Donations near $500K for New York bus monitor after bullying video goes viral
Donations near $500K for New York bus monitor after bullying video goes viral
Source: New York Post
ROCHESTER, N.Y. -- Donations to a vacation fund for a New York state bus monitor neared $500,000 on Friday after a video of her being taunted to tears by foul-mouthed 12- and 13-year-olds went viral.
A sympathizer set up the online fund for Karen Klein after the 10-minute video -- taken by one of the bullies -- was viewed more than 1.6 million times on YouTube and touched off an international avalanche of outrage.
The video shows Klein, a 68-year-old widow and grandmother of eight, breaking into tears in a suburb of Rochester, N.Y., as seventh-graders call her fat and ugly and demand her address so they can go to her home to rob and rape her.
But what was particularly painful was a boys saying, "You're so ugly, your kids should kill themselves."
"I don't think they knew my son had," she told WROC. Klein's eldest son took his own life 10 years ago.
Police said the parents of four of the boys were cooperating with an investigation of the vicious verbal attack, which occurred Monday.
But their conduct did not rise to the level of a crime, according to a preliminary investigation, Rochester's Greece Police Department Capt. Steve Chatterton, said.
The online fund was set up Wednesday with the message that she "doesn't earn nearly enough" to deal with this kind of bullying. Klein is paid $15,506 a year.
The goal was to raise $5,000 in 30 days, but by early Friday it had reached $458,859, funded by 21,467 donors.
Donations near $500K for New York bus monitor after bullying video goes viral
Donations near $500K for New York bus monitor after bullying video goes viral
