In the not-so-long-ago old days, the grownups would have handled this differently. The woman on the bike would have stopped, ripped the foul-mouthed lout a new one in front of his peers and then told him she was headed to the school to report his behavior. The principal would have repeated the message as soon as possible in front of his parents with the warning that if it happened again, he'd be gone from school for a week. In the meantime, he's going to apologize to the younger kids and their parents, and his running buddies are, too. If anyone complains, the suspension begins immediately. Zero tolerance, instant accountability.

Instead, an immature, wise-cracking brat picking on the weakest prey in the middle-school herd -- hey, mom and dad, nice job -- gets an object lesson in modern-day butt-covering from every adult around him. The language he used wasn't the issue until the real cowards got involved.