Rochester, NY – At Least $275K Raised For Bullied NY Bus Monitor

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    Rochester, NY – A video of a 68-year-old school bus monitor mercilessly taunted by seventh graders became an international online rallying point against bullies Thursday, with a fund for the Rochester, N.Y., grandmother raising at least $275,000 and a deluge of people demanding harsh punishment for the boys.

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    Police said Karen Klein does not want her young tormenters to face criminal charges, partly because of the storm of criticism leveled at the boys from the Rochester suburb of Greece after the video went viral.

    “They’ve received death threats,” Greece Police Capt. Steve Chatterton said Thursday. “Their families have been threatened. We have custody of one of their cellphones, and he had over 1,000 missed calls and 1,000 text messages threatening him. And he’s 13 years old. That must stop.”

    The verbal abuse was captured in a 10-minute cellphone video recorded Monday by a student of Athena Middle School in suburban Rochester and later posted to YouTube. The video shows Klein trying her best to ignore the stream of profanity, insults and outright threats directed at her. One student taunted: “You don’t have a family because they all killed themselves because they don’t want to be near you.”

    Klein’s oldest son killed himself 10 years ago.

    Eventually, she appears to break down in tears.

    “You want to jump into that bus and you want to grab those kids and say ‘Knock it off!’ And you want to hold her,” said Amy Weber, a 43-year-old independent filmmaker from the Detroit area who pledged $100 Thursday through the international crowd-funding site Indiegogo.com.

    “I think we hear about bullying every day and we become a little desensitized to it. This puts it in our face” said Weber, who is making a feature film about a bully.

    Klein told NBC’s “Today” show Thursday that it took “a lot of willpower” not to respond to the jeers from the four boys riding the bus operated by the Greece Central School District. Klein said she was “amazed” at the support she received.

    “I’ve got these nice letters, emails, Facebook messages,” she said. “It’s like, wow, there’s a whole world out there that I didn’t know. It’s really awesome.”

    She said she hopes the parents will talk to their children about being “a little more respectful.”

    Klein did not immediately return a call from The Associated Press seeking comment.

    The video logged more than 2 million views by Thursday afternoon, breaking hearts and raising passions of people who recalled bullying incidents in their own pasts. The fundraiser set up on Indiegogo.com shattered its goal of raising $5,000 to send the grandmother of eight on a “vacation of a lifetime.” More than 12,000 people donated, many in denominations of $20 or less.

    “I don’t see how anyone can watch that and not be touched by it. It made me realize — and I posted on my Facebook wall — that sticks and stones may break my bones but words will still hurt you no matter how old you are,” said Deana Rock, a 42-year-old marketing professional from Williston, Vt., who pledged $30.

    Rock said she was moved to tears by the video and donated the money so Klein would not have to get back on the bus.

    Police in the suburb of Greece had to step up patrols near the houses of the four boys and said they had received several threatening hoax calls from people. The boys had not yet apologized to Klein as of Thursday afternoon, though police said they regretted their acts and their parents are cooperating.

    The district apologized to Klein and will pursue disciplinary actions against all four students.

    The swell of support for Klein follows a recent surge in awareness of bullying that has brought the issue from the classroom to the stage and screen to the White House.

    In September, after 14-year-old Jamey Rodemeyer of suburban Buffalo killed himself after complaining about being bullied about his sexuality, pop singer Lady Gaga decried the loss of another life to bullying, tweeting to millions of followers that she’d take her concerns to President Barack Obama.

    This year, the White House held a conference on bullying prevention, estimating that it affects 13 million students, or about a third of those attending school. Obama said he hoped to “dispel the myth that bullying is just a harmless rite of passage or an inevitable part of growing up.”

    In April, the documentary film “Bully” examined the problem by following five kids over the course of a school year.


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    19 Comments
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    Tzi_Bar_David
    Tzi_Bar_David
    11 years ago

    It’s up to $326,000 as of 5:30pm, and I do not begrudge this lady a penny (with a last name like Klein I wonder if she is Yiddishkeit?)

    That said, school is out for summer what discipline will these feral children experience? None I am sure. Their useless, failed (and goyische, I am sure) parents will release them on to the community for the summer to wreak their havoc. When they get back to school in September they will be feted as heroes by their classmates.

    My2Cents
    My2Cents
    11 years ago

    I watched this video. I felt terrible for this women. It really was 10 minutes of some of the most disgusting verbal abuse. It’s actually hard to watch the whole thing without wanting to jump on that bus and give those kids a good whooping.

    common-cense
    common-cense
    11 years ago

    Now imagine she would have a little courage and grab 1 of the boys by their shirt, and give 1 big ‘frosk’ that the kid would see stars.. -thus teaching them a simple lesson of derech eretz, How we would all jump on her.. Calling her ‘achzer’ ‘child abuse’… ‘She should be fired…

    Ye, what kind of low society have become.

    11 years ago

    #4 : No. Let me explain. Bullying is a VIOLENT CRIME. If it is not followed by serious negative consequences, it will be repeated. That’s humanity. This is why every government establishes limitations on behavior that enters the realm of violence, though with marked cultural differences. The bullies in this story will not suffer the kind of consequences that will eliminate this behavior. They will only look for another suitable victim. The expected basic moral values are not present, and they will not reconsider their ways until it pains them. They may not revel in the role of heroes. They do not seek that. They get their satisfaction from someone else’s pain. Until their own pain is worse, they do not learn any lessons.

    It is pitiful that our own chinuch system, which is encountering this, is slow to learn. It is typical that the victim winds up getting punished, and the bully gets away with everything. And when that happens, the school/yeshiva joins with the bully, and should bear the guilt. Has any menahel ever apologized for allowing bullying to occur, even if unintentionally?

    Bullying is preventable. And we can punish bullies to stop them. Do we?

    vitriol
    vitriol
    11 years ago

    Leave it to the ‘politicaly correct’ authorities and watch them screw everthing up. All the kids will probably receive equal punishment just to be ‘fair’. whereas the one who alluded to her deceased son should receive the most severe. And since they are kids, don’t expect it to be anything more than a slap on the wrist.

    11 years ago

    I was bullied as a child, so I know what it feels like.

    Now that these boys and their families are being harassed,

    they’ll know what being bullied feels like.

    11 years ago

    At first I read this story and I was sad because I couldn’t believe there were children out there who were this heartless, but then I was happy because I couldn’t believe there were people out there who were this selfless.

    zalee
    zalee
    11 years ago

    When you see a child acting this way, there are exactly two people to blame:

    The mother and the father.

    A mother and father are supposed to instill a sense of humanity into their child.

    If you are a parent of a bully, then YOU are the problem, end of story. Don’t you dare blame the school, and don’t you dare blame “society”.

    There needs to be regulations on bullying, just as there are on other offenders. A serial bully should be forced to register as a bully in a public database, so that parents can know who they are sending their precious child to school with, and schools should know which children not to accept.

    CherryKnish
    CherryKnish
    11 years ago

    I’m surprised there are so many caring people out there. The frum community doesn’t care for their own. My friend is a 60 year old frum lady who is losing her job as a public school secretary/bookkeeper. She’s a cancer survivor & supported her learning husband all these years. Her horrible principals in Bushwick & Brownsville have been torturing her as much as these kids tortured this lady. She was in a car accident this week, too. She needs a bookkeeping or secretary job that gives medical insurance.She doesn’t know Excel & Quickbooks & companies are looking for young & cheap. If you care to donate to help her or know of a job in Brooklyn please email cherryknish gmail.com. Thank you.

    11 years ago

    I was bullied in Cheder ( late afternoon Hebrew school after the secular public school). One time, as I was being bullied by three Yiddisha students, they were caught in the act by the Principal of our school, who was a fine gentleman. He was not too pleased that I was being harassed, and he ordered the three of them into his office, the following day. However, the next day, before they reported to his office, one of the hoodlums came over to me and threatened me, stating that “if anything happened to him as a result of the Principal’s visit, he would get me”. In other words, this was a case by the hoodlum of blaming the victim, for the fate that was about to befall him. Bullying has been going on for generations, and it is only recently that it has been taken seriously by school authorities. School bullies are no different than adult bullies who harass and stalk their victims!

    11 years ago

    It’s over $400K as reported on the TODAY Show this morning.

    concerned_Jew
    concerned_Jew
    11 years ago

    Poor lady, no one should have to go through such torture. What a horrible story.

    11 years ago

    my heart bled for that poor almunah who may b a yid, I was gonna donate but its upto 450,000.00 I think thats enough.

    11 years ago

    I still remember that over 20 yrs ago I was in first grade, and on the bus to school everyday, I was bullied mercilessly and constantly brought to tears.Then as soon as I got off the bus I was sent straight to the principle for making trouble!!! how is that for Derech Eretz kudma latorah!!!(school’s mantra) glad my stay there was quiet short..