, the Daily Commercial reports.
But one girl on the bus -- a special needs student -- was regularly being picked on by her peers, but couldn't comprehend what was being done to her.
"Just because she doesn't understand doesn't mean that should be happening to her," Rich told WOFL-TV.
She adds that the peer bullies would tell the girl that she couldn't sit in certain seats on the bus and would force food in her mouth.
"I actually had to tell her to spit it out because she didn't understand," Rich said.
The teen, fed up with their behavior, complained to the bus driver -- but nothing changed. She then complained to a high school official, who told her he would contact the middle school, but like before, the bullying continued.
So Rich decided to take the matter into her own hands by telling the bullies to stop aggravating the girl. The harassment stopped for a little while, but then the bullying students began threatening her, despite her regular complaints to school officials.
In response, the district revoked Rich's bus-riding privileges, saying Rich exhibited bully behavior.
"[The district official] said what I did made me the bully, with me telling the kids that if they didn't stop, and if the school didn't do anything, that I would have to handle it," Rich told the Daily Commercial. "To me, it was just going too far."
District officials are standing behind its response, telling WOFL-TV that two wrongs don't make a right. Rich says she's being punished for adhering to school policy, which calls on students to report any bullying they witness.
Lake County Schools communications officer Christopher Patton told the Daily Commercial that he cannot discuss the bullying complaints or student discipline, adding that this is just "one side of the story. …There are other parents that are involved in this."
Rich's story echoes a number of controversial school decisions made with respect to bullying. In March, Georgia student Essance McDougald said she was suspended for not reporting to Lithonia High School officials that she was being bullied.
HuffingtonPost.com
05/28/2012
Stormy Rich, an 18-year-old Florida student, says she was punished after reporting bullying of a special needs student on a school bus, and standing up to those bullies when the school didn't take action.
Rich, an Umatilla High School student, was riding on a middle school bus because she had earned enough credits to avoid a first-period class, getting to school later by taking the bus for the neighboring middle school, the Daily Commercial reports.
But one girl on the bus -- a special needs student -- was regularly being picked on by her peers, but couldn't comprehend what was being done to her.
"Just because she doesn't understand doesn't mean that should be happening to her," Rich told WOFL-TV.
She adds that the peer bullies would tell the girl that she couldn't sit in certain seats on the bus and would force food in her mouth.
"I actually had to tell her to spit it out because she didn't understand," Rich said.
The teen, fed up with their behavior, complained to the bus driver -- but nothing changed. She then complained to a high school official, who told her he would contact the middle school, but like before, the bullying continued.
So Rich decided to take the matter into her own hands by telling the bullies to stop aggravating the girl. The harassment stopped for a little while, but then the bullying students began threatening her, despite her regular complaints to school officials.
In response, the district revoked Rich's bus-riding privileges, saying Rich exhibited bully behavior.
"[The district official] said what I did made me the bully, with me telling the kids that if they didn't stop, and if the school didn't do anything, that I would have to handle it," Rich told the Daily Commercial. "To me, it was just going too far."
District officials are standing behind its response, telling WOFL-TV that two wrongs don't make a right. Rich says she's being punished for adhering to school policy, which calls on students to report any bullying they witness.
Lake County Schools communications officer Christopher Patton told the Daily Commercial that he cannot discuss the bullying complaints or student discipline, adding that this is just "one side of the story. …There are other parents that are involved in this."
Rich's story echoes a number of controversial school decisions made with respect to bullying. In March, Georgia student Essance McDougald said she was suspended for not reporting to Lithonia High School officials that she was being bullied.
Monday, May 21, 2012
Rutgers Trial: Tyler Clementi's nemesis Dharun Ravi Sentenced to 30 Days in Jail
Trying to gain popularity by abusing outsiders seems to be a typical tactic of human beings. It's the preferred strategy of both student and teacher cliques in schools. It's known as "girl culture" but obviously it's practiced by men, too.
And, of course, witness tampering is very common in schools. I saw it firsthand in Chula Vista Elementary School District. Administrators do it as a matter of course. It's appropriate that there should be some punishment for a crime that undermines our justice system.
Rutgers Trial: Dharun Ravi Sentenced to 30 Days in Jail
By MICHAEL KOENIGS, CANDACE SMITH and CHRISTINA NG
NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J.
ABC News May 21, 2012
Former Rutgers student Dharun Ravi was sentenced to 30 days in jail by a New Jersey judge today for spying on his roommate's gay tryst. Ravi's freshman roommate Tyler Clementi committed suicide days later.
"I do not believe he hated Tyler Clementi," Judge Glenn Berman told the court. "He had no reason to, but I do believe he acted out of colossal insensitivity."
Ravi must report to Middlesex Adult Correctional Center on May 31 at 9 a.m. for his probationary sentence.
"I heard this jury say, 'guilty' 288 times--24 questions, 12 jurors. That's the multiplication," Berman said. "I haven't heard you apologize once."...
Rutgers webcam case: Victim's family wants prison for Dharun Ravi
By Tina Susman
May 21, 2012
...A jury last March found Ravi, who is now 20, guilty of invasion of privacy and a host of other crimes, including hate crimes, which could bring at least 10 years in prison. Ravi denied wrongdoing and denied allegations he was motivated by anti-gay attitudes toward Clementi.
“I believe Mr. Ravi exploited my budding … relationship with Tyler Clementi in his vain attempt to gain attention and popularity with others,” M.B.’s statement, read by attorney Richard Pompelio, said in part. M.B. wrote that he was “devastated” to learn he had been “placed under a microscope for the sole amusement of Mr. Ravi and his friends,” and that his emotions had not lessened. In fact, he said, they had only intensified.
“I just wanted him to acknowledge that he had done wrong and take responsibility for his conduct,” M.B. said in asking for Ravi to be sentenced to some prison time. He did not specify how much time Ravi should receive. Neither did Clementi's family members.
The statement was one of several made to Judge Glenn Berman in the run-up to the sentencing. After M.B.’s statement, Clementi’s father, Joseph, spoke, as did Clementi’s brother, James, and his mother, Jane, who said Ravi had given her son the cold shoulder from the moment the two young men had met at the start of classes in the fall of 2010.
Joseph Clementi accused Ravi of acting “without a thought” of how his actions might affect his son or his son’s date when he set up the secret video cam. “And he did it in a cold and calculating manner and then he tried to cover it up,” said Clementi, who at one point seemed about to break down but who kept on speaking after briefly halting.
“Mr. Ravi still does not get it, he has no remorse, and he has said he was genuinely surprised that a jury could find him guilty,” Clementi said before his surviving son, James, delivered another impassioned statement tinged with bitterness toward Ravi.
“My family has never heard an apology…the behavior I saw in the courtroom…suggests a complete lack of concern for my brother or the pain inflicted on him,” said James Clementi. “I watched as Dharun slept through court as if it were not something worth staying awake for,” he said of the trial, which ended with the guilty verdicts in March.
“Through it all, I bit my tongue.” But James Clementi added that his brother’s “fate was sealed” from the moment a computer randomly assigned him to share a room with Ravi. “He could never have known the viper’s nest he was walking into,” he said...
Guilty verdict in Rutgers webcam spying case
By David Ariosto
CNN
March 17, 2012
...His roommate, Tyler Clementi, killed himself in 2010 after learning of webcam spying
Ravi was not charged directly with Clementi's death
A former Rutgers University student accused of spying on and intimidating his gay roommate by use of a hidden webcam was found guilty Friday of all counts -- including invasion of privacy and the more severe charges of bias intimidation -- in a case that thrust cyberbullying into the national spotlight.
Dharun Ravi, 20, was also found guilty of witness tampering, hindering apprehension and tampering with physical evidence, and could now face up to 10 years in jail and deportation to his native India.
And, of course, witness tampering is very common in schools. I saw it firsthand in Chula Vista Elementary School District. Administrators do it as a matter of course. It's appropriate that there should be some punishment for a crime that undermines our justice system.
Rutgers Trial: Dharun Ravi Sentenced to 30 Days in Jail
By MICHAEL KOENIGS, CANDACE SMITH and CHRISTINA NG
NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J.
ABC News May 21, 2012
Former Rutgers student Dharun Ravi was sentenced to 30 days in jail by a New Jersey judge today for spying on his roommate's gay tryst. Ravi's freshman roommate Tyler Clementi committed suicide days later.
"I do not believe he hated Tyler Clementi," Judge Glenn Berman told the court. "He had no reason to, but I do believe he acted out of colossal insensitivity."
Ravi must report to Middlesex Adult Correctional Center on May 31 at 9 a.m. for his probationary sentence.
"I heard this jury say, 'guilty' 288 times--24 questions, 12 jurors. That's the multiplication," Berman said. "I haven't heard you apologize once."...
Rutgers webcam case: Victim's family wants prison for Dharun Ravi
By Tina Susman
May 21, 2012
...A jury last March found Ravi, who is now 20, guilty of invasion of privacy and a host of other crimes, including hate crimes, which could bring at least 10 years in prison. Ravi denied wrongdoing and denied allegations he was motivated by anti-gay attitudes toward Clementi.
“I believe Mr. Ravi exploited my budding … relationship with Tyler Clementi in his vain attempt to gain attention and popularity with others,” M.B.’s statement, read by attorney Richard Pompelio, said in part. M.B. wrote that he was “devastated” to learn he had been “placed under a microscope for the sole amusement of Mr. Ravi and his friends,” and that his emotions had not lessened. In fact, he said, they had only intensified.
“I just wanted him to acknowledge that he had done wrong and take responsibility for his conduct,” M.B. said in asking for Ravi to be sentenced to some prison time. He did not specify how much time Ravi should receive. Neither did Clementi's family members.
The statement was one of several made to Judge Glenn Berman in the run-up to the sentencing. After M.B.’s statement, Clementi’s father, Joseph, spoke, as did Clementi’s brother, James, and his mother, Jane, who said Ravi had given her son the cold shoulder from the moment the two young men had met at the start of classes in the fall of 2010.
Joseph Clementi accused Ravi of acting “without a thought” of how his actions might affect his son or his son’s date when he set up the secret video cam. “And he did it in a cold and calculating manner and then he tried to cover it up,” said Clementi, who at one point seemed about to break down but who kept on speaking after briefly halting.
“Mr. Ravi still does not get it, he has no remorse, and he has said he was genuinely surprised that a jury could find him guilty,” Clementi said before his surviving son, James, delivered another impassioned statement tinged with bitterness toward Ravi.
“My family has never heard an apology…the behavior I saw in the courtroom…suggests a complete lack of concern for my brother or the pain inflicted on him,” said James Clementi. “I watched as Dharun slept through court as if it were not something worth staying awake for,” he said of the trial, which ended with the guilty verdicts in March.
“Through it all, I bit my tongue.” But James Clementi added that his brother’s “fate was sealed” from the moment a computer randomly assigned him to share a room with Ravi. “He could never have known the viper’s nest he was walking into,” he said...
Guilty verdict in Rutgers webcam spying case
By David Ariosto
CNN
March 17, 2012
...His roommate, Tyler Clementi, killed himself in 2010 after learning of webcam spying
Ravi was not charged directly with Clementi's death
A former Rutgers University student accused of spying on and intimidating his gay roommate by use of a hidden webcam was found guilty Friday of all counts -- including invasion of privacy and the more severe charges of bias intimidation -- in a case that thrust cyberbullying into the national spotlight.
Dharun Ravi, 20, was also found guilty of witness tampering, hindering apprehension and tampering with physical evidence, and could now face up to 10 years in jail and deportation to his native India.
Thursday, May 10, 2012
Does it matter if Mitt Romney was a bully in high school?
See all posts on bullying.
The important question is whether Mitt Romney's character has changed since his high school bullying days. Obviously, he has learned to restrain his urges, if they still exist, toward physical aggression in public. But does he still have the urge to force others to think like him? To make them suffer for being different? And is he telling the truth when he says he does not remember the incident, to which other participants have confessed? (See second story below.)
Does it matter if Mitt Romney was a bully in high school?
When Mitt Romney was a senior at suburban Detroit’s Cranbrook school, he led a 'posse' that forcibly cut the long blond hair of a nonconformist junior, according to a Washington Post report.
By Peter Grier
Christian Science Monitor
May 10, 2012
Does it matter if Mitt Romney misbehaved in high school? That question arises due to a report in Thursday’s Washington Post that when he was a senior at suburban Detroit’s Cranbrook school, the presumptive GOP presidential nominee led a “posse” that held down and forcibly cut the long blond hair of a nonconformist junior.
In this video, Romney apologizes for any pranks he may have pulled in high school that hurt or offended his fellows. “He can’t look like that. That’s wrong. Just look at him!” an incensed Mitt said at the time, according to fellow student Matthew Friedemann, quoted in the Post.
Mr. Romney himself said Thursday that he cannot remember the incident. The longhaired student in question, John Lauber, is now deceased. But Romney gave some legs to the story by apologizing repeatedly for any pranks he may have pulled in high school that hurt or offended his fellows.
“As to pranks that were played back then, I don’t remember them all. But again, high school days – if I did stupid things, I’m afraid I've got to say sorry for it,” said Romney in an interview on Fox News Radio.
Romney’s opponents say they are torn by the relevance of an alleged incident that would have occurred some 50 years ago. But they forge ahead nonetheless, saying that if true, the forcible haircut could provide some insight into the character of a man who wants to sit in the Oval Office.
“Romney was 18 – old enough to vote, old enough to serve in the military, and old enough to know not to attack a vulnerable teenager unprovoked...
Here's a quote from the Washington Post story:
"The incident was recalled similarly by five students, who gave their accounts independently of one another. Four of them — Friedemann, now a dentist; Phillip Maxwell, a lawyer; Thomas Buford, a retired prosecutor; and David Seed, a retired principal — spoke on the record. Another former student who witnessed the incident asked not to be identified...“It happened very quickly, and to this day it troubles me,” said Buford, the school’s wrestling champion, who said he joined Romney in restraining Lauber...“It was a hack job,” recalled Maxwell, a childhood friend of Romney who was in the dorm room when the incident occurred. “It was vicious.” “He was just easy pickin’s,” said Friedemann, then the student prefect, or student authority leader of Stevens Hall, expressing remorse about his failure to stop it...Friedemann, guilt ridden, made a point of not talking about it with his friend and waited to see what form of discipline would befall Romney at the famously strict institution. Nothing happened."
Mitt Romney forced to apologise after he 'mocked and assaulted' high school classmate who was 'presumed gay'
By DANIEL BATES
Daily Mail
10 May 2012
Mitt Romney has been forced to apologise for forcibly shaving the head of a high school classmate who was regularly taunted for being gay.
The Republican presidential candidate grabbed tearful John Lauber and hacked away with a pair of scissors because he thought his bleached blond hair was ‘wrong’.
Mr Romney also supposedly mocked another student who was a closeted gay by shouting ‘Atta girl!’ when he tried to speak in class.
The damaging claims come a day after Barack Obama said he was in favour of gay marriage.
Mr Romney has made it clear he opposes it but issued an apology for fear of being seen as homophobic.
He said: ‘Back in high school, you know, I did some dumb things. If anyone was hurt by that or offended by that, obviously I apologize.
‘But overall, high school years were a long time ago'.
Interviews with Mr Romney’s former classmates at the $54,000 a year Cranbrook School in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, reveal he was fond of jokes that were mostly good natured by sometimes had a hard edge.
After the shaving incident Mr Lauber ‘seemed to disappear’ from life in school and was later expelled for smoking and died in 2004 of liver cancer.
Torment: The Republican presidential hopeful was said to have taunted students who were known to be gay and those from poor backgrounds at the exclusive Cranbrook School in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan
Decades after it happened he ran into one of Romney’s friends who helped hold him down and told him: ‘It was horrible.
‘It’s something I have thought about a lot since then.’
The incident supposedly happened in the Summer term in 1965 when Mr Lauber, who was a year below Mr Romney, came back from Spring Break with his hair dyed blond and styled so it was draped over one eye.
According to the Washington Post Mr Romney would not let it go and told his friend Matthew Friedemann: ‘He can’t look like that. That’s wrong. Just look at him!’
A few days later Mr Romney assembled a posse which found Mr Lauber, tackled him to the floor and held him down whilst the future governor of Massachusetts snipped away.
When it was completed the crowd cheered Mr Romney as he walked out of the room.
The incident was recalled by five former Cranbrook pupils including Thomas Buford, a retired prosecutor, who helped hold Mr Lauber down.
He said: ‘It happened very quickly, and to this day it troubles me. ‘What a senseless, stupid, idiotic thing to do.’
Phillip Maxwell, who is now a lawyer, added: ‘It was a hack job. It was vicious.’
Mr Friedemann, who is now a dentist, also felt bad for not stopping it happening and admitted Mr Lauber was ‘easy pickins’.
Mr Romney’s time at Cranbrook is credited with shaping into the hard-working, driven man he is today. It was also the time in his life when sports and socialising governed his life more than at any other time. Friends recalled how he and his friends would be up all night larking around, the sound of his laughter filling the corridors at 2am.
In English class however things took a more sinister twist - Mr Romney had a habit of interrupting fellow pupil Gary Hummel, a closeted gay at the time, by shouting ‘Atta girl!’
According to the Washington Post he also behaved in a ‘sour’ fashion towards scholarship student Lou Vierling when he found he he was from a poor area of Detroit.
Mr Romney’s wife Ann has claimed that contrary to his public image as a ‘tin man’, as one friend has claimed, he is actually a ‘wild and crazy man’.
And details about his pranks have come to light before, notably in the biography, ‘The Real Romney’, by Boston Globe investigative reporters Michael Kranish and Scott Helman
The problem with the latest revelations however is that they suggest a cruelty which voters might find hard to stomach.
Romney’s most famous such incident is also his most controversial - when he strapped his dog to the top of his car whilst on a 12-hour drive from Massachusetts to Canada in 1983...
The important question is whether Mitt Romney's character has changed since his high school bullying days. Obviously, he has learned to restrain his urges, if they still exist, toward physical aggression in public. But does he still have the urge to force others to think like him? To make them suffer for being different? And is he telling the truth when he says he does not remember the incident, to which other participants have confessed? (See second story below.)
Does it matter if Mitt Romney was a bully in high school?
When Mitt Romney was a senior at suburban Detroit’s Cranbrook school, he led a 'posse' that forcibly cut the long blond hair of a nonconformist junior, according to a Washington Post report.
By Peter Grier
Christian Science Monitor
May 10, 2012
Does it matter if Mitt Romney misbehaved in high school? That question arises due to a report in Thursday’s Washington Post that when he was a senior at suburban Detroit’s Cranbrook school, the presumptive GOP presidential nominee led a “posse” that held down and forcibly cut the long blond hair of a nonconformist junior.
In this video, Romney apologizes for any pranks he may have pulled in high school that hurt or offended his fellows. “He can’t look like that. That’s wrong. Just look at him!” an incensed Mitt said at the time, according to fellow student Matthew Friedemann, quoted in the Post.
Mr. Romney himself said Thursday that he cannot remember the incident. The longhaired student in question, John Lauber, is now deceased. But Romney gave some legs to the story by apologizing repeatedly for any pranks he may have pulled in high school that hurt or offended his fellows.
“As to pranks that were played back then, I don’t remember them all. But again, high school days – if I did stupid things, I’m afraid I've got to say sorry for it,” said Romney in an interview on Fox News Radio.
Romney’s opponents say they are torn by the relevance of an alleged incident that would have occurred some 50 years ago. But they forge ahead nonetheless, saying that if true, the forcible haircut could provide some insight into the character of a man who wants to sit in the Oval Office.
“Romney was 18 – old enough to vote, old enough to serve in the military, and old enough to know not to attack a vulnerable teenager unprovoked...
Here's a quote from the Washington Post story:
"The incident was recalled similarly by five students, who gave their accounts independently of one another. Four of them — Friedemann, now a dentist; Phillip Maxwell, a lawyer; Thomas Buford, a retired prosecutor; and David Seed, a retired principal — spoke on the record. Another former student who witnessed the incident asked not to be identified...“It happened very quickly, and to this day it troubles me,” said Buford, the school’s wrestling champion, who said he joined Romney in restraining Lauber...“It was a hack job,” recalled Maxwell, a childhood friend of Romney who was in the dorm room when the incident occurred. “It was vicious.” “He was just easy pickin’s,” said Friedemann, then the student prefect, or student authority leader of Stevens Hall, expressing remorse about his failure to stop it...Friedemann, guilt ridden, made a point of not talking about it with his friend and waited to see what form of discipline would befall Romney at the famously strict institution. Nothing happened."
Mitt Romney forced to apologise after he 'mocked and assaulted' high school classmate who was 'presumed gay'
By DANIEL BATES
Daily Mail
10 May 2012
Mitt Romney has been forced to apologise for forcibly shaving the head of a high school classmate who was regularly taunted for being gay.
The Republican presidential candidate grabbed tearful John Lauber and hacked away with a pair of scissors because he thought his bleached blond hair was ‘wrong’.
Mr Romney also supposedly mocked another student who was a closeted gay by shouting ‘Atta girl!’ when he tried to speak in class.
The damaging claims come a day after Barack Obama said he was in favour of gay marriage.
Mr Romney has made it clear he opposes it but issued an apology for fear of being seen as homophobic.
He said: ‘Back in high school, you know, I did some dumb things. If anyone was hurt by that or offended by that, obviously I apologize.
‘But overall, high school years were a long time ago'.
Interviews with Mr Romney’s former classmates at the $54,000 a year Cranbrook School in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, reveal he was fond of jokes that were mostly good natured by sometimes had a hard edge.
After the shaving incident Mr Lauber ‘seemed to disappear’ from life in school and was later expelled for smoking and died in 2004 of liver cancer.
Torment: The Republican presidential hopeful was said to have taunted students who were known to be gay and those from poor backgrounds at the exclusive Cranbrook School in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan
Decades after it happened he ran into one of Romney’s friends who helped hold him down and told him: ‘It was horrible.
‘It’s something I have thought about a lot since then.’
The incident supposedly happened in the Summer term in 1965 when Mr Lauber, who was a year below Mr Romney, came back from Spring Break with his hair dyed blond and styled so it was draped over one eye.
According to the Washington Post Mr Romney would not let it go and told his friend Matthew Friedemann: ‘He can’t look like that. That’s wrong. Just look at him!’
A few days later Mr Romney assembled a posse which found Mr Lauber, tackled him to the floor and held him down whilst the future governor of Massachusetts snipped away.
When it was completed the crowd cheered Mr Romney as he walked out of the room.
The incident was recalled by five former Cranbrook pupils including Thomas Buford, a retired prosecutor, who helped hold Mr Lauber down.
He said: ‘It happened very quickly, and to this day it troubles me. ‘What a senseless, stupid, idiotic thing to do.’
Phillip Maxwell, who is now a lawyer, added: ‘It was a hack job. It was vicious.’
Mr Friedemann, who is now a dentist, also felt bad for not stopping it happening and admitted Mr Lauber was ‘easy pickins’.
Mr Romney’s time at Cranbrook is credited with shaping into the hard-working, driven man he is today. It was also the time in his life when sports and socialising governed his life more than at any other time. Friends recalled how he and his friends would be up all night larking around, the sound of his laughter filling the corridors at 2am.
In English class however things took a more sinister twist - Mr Romney had a habit of interrupting fellow pupil Gary Hummel, a closeted gay at the time, by shouting ‘Atta girl!’
According to the Washington Post he also behaved in a ‘sour’ fashion towards scholarship student Lou Vierling when he found he he was from a poor area of Detroit.
Mr Romney’s wife Ann has claimed that contrary to his public image as a ‘tin man’, as one friend has claimed, he is actually a ‘wild and crazy man’.
And details about his pranks have come to light before, notably in the biography, ‘The Real Romney’, by Boston Globe investigative reporters Michael Kranish and Scott Helman
The problem with the latest revelations however is that they suggest a cruelty which voters might find hard to stomach.
Romney’s most famous such incident is also his most controversial - when he strapped his dog to the top of his car whilst on a 12-hour drive from Massachusetts to Canada in 1983...
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