Oh the lessons you can learn on a school bus.
Lesson #1: Don’t bully an innocent grandmother/bus monitor, and then smirk as someone shoots video of you in the act. Because…
Lesson #2: The chances of said video going viral are astronomical and…
Lesson #3: The chances of said grandmother having the last laugh are even greater.
Just ask Karen Klein.
The 68-year-old grandmother from upstate New York has endured plenty of pain in her life, including the death of her beloved husband and the tragic loss of her son to suicide.
However, it took a bus full of tweenage punks taunting and teasing Klein to the point of tears for her to see that her pain was not in vain.
Since appearing on NBC’s Today show this morning and having more than two million unique viewers watch the YouTube video of her bullying incidents, Klein has captured the hearts of people the world over.
As of late this afternoon, tens of thousands of random individuals have donated to a fund set-up in Klein’s honor to the tune of $300,000. The online fundraising effort was initially designed to provide Klein with a “vacation of a lifetime,” and a chance to forget about the torture she had to endure at the hands of the cruel middle school bullies she was being paid to keep safe as a school bus monitor.
The video shows Klein keeping her cool as a bunch of belligerent boys pepper her with profanity-laced comments, poke her with text books, pick at her head, call her a “troll,” and “an elephant,” and threaten to egg her house.
However, it was one jab in particular that Klein says triggered her tears.
“You’re so ugly, your kid should kill themselves,’’ one of the bus bullies is overheard telling Klein on the video.
Knowing that Klein’s son committed suicide 10 years ago, the Today show’s Matt Lauer offered these words to the grandmother of eight:
“As a parent,” Lauer said, “let me apologize for those children because what they did was despicable. I think they’re narrow-minded monsters, to be perfectly honest with you,” he told Klein of the kids on the bus. “I think their parents should be ashamed of them.”
I couldn’t agree more.
The parents of those boys should be repulsed by their behavior.
Ironically, Klein had this to say on national TV to the moms and dads of the bullies:
“I’m sorry that your sons acted the way they did. I’m sure they don’t act that way at home, but you never know what they’re going to do when they’re out of the house. They should’ve been taught to respect their elders no matter who it is.”
I could be totally wrong, but I can’t imagine that these boys don’t act like jerks in their own home. The odds that they would save their disgusting behavior exclusively for bus rides seems very, very improbable to me.
What happened to civility? Consequences? The fear of getting caught and being severely punished by your parents?
I’m not saying the boys’ parents are 100 percent to blame for the delinquency of their own flesh and blood, but they certainly have some culpability here.
What’s more, where’s the apology?
According to Klein, she has not heard from the boys on the bus since the video of their bullying went viral.
Personally, I’d have my kid crawling on broken glass to get to Klein’s house, and then beg the woman’s forgiveness.
What would you do if you were the parent of one of Klein’s bullies?
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