A YouTube video (warning: the language is laced with expletives) showing a group of New York middle schoolers taunting an elderly bus monitor was nearing 7,000,000 views on Monday after it was posted on June 19.
The kids in the video use harsh language, at one point even telling the 68-year-old widow, "You don't have a family because they all killed themselves because they don't want to be near you."
As the YouTube views have shot up, so too have donations in support of Karen Klein, who, throughout the whole ordeal, did not show any emotion apart from holding back a few tears.
As of Monday morning, almost 30,000 funders had donated $644,674 to an online account with the description, "Let's give her something she will never forget, a vacation of a lifetime!"
Some of the comments left on the fundraising website:
- Norm: My contribution is my vote against bullying. A fine example of grace under pressure by Karen.
- Benjamin: Heart goes out to you. I wish I was on that bus, I’d have put them kids in their place.
- Lindsay: Kids can be cruel. Your story moved us in Kitchener, ON, Canada
Does this kind of taunting happen every day, or is it an isolated incident? Take our poll and tell us in the comments.
of course these brats would do their best (worst?) and say anything that would get the 'end viewer incensed', much like the national stooge shows. (try Jerry Springer for one) there's plenty of incentive for these impressionable 'kids' to do these things, 'fame and fortune' on the net (at least 15 minutes worth?) and local recognition. well, they got it, fair and square, it's not pretty, but we sure all know them now. much like the increased skin exposure, crotch grabs and breast exposures (wardrobe malfunction??, MY EYE!) done by the very people at the 'top of the charts'. ' who do you think they're fooling? perhaps the millions of americans that seem to slurp this junk up like it was likkqidd cocaine, for a short high and a sick social kick!
“Our youth now love luxury. They have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for their elders and love chatter in place of exercise; they no longer rise when elders enter the room; they contradict their parents, chatter before company; gobble up their food and tyrannize their teachers.” ― usually attributed to Socrates
I'm sorry that this happened to this woman and I hope that more parent's sit up and take notice. I do my best to teach my boys respect for their fellow humans. Whether that means minding their p's and q's or just not saying things that are hurtful, such as stupid or loser, I want my legacy to be leaving a better world through my children and their children.
with no capacity to either intervene or even verbally chastise these incorrigible's, they would just see you as an interloper in their normal every day bus ride fracas. essentially, you would become just another target for their errant activity. 'reporting' what you had seen would mark you as a sure focus of targeting as they would consider you a 'snitch, rat,or other' impediment to their abuses. some are indeed psychologically unstable, and border on criminal even at age 6, but is always dismissed as 'their not fully formed yet' ?? it is incredible, the excuses adults will use to tacitly approve this behavior, while abrogating their own responsibilities by 'handing the problem off' to someone else! the kids know what bunch of spineless WOOSIE'S most parents/administrators (adminis-traitors?) now are! ;-))
Assume there were about thirty kids on the bus. Four were doing the taunting. If these other 26 kids are so respectful to adults, why didn't they intervene. They were all complicit.
I went to school in the 50s and early 60s. All of our male teachers were either World War II or Korean veterans. They all knew our fathers because every Friday night, the men would go to the Italian American Vets Club or the Polish Vets Club or the Franco American Vets Club or the Albanian Vets Club and on and on. If we screwed up in school and one of our teachers told our fathers at the club, physical repurcussions were guaranteed. And, it most certainly did not exacerbate the situation. My relations with my school teachers was about 75 percent respect and 25 percent fear. That's how it should be.