News

Jun 22, 2012

Regarding the video that shows middle school students verbally bullying a 68-year-old school bus monitor, calling her names and using profanities, people are wondering what's happened to today's youth.

The ten-minute YouTube video of the incident involving Karen Klein, which has now been viewed more than 1.5 million times, is leaving the public appalled (earlier story contains video). Karen Gushta of Truth in Action Ministries believes this cultural demise began when prayer was taken out of public schools. (See related commentary)

"Since that time, the character of our children has gone into a downward spiral," she laments, "and that's why I view this as just one of many, many examples that could be multiplied all across the country."

Dr. Karen Gushta (Coral Ridge Ministries)And Gushta has little hope of that turning around without the return of moral training in classrooms.

"Unless we return to the moral standards of God's Word, of his laws, of the Ten Commandments -- unless we return those to our public schools, we're just going to continue to see more and more of this kind of behavior," she asserts. "And the prospect of that should truly frighten us all."

Since the YouTube video went viral, there has been an outpouring of sympathy for Klein, and almost half a million dollars has been donated to a "vacation" fund for her. The bus monitor currently has no plans of pressing charges against the boys seen taunting her. She feels the school board and the parents are doing a good job of handling the situation.

Truth in Action's mission is to reform cultures through introducing people to Christ and nurturing and encouraging Christians.

In a related OneNewsNow poll, almost 70 percent of the 5,300 respondents feel the type of disrespectful behavior exhibited by the students in this incident can be attributed directly to "deterioration of the traditional family."