Some students on Bus No. 784 were calling her names on Monday. One said she looked like a troll. Another told her she didn’t have a family because they all committed suicide.
In the 10-minute video that has since gone viral with more than 1.5 million views (so far), upstate New York bus monitor Karen Klein, 68, takes the teasing and taunts sitting down and without raising her voice! Have a look at this video (and prepare to get angry) Inside!
And that took “a lot of will power,” the Greece Central School District employee told the Today show Thursday morning. “I’m not usually that calm.”
The group of unidentified middle school students who brought Klein to tears are under investigation, although disciplinary action will have to wait until September when school is back in session. (The school district didn’t name the students because they are juveniles.)
But some of those who have seen the video – and heard the hurtful words directed at the grandmother of eight and widow whose son committed suicide 10 years ago – have taken action in a different, more positive way.
An online fundraising effort to send Klein off on “a vacation of a lifetime” has long surpassed its $5,000 goal. As of Thursday morning, more than $260,000 (and counting) had been raised.
“I’m so amazed,” she said. “I’ve gotten the nicest letters, emails, Facebook messages. It’s like, wow – there’s a whole world out there I didn’t know.”
As for the students who bullied her, Klein, who worked as a bus driver for 20 years and has been a bus monitor for the past three, said she doesn’t want them to be punished. Instead, she hopes that parents see the videos, hear the words and talk to their kids.
As for those students’ parents, she has a message.
“I’m sorry that your sons acted the way they did,” she said. “I’m sure they don’t act that way at home, but you never know what they’re going to do when they’re out of the house.”
How would you have reacted in this situation? Did Karen do the right thing? Should there be charges (if they can be, given the age of the kids) laid?
And, what would you do/say to your kids, if they were one of the children on this video? What punishment would be fitting?
3 Comments User Comments
Add a commentRose
June 21, 2012
6:18 pm
WOW, how horrible. Parents of those kids must be sooooooo proud of their offspring. Parents must be just like their uninteligent children, who will amount to nothing but ill mannered models of themselves .
zorina Singh
June 21, 2012
8:38 pm
I am so angry. Where was the dam bus driver why he/she did not stop the bus and return it to the school and report them to the Principal. I brought up my children to respect young and old. The parents of these kids should be held accountable for their behaviour. These parents should be ashamed to raised such desrespectful children. I am totally levid at this point.
RainbowRay
June 22, 2012
11:15 am
Nothing surprises me anyway! Some kids today lack “respect and tolerance” which is sorely needed today. I also wonder what type of homes they come from (broken I would imagine). Anyone who says, it doesn’t start at home is either ignorant of the facts and how things are today or are just plain apathetic to what’s going on,
Where dysfunctional families are the norm, so are the attitudes they create with the parents which reflect on the children.
She’s a avery brave woman for enduring all that; especially with her past. I doubt these kids would have any compassion if they knew what she had been through. Respect, which starts with the parents at home is what its all about. I also hope the parents of these kids see this video and if they had half a mind, they would address the issue with their kids, if they care!
Here’s an idea, these kids are old enough for it! Why not try a little role play! Have those responsible all be gathered together somewhere (on a bus maybe) and see how they like a taste of their own medicine (s “shoe is on the other fooot lesson”). They are OLD ENOUGH and supposedly MATURE enough to learn! I would put them in a place where they could be “bullied for their bullying”, a taste of their own medicine and teaching them about tolerance. It wouldn’t take long before they would be in tears, trust me! To harsh you say? I don’t think so because they know what their doing and seem to be enjoying it and have no remorse.
A little dose of their own medicine (role play) maybe tough medicine, but after 5 minutes “bullying (through role play)” about bullying, I think they would think twice and I think it’s a creative way to teach them about respect and tolerance because they get to feel what that lady felt and I think they need to that to learn something. How do these guys learn anything if they don’t learn the perspective of how that woman feels!
After the excersise I would ask them, “so tell me, how do you feel!?” I bet they’d feel like shit! Then I would remind them “how do you think the woman felt, she felt how you’re feeling now!”. Lesson learned!
LOVE
RainbowRay