School Bus

Other famous Laker first steps through the years.... There was, of course, a seismic event long before Dwight Howard arrived, a time so long ago that the Lakers were still playing at the Forum. That would be Shaquille O'Neal's first game in Los Angeles. Oct. 18, 1996. Incredibly, he hit his first two free throws in that exhibition game. Wrote Times columnist Bill Plaschke: "For those who want to save themselves this trip in the future, here is how O'Neal looks in a Laker uniform: "Like a school bus. "But that rare school bus with a sense of humor.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - On city streets, on the airwaves and in the newspapers of a country numbed by years of bombings and assassinations, outrage against the Taliban is suddenly reaching a zenith. A 14-year-old girl lies critically wounded because she was bold enough to publicly demand an education. It's a moment Pakistan's civilian and military leadership could channel into an all-out campaign against Islamic militants. Can they seize the moment? Probably not. Experts say there are too many obstacles.

Violence aboard buses is in the news, with two separate incidents that were caught on video going viral online. And, demonstrating the power of even snippets of video, both cases have ended with someone out of a job. In a Sept. 18 incident aboard a Cleveland bus, the driver -- reportedly a longtime employee of the transit agency -- is shown delivering a stunning uppercut to a woman with whom he has exchanged heated words. (Warning: The video includes profanity.) He then physically tosses the woman from the bus, throwing her belongings out after her.  The woman reboards, they continue scuffling, with the driver at one point grabbing her by the hair as passengers intervene.

It's appalling enough that 14-year-old Malala Yousafzai, who publicly championed the cause of education for girls in Pakistan, was shot in the head and neck and critically injured by gunmen who boarded her school bus in the Swat Valley. Even more horrendous is that a Taliban spokesman declared that she had been singled out for attack because of her support of girls' education in defiance of Taliban edict. "Let this be a lesson," the spokesman told the New York Times. We hope it will be a lesson - that such violence is barbaric and counterproductive.

The accident that claimed 13-year-old Julia Cukier Siegler happened fast, and it replays on an infinite loop in her mother's mind. "Julia was pressing the button, waiting," said Jody Cukier Siegler. "I could see her blond hair dancing between the branches of the eucalyptus tree. The bus driver motioned. I see the blond hair leave the branches. The bus goes through the light, and I hear Julia being hit. " About 7:20 a.m. on Feb. 26, 2010, the Harvard-Westlake Middle School eighth-grader stepped into the crosswalk on Sunset Boulevard at Cliffwood Avenue, against a red light, to catch her eastbound school bus. The side mirror of a passing SUV clipped her, spinning her to the ground.

Federal officials said on Friday that they will work with local authorities to see if there are safety implications in the Illinois bus crash that killed one and injured at least 38 passengers. On Thursday, a double-decker Megabus hit an overpass support on Interstate 55, near Litchfield, Ill., about 55 miles from St. Louis. Officials are investigating the cause of the crash, though a blown tire is suspected. “The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is aware of the incident and will work with local authorities who are investigating the crash to determine if there are safety implications that merit agency action,” the agency said in an e-mail to reporters.

The bullied school bus monitor is headed for retirement with a nicely feathered nest -- thanks to the kindness of strangers. Karen Klein, the 68-year-old grandmother and school bus monitor who was mercilessly bullied in an incident captured on video earlier this summer, is calling it quits. Klein's harassment garnered attention around the globe, giving many people a front-row seat to what it's like to be bullied. The video went viral online and triggered an outpouring of support.

A video of New York schoolboys taunting a 68-year-old school bus monitor has gone viral, watched more than 1.65 million times since it was posted online Tuesday. It's led many people to decry a new low in an increasingly coarse culture and to ask: What's wrong with our children? Social media is driving an effort to try to help the monitor, Karen Klein. More than $278,000 --  and counting -- has been raised. The money is ostensibly a “vacation” fund for Klein, but it's turning into a financial indicator of the public's outrage over the boys' bullying behavior and a way to collectively apologize to Klein.

The New York middle school students caught on video taunting and mocking a 68-year-old school bus monitor don't deserve to be punished, says parenting expert Jane Nelson. Everyone else in America might be calling for harsh, swift justice to be meted out by both the Greece Central School District and the parents of the kids involved. But not Nelson. Co-author of two dozen parenting books including the "Positive Discipline" series, Nelson says the traditional means of punishment -- yelling, shaming, hitting, grounding, etc. -- are counterproductive.

A diverse group of Reddit fans, Twitter users, Facebookers and just plain emailers banded together Wednesday to raise more than $60,000 to send a beleaguered school bus monitor on vacation. The story unfolded when Max Sidorov, a recent college graduate in Toronto, came across video of Karen Klein, a 68-year-old bus monitor at a middle school in upstate New York, being tormented by a pack of boys who appear to be 12 or 13. The video, which one of the boys posted to Facebook, goes on for an excruciating 10 minutes with the kids calling Klein fat and poor.