Video of Karen Klein, elderly school bus monitor, being verbally abused goes viral, sparks charity

Karen Klein, a school bus monitor in the town of Greece, New York, is seen in a Youtube video in which she is heard being verbally abused by students. / Youtube

(CBS/AP) ROCHESTER, N.Y. - Tens of thousands of dollars have been raised online for an elderly upstate New York bus monitor who was taunted and verbally abused by students.

The incident was captured in a 10 minute video posted to YouTube showing Karen Klein trying her best to ignore the stream of profanity, insults and outright threats directed at her.

By early Wednesday the video had gone viral. (The video, which contains extremely graphic language, can be seen at the link below to Indiegogo.com)

Klein told the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle that she "was just trying to ignore them and hope they would go away."

The Greece bus monitor didn't report the incident, but school officials notified police when they learned of the incident. An investigation has been launched.

By early Thursday morning, the international crowd funding site Indiegogo.com had raised over $122,000 to send the grandmother on a vacation, far surpassing the stated goal of $5,000, and with 30 days still left in the online campaign.

[Bonnie Wagner-Westbrook]

I am from Pittsford (living in NJ) and, while home, saw the school's statement on behalf of the students who played a part in this nasty business. May I add that I am a life-long teacher. These kids are BRATS who need to learn what it is like to be on the receiving end of what they dished out. There is a lot of cruelty in this world and THIS is how it starts. Where are the parents? Did they forget to teach them simple manners? Is this what they envision their offspring will be when they grow up? The fact that the school made excuses and established no accountability with their actions is pathetic. They did this. Belly up brats! Learn it now because tomorrow you will BE that bus monitor and hearing more brats like yourselves saying the same crap you said. TODAY is the day to turn it all around before the adage, "karma is a *****," is used to describe YOUR situation.

[paulflorez]

I fully support the victim of this bullying and am happy to see she is receiving so much support, emotional and financial (forget a vacation, this woman was just bought a house!), but this stuff happens ALL THE TIME. When I was a kid, I HATED riding the bus because I was constantly teased and assaulted. They would make fun of my weight, my hair, everything. When I would tell them to leave me alone, they would get even more aggressive, even punching me in the face.

I don't know if the bus driver saw it or not, as the worst kids always sat in the very back which is where I hated sitting the most, but I could tell he didn't want to deal with it. My family couldn't fix the problem, and we fought over the fact that they wanted me to take the bus so that they wouldn't have to drive me to school and I hated taking the bus.

This country needs to take this bullying problem more seriously. There needs to be serious consequences for when kids do this to another person, no matter what the age. These kids should definitely be banned from the bus and their parents forced to drive the kids to school every day themselves. These kids should also be required to get some counseling so that they can learn how not to be little !@#$%&s anymore. You think it's bad being a senior citizen on a children's school bus? Try being a gay child on the bus. At least they didn't slug this lady in the face as they did me.

[ironteeth-2009]

I was severely bullied for being a deaf oralist in the recent years. I deserve the same compassion as Karen Klein's (Hearing Impaired Bus Monitor Whom Was Bullied In Viral Video) got. There's plenty of YouTube videos of deaf people bullying me and this following video illustratively demonstrates I got banned from a website because I believe deaf children should get cochlear implants. http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xih4sp_richard-roehm-banned-from-just-deaf-website-for-promoting-cochlear-implants_news

[FlickaP]

I'm not sure how much "monitoring" Ms. Klein was doing, frankly.
Whatever she did/didn't do, in response, was not effective.

The boys continued to behave despicably and unchecked.

[brianpearl]

It seems that the current antisocial behavior, permeating our society, can be perpetrated on anyone, anywhere, regardless of the situation, location, or the age of the victim! While the bully, it seems, can be your sweet faced 13 year old child, or the teacher to whom you entrust your child each day. http://recessmusic.com/?p=485

[dresia]

Send their ***** to prison and see how big and bad they are then, when they face boys, men twice their age since they want to bully someone. Put their ***** in boot camp and let the prisoners bully them. They deserve that and 1 year behind bars dum ass jack *****.

[LarryLix]

Perhaps a "bus monitor" person should be placed on each bus to stop this type of behaviour???

[acrscout98]

An example needs to be made here, every kid who committed any physical contact with this woman and any who voiced threats of physical violence, should be charged with criminal assault and prosecuted to the fullest extent possible under the law.

[carly-button]

Why did the bus driver not stop the bus and deal with that behavior?
I am a bus driver and that would NOT take place on my bus, to peers or monitor. The driver should have stopped the bus and had students move to the front seat on be removed from the bus! The admistration in my district allows the director come to the bus and give the students an oppurtunity to leave the bus and he would drive them home. Discipline and consequence would be taken care of w/ parents. Which would result in suspension. As for the money donated to this monitor, good for her, she deserves that and I consider that punitive damages with a nice vacation. Kudos for that parent to come forward to the news!!!

[dresia]

Excellent point, excellent point. The bus driver should have stopped. He's or she's just as stupid as the low life BASBARDS that treated this women that way.

[LarryLix]

Somebody should BULLY these kids into behaving properly and showing some respect! I guess we don't call it BULLYING when it for OUR cause.
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For all we know this whole video was faked and one of the biggest cons online yet. Send more money. The 'mericun buck cures everything.