I can’t believe the rhetoric I have read about the money Karen Klein is earning from donations. So what? Generous people were so outraged by what they witnessed on that clip that they donated money. Get over it!
This story was never really about a bus monitor anyway. The. Klein case merely exemplified some very big bullying related issues – namely, the lack of respect many children have for adults, the lack of empathy for a person who is clearly being hurt, the influence of a group in regards to peer pressure and the passive behaviour from bystanders.
I am happy that Ms. Klein’s earnings mean she never has to step foot on that bus with those children again:
An elderly bus monitor who was taunted, picked on and threatened by a quartet of ruthless seventh-graders is likely going to retire on the $586,000 she has so far received in donations from concerned strangers who were outraged after viewing a video that captured her torment.
‘She is definitely surprised and overwhelmed and certainly thankful for everyone’s support, and it is nice knowing she is not alone,’ Karen Huff Klein’s daughter, Amanda Romig, told RadarOnline.com on Friday.
‘We never thought it was going to be that much, she didn’t think that much – then wow!’ Romig added, saying that her 68-year-old mother is not likely to return to work.
Click here on my post which discussed the need to punish the middle school children involved.
Tags: Amanda Romig, Bullies, Bully, Bullying, Bus Monitor, Bystanders, Donations, elderly, Empathy, Karen Huff, Karen Huff Klein, Karen Klein, middle school, Money, News, Parenting, peer pressure, seventh-graders
Topical Teaching 
June 24, 2012 at 6:01 am |
I think a lot of the mixed emotions caused by this story come from the fact that there are clearly a lot more people in this world who have experienced far worse than the monitor (not at ALL diminishing what she went through) – -and they are stuck with psychiatric bills, or worse: a future of zero support and continued bullying.
While it is FANTASTIC that this woman received the support she did, why is it so difficult to raise money or awareness for others in similar situations. Or, say, for people who have terminal illnesses (check up on a story where Reddit raised thousands of dollars to send a man with fewer than weeks to live on a world vacation).
People are wonderful, and Kickstarter allows them to express that wonderfulness in real, substantial ways. I think the polarizing parts of this issue here stem from a frustration at the random nature of these, well, random acts of kindness. I too wish it were easier to find people in similar or worse situations as Ms. Klein, and help them out just the same.