World News for Students of English

25-04-2014 07:00

A 62-year-old man in Ohio got a bit of an unusual sentence from a judge after he was forced to hold a sign in public saying “I’m a bully”.

Edmond Aviv was told to wear the sign on a busy intersection as part of his punishment for harassing a neighbour and his family over a period of 15 years.

Aviv bullied his neighbour Sandra Prugh and picked on her husband, who suffers from dementia, and her seven children, several of whom have disabilities and use wheelchairs.

He’s accused of spitting on her, smearing dog faeces on their wheelchair ramp and shining spotlights through the family’s windows at night.

“You wonder every time you walk outside, you turn to your left to see if your neighbour’s there spitting, yelling, screaming at you and you don’t know why.”

The judge also sentenced Aviv to 15 days in jail, 100 hours of community service and anger management classes.

“I would hope that what’s been achieved here is finally the modicum of justice that they had been hoping for for quite some time.”

Difficult words: bully (somebody who hurts somebody who’s weaker), harass (to make somebody’s life unpleasant), pick on (to behave in an unfair way to somebody), dementia (illness that affects the brain and memory), smear (to spread something), faeces (poop), modicum (small amount of something).

Source: www.itn.co.uk