Bullied 68-Year-Old Bus Monitor Gets Love and Money from Internet Samaritans (VIDEO)
I’m going to be honest, you guys: I made it one minute into this video before I had to turn it off because I was crying in my office. This lady looks like my grandma, and what these kids put her through is absolutely heartbreaking. Be forewarned that it’s disturbing, contains profanity, and will make you all kinds of furious.
In case you also can’t bring yourself to watch it, the gist of it is this: a group of teenage boys pick on a 68-year-old bus monitor named Karen Klein, calling her “fat” and “ugly” and reducing her to tears. At one point, the kids even suggest that her children should commit suicide. It has since been revealed that Karen’s son killed himself 10 years ago.
Here's a cute kitten. You probably need it after that.
Presumably hoping for an audience to join in on the ‘fun’, the students responsible uploaded the video to Facebook. They got their audience all right, but it wasn’t the one they were hoping for.
The disturbing video was reposted to YouTube and quickly went viral, and the Internet uttered a collective “NOPE.” Soon, an Internet Samaritan named Max S started a fundraising campaign for Karen on IndieGogo.
“I’m not sure why these kids would want to bully a senior citizen to tears, but I feel we should do something, or at least try. She doesn’t earn nearly enough ($15,506) to deal with some of the trash she is surrounded by. Lets give her something she will never forget, a vacation of a lifetime!”, says the campaign page.
The goal was to raise $5,000 dollars for Karen by July 20th, with the hope that she could use the money to take a well-deserved vacation. That goal was quickly surpassed. Not only did Karen receive money, she was hit with an outpouring of love and support from tons of total strangers. Some of the comments on the page include:
“Karen, I applaud your work as a bus monitor. I always suspected it wasn’t an easy job, but I didn’t realize it could be THIS difficult.”
“Karen I hope that you get the vacation you deserve. Shame on those disrespectful children. You are a strong woman and are truly worthy of these contributions and kind words.”
“I hope the money collected reminds you that you are appreciated. No one should be treated with such disrespect as you did on that bus.”
“Hopefully enough money is raised where you can permanently retire and surround yourself by caring and thoughtful people instead of insensitive jerks like the ones you dealt with recently.”
Right now, it’s looking like Karen might be able to do more than just take a vacation – she might be able to retire. Currently the campaign has raised $177,000, and that number just keeps rising. Somewhat ironically, one of the things the kids on the bus made fun of Karen for was being ‘poor’. Checkmate, kids.
Please give Karen Klein your money so she never has to ride a bus with these kids again.
