Dad Devises Best Punishment When Daughter Is Suspended from Bus

If you’ve ever been bullied in school when you were a kid, you know how humiliating it can be. If you were the one bullying, you likely look back on it now thinking, “Why didn’t someone stop me?”

What’s the punishment for getting kicked off the bus?

When a 10-year-old Ohio girl was suspended from riding the bus because of her bullying another student, her father decided to take serious action. According to him, this was the second incident and he decided enough was enough. He made his daughter walk to school — a distance of just over five miles.

But Dad decided to take things a step further. He chose to record his daughter walking to school and then posted it on Facebook for everyone to see. The video went viral and before too long, people began with the criticism. People said making his daughter walk to school was one thing, but that humiliating her by putting it on social media went too far.

Public shaming works in correcting behavior.

It’s stunning as a society that we’ve become nervous about the idea of publicly shaming people — even if it’s a 10-year-old girl. Why? There’s a number of different things the man could have done. Most other parents might have grumbled, grounded the girl for a week, not let her watch TV or play on a computer. But what lesson would that have taught? It sends the signal that punishment will be light and if losing TV for a week allows someone to bully others, they might agree it’s not that big of a deal.

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But in this case, the father wanted to make clear that the distance they live from the school necessitates taking the bus. And as he said, it’s a privilege, not a right. Getting kicked off the bus was a punishment for her father who had to take time out of his day to drive her to school.

The combination of having to walk 5 miles and knowing thousands of people saw it on Facebook, is the best antidote she could have received to make sure she doesn’t do it again.