Defenseless

What would you do?
I'm really asking here.  What would you do if you witnessed disgusting behavior from an adult?

Today I went to watch the four and five year old kids sing at a senior living center.  I witnessed reprehensible behavior, not from our students, but from parents.  There were two particular mothers who stood, not around the perimeter of the room, so that the seniors could see the children.  They stood in the center of the room blocking two different tables of seniors with limited mobility so that they could get the best possible photos of their children.  WE WERE NOT THE AUDIENCE!  The senior citizens were the audience.  But it didn't occur to these two women.  They had to be close enough to see their kids, no matter the cost to the little people.

Then during a ballad these two mothers burst out in laughter and started pointing at a woman who was obviously altered.  She was asleep sitting up and the sleeping position was unflattering.  Her mouth was open and it was not her best and most flattering look.  One woman began to take pictures using her flash.  She made it look like she was taking photos of the kids but from my vantage point, I could see that she was taking photos that included this woman.  Never mind that the flash was going off in this poor woman's face each time.  It made my stomach boil.

I tried to refocus on the reason I was there.  Lucy was watching me and I tried to focus on her.  This woman was directly in my line of sight and each time I tried to take a picture of my girl, she was leaning in to take a picture of her son and was in my shot because she was in the middle of the room.

Later as we were assembling the kids to leave, I watched from nearby while she assembled a photo collage.  In the photo collage were Mayo kids, clearly identified by their patches, a close up of her son, and a photo that clearly shows the woman with her mouth agape that she could have easily cropped out but instead zoomed in on.  She saved it into a square format and I can't be 100% sure if she was saving it or uploading it but I saw the circle going round of the photo rendering in someway.  It was either being uploaded or saved for future use.  (why on earth would you collage and edit if you weren't going to post)  I don't know on the type of phone she was on what the icons mean but it sure looked like she was uploading. 

I hate myself for not taking her phone away from her.  I will never forgive myself.  I thought through what that would look like with all the children around us and what an impression that would make inside the nursing home.  Another mom approached the two mothers and the one who did not take the pictures said "Show her that picture of that lady!"  And then they all three had a good laugh.  At that point I walked out with tears in my eyes and waited.  I waited by the door for her to exit but she must have gone out a different door, because she never came out.  I waited for 15 minutes and then went back inside and she was gone.

I drove to the school and told the principal.  The district is looking into how they can handle this.  What, if any, recourse they have against a parent with no moral compass and poor judgement who has made the school look bad.

I personally want to humiliate her by naming her publicly.  I want her to be ostracized by the community at large.  I want her and her friend who laughed at the defenseless woman to be so ashamed that they decide to leave Mayo. 

I carry my own shame for not stopping her and I will have to live with that.  May she live a long life at the end of which she finds herself in a center, defenseless, wishing for the respect that she did not give this woman today.  Karma is a bitch.

What would you do if you were me?