Internet Raises Over $200K For Bullied School Bus Monitor

Every now and then I get down on this whole internet thing, and I’m sure I’m not the only one. I think about how much time I spend on it — both because I work on it and because I enjoy the heck out of it when I’m not working as well — and I wonder if I shouldn’t be spending more time pursuing a career in lumberjacking or something and living in the woods where there’s no internet. But then I’ll read about something the internet did that makes me smile and proud to be a part of it and then I’ll forget all about lumberjacking for a while.

Enter Karen Huff Klein, a 68-year-old bus monitor for the Greece Central School District in Rochester, NY. A video of a crying Klein being verbally shredded by a-hole kids has been making the rounds that you may have seen. Here’s how she describes it…

“Something about me being so fat and ugly your kids probably should commit suicide. I don’t think they knew my son had … I wanted to punch them is what I wanted to do. So that’s why I laid back, tried to ignore it. Because I really wanted to hurt them, you know? You can’t do that!”

Here’s the video in question in the event you haven’t seen it…

Enter the internet…

Many people around the world agreed with Klein, and expressed their support on various social network sites. Laurel Heiden, the school district’s spokeswoman, said phone calls and emails from as far away as Australia have been pouring in all day.

A fundraiser set up to “give Karen…a vacation of a lifetime” blasted past its goal of $5,000 in a matter of hours. It…may ultimately allow Klein to take a permanent vacation — something she’s said she would do if she suddenly came “into lots of money.”

As of this writing over $214,000 has been raised for Klein. To hell with a vacation — she’ll be able to retire when this is all said and done.

Can someone now make a video of me being viciously teased by jerky kids and upload it to YouTube? I’ve got some bills to pay.

UPDATE: As a commenter pointed out below, the guy who started the fund for Klein is now trying to cash in himself. Ugh. Now excuse me while I go back to pondering becoming a lumberjack.