Four middle school students in the Rochester, N.Y., suburb of Greece are being punished for mercilessly taunting a 68-year-old school bus monitor — taunting captured in a student’s 10-minute cell phone video.

The four seventh-grade students have received a one-year suspension from school as well as a one-year suspension from using regular bus transportation.

Because their school system is legally required to give them an education, they’ll be transferred to a special alternative education program, and each will be required to complete 50 hours of community service working with senior citizens.

After viewing the video on YouTube, there probably are millions of Americans — and millions of others around the world — who regard their punishment as a slap on the wrist.

But it — and the attention the incident has gotten — should be enough to make the students grow up to some degree.

Indeed, they should consider themselves lucky and should have compassion as they learn about some of the challenges that the elderly face.

But by Grade 7, they should already have witnessed enough in their lives, including with grandparents and others with whom they came into contact, to realize what they were doing was terribly wrong.

What happened in the New York community should cause school systems across the nation — many of which take a hard stand against students bullying other students — to reflect on students’ school bus conduct in general and respect for the adults who have the responsibility of transporting them to and from school each day.

No one should have to experience the kind of taunting that the New York woman experienced; no bus driver should be subjected to any form of verbal abuse that might divert his or her attention from the road or getting students on or off the bus.

The safety factor is common sense, and parents should make sure their children know the possible consequences of unruly or disrespectful conduct while being bused.

Unfortunately, some parents have the attitude that when their children leave for school, their conduct is someone else’s problem.

It seems clear that, prior to the taunting that was recorded in Greece, those in charge of Greece’s school system were out of the loop in terms of what was occurring on the bus in question and possibly on other buses. It’s doubtful that they’ll allow themselves to be out of the loop in the future.

It’s important that school systems in Butler County and across the country beef up any weak standards of reporting unacceptable student conduct on buses. Meanwhile, bus drivers and bus monitors must be assured that conduct problems won’t be ignored.

The New York bus monitor was subjected to profanity, insults and threats — what no adult should have to endure from a young person under any normal circumstances.

If the four seventh-graders’ parents are mature, respectful and right-thinking adults, the official punishment that the boys will be receiving should be accompanied by some serious at-home restrictions and consequences.

That student who captured the goings-on on that school bus performed a positive service whose impact will be felt far beyond the Rochester suburb.