Karen Klein, a bus monitor in Greece, NY, was bullied by four middle school boys on her bus route.
Another student recorded the bullying with his cell phone (a ten minute video) after he was fed up with the daily abuse that Karen underwent.
The four boys said terrible things to Klein (a 68-year-old grandmother of eight) such as, “You’re so fat… Look at her jiggle… You take up the whole seat.”
Robert Helm, father of one of the school bus bullies, told Inside Edition,
“It was very hard to watch that and even tougher as a father to see your child treat someone like that. It broke my heart.”
Helm went on to say about his son,
“It’s not just going to stop at ‘You’re grounded, you don’t get TV.’ This is much bigger than that. This is something for a professional to interview Weslie and find out what the underlining problem is. I said ‘If this was your mother or your grandmother how would you feel?’ He’s very remorseful.”
A Toronto man began a fundraiser for Karen to send her on vacation. Expecting to raise $5,000, his site has now raised over $350,000. This just proves, sometimes the internet is awesome. Karen told ABC News she would like to take an RV across America on her vacation.
Karen will not be pressing charges against the boys.
As a parent, I will be showing this video to my nine-year-old son. I believe it’s important to teach respect and empathy. And sometimes, the best way to do that – is to show them how not to behave.
What about you? Will you share the video with your children?
I read that Southwest Airlines is flying her to Disneyland. That poor woman, my heart breaks for her. I’m really glad to read that one of the father’s is taking this very, very seriously. I don’t have kids but you had better believe when I do, this kind of behavior will be completely, 100% unacceptable.
I cried reading this, I cried watching this. I can’t really put into words how much I know exactly what that woman was feeling, and as hard as it was for ME to go through bullying, it’s harder imagining her going through it.
The lack of empathy and compassion kids have astounds me, and to say it’s just kids today is a LIE. For many of us, it’s been like this for years, we’re just talking about it a little louder now.
Yes, this is exactly my response as well.
What’s worse to me is that her supervisors, the principal, the bus department manager, didn’t stop it. I don’t know if she had told anyone or not, but no one deserves to be treated like this. Ever.
I watched 48 seconds and I was done. It just made me sick to listen to those kids treat that lady like that. Does make me feel better that one of the fathers is taking this abuse VERY seriously. I think that is a valuable video for kids who are old enough to watch and see that this is NOT how we treat people.
Southwest is flying her round-trip to Disneyland, and Disney is picking up the rest of that vacation. The total raised on the website is nearing $500K as I type this, with the focus changing from a vacation to allowing this wonderful woman to retire.
http://www.indiegogo.com/loveforkarenhklein
I cannot watch this video but have heard about it and what makes this story so uplifting, despite the horrible bullying, is that so many Americans rallied around this woman. That says a lot about who we are as a society, in a good way. Bullying is a huge problem at all levels, though and this is just one more example of that — this time directed t an adult. Kids can get out of control and I was pleased to hear this father take responsibility over this and admit his child needs some help. Most parents would just use the B.S. “kids will be kids” argument.
I can’t watch this video. It will break my heart. My kids will never see the light of day if they EVER treat anyone that way. So sad.
This makes me unbelievably sick and angry. I hope to never see my child treat someone in this way. My heart breaks for her. Outrageous!
This was horrible! It breaks my heart! But I am so happy that the parent is taking it seriously instead of blowing it off… I’ve seen it happen…
If my kids were older I would show it to them. I can’t believe this happened and it sounds like it was an every day thing. Why didn’t no one stop it before this. I would be so angry if it was my kids.
I couldn’t even watch that video. Whenever I see an elderly person, I immediately think of my grandparents, and just the thought of them can often bring me tears. To think of someone treating my grandmother like this makes me sick.
I think though, if I had children, I would make them watch it. Kids need to understand that words hurt more than a physical wounds. Physical wounds heal. Hateful comments stay with you forever.
I’m very glad to see that one father is taking this very seriously. It’s very easy to see something like this and blame the parents. How could they raise such malicious children?? And sometimes that’s true. But other times, the parents have tried to raise their children with respect, but their kids are just brats anyway. My mom was a teacher for 40 years. At the end of her career, she confessed that she just couldn’t take the kids anymore. Each year, she noticed that they were becoming more and more disrespectful. Less willing to accept the consequences for their actions. Thinking the rules didn’t apply to them.
I think this is a symptom of a larger problem in our society. We have become a “me” society. Selfish. Less concerned about others. A society that rewards bad behavior. I mourn the loss of the society I grew up in. Where I learned by example. Watching my parents and grandparents treat others with kindness, courtesy and respect. We need to teach our children not only those values, but also that a a kind word to someone will make you feel better about yourself than tearing them down will.
Were I to have said even one of those sentences to a senior citizen as a child, boy, I can’t imagine the service hours that I would have pulled attempting to apologize. Poor Karen should never have to take her trash to the curb or pay someone to have her lawn mowed again. The pack mentality starts early and can be scary (and unnecessary in our alleged evolved society). However, a senior citizen isn’t threatening the resources of these young people, she’s just the one that’s weak. I hope these boys have to show this video to every Friday night date, to the coach before baseball tryouts, and to the store clerk that unlocks the video game case at Target.
This is the worst behavior I have seen in sometime….I’d like to slap the crap out of those kids. Nasty little jerks they are….I just pray I don’t raise little snots like these.
As a bus monitor and a para educator, I would just like to state that behavior like this happens regularly. The problem is that the back up of our school districts is poor due to state regulations. The world has changed in that you can no longer disipline students for their actions. The schools will give them a hand slap and they are still riding the bus the following day. It shows the other students that it is o.k. to act like a jerk because nothing happens. It is very insulting to the bus driver and monitor. It is time for a change and I for one am glad this has come to light. I would just like to add that nobody seems to realize that there are other students on this bus having to listen to all of this. Is your child the one listening or the one absorbing?
Thank you for commenting!
i’m disgusted.
i couldn’t watch the video..i cried reading this.
why the F didn’t the bus driver do anything? i just…i just don’t understand. kids are really this cruel? sad. so sad.
The bus driver has as much power as the bus monitor. Which is none. As someone else said, all they can really do is report it to the school administrators and hope the kids get kicked off the bus for a few days. And if that woman was not on the bus, I guarantee you, those kids would be taunting the bus driver just as horribly.
I live in the town over from the school so the news coverage has been extensive about this womans ordeal.
The monitor was in the back seat, so the bus driver didn’t know it was happening.
I don’t understand this. When I was a kid riding the bus, I remember kids being made to get off the bus for bad behavior, whether it was their stop or not. And then not being allowed to ride the bus for some time after. And when they were removed for bad behavior, it didn’t end up on the news or in a court room with some indignant parent whining about how the school is mistreating their child. Even now, where I live, kids may not be removed on the spot, but they still lose their privilege of riding the bus for bad behavior. Continue to take the use of discipline and punishment away from our educators and this behavior WILL get worse. Children have to be taught respect and manners. For some, it is only learned through a few swats on the backside. For others, simply the threat of swats will do it. But we have taken all authority from our teachers and then sit and wonder why we have alk the problems in our schools now.
Kids can be very cruel, but this is a parenting fail to some extent. Kids aren’t taught to respect other people (especially adults) any more. I talk to my daughter EVERY DAY about how important it is to be kind to people. I am not under the illusion that she will never say a mean thing, but, hopefully she’ll at least stop to think about what’s coming out of her mouth. If this was a school bus, it’s too bad the driver didn’t step in and do something because it appears that this is something that happened daily. If I were to EVER hear my kid speak that way to an adult, she’d better learn to love the taste of soap. If that kind of filth is coming out of their mouths – clean it up!!
That’s disgusting. Truly repulsive. I would lose my mind if Emmett ever spoke to another human this way.
I couldn’t watch more than a minute of the video – it was a trigger for me.
I am so glad that Karma is working in Karen’s favor and others are being so generous and kind. It’s sad that this behavior is the norm rather than rare……this has got to stop.
I’m sad she didnt press charges. Put the fear of God into those boys. Make them do community service. I feel for the parent who’s taking it seriously. He must be humiliated. And I’m sure it’s easy to blame the parent, but middle school peer pressure is awful. What a terrible situation all around.
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