Awful Kids Ruined Bus Monitor's Day, Internet Made Her Year

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Alexander Abad-Santos 12,170 Views Jun 20, 2012

Karen Huff Klein is a 68-year-old bus monitor in Greece, New York who reportedly makes about $15,000 per year to ride the school bus home with awful kids who bully her, and in a video that went viral, she was driven to tears. Today, the Internet showed it cares, and $27,395 (and counting) has been raised to send her on a vacation. The video in question (below) was uploaded yesterday and has about 104,000 views according to YouTube. It's the sort of thing that makes you lose faith in humanity as it shows smiling children calling Klein, their widowed, 68-year-old bus monitor,  "fat ass," "troll", and threatening to cut her. Oof.  We made it through about four minutes.   

But there's a bright side to this (we did mention the $27,395—it's now $27,840!). The video gained attention on Reddit this morning according to user razorsheldon, Redditor heavyballsareheav  (we're not making this up), made an account to collect donations for Klein. We guess you can't pick your saviors. "Lets give her something she will never forget, a vacation of a lifetime!," reads the donation page, which has over $27,840—actually, now it's $28,005, with most of the donations coming in the past few hours according to Reuters' Felix Salmon, who donated $25 to the cause.

The initial goal was $5,000, which was apparently met in five hours. And according to the page, there are still some 30 days left to donate. Its creator writes, "To everyone who asked, I will do all I can to update you guys with the vacation plans and her reaction."

As for the jerks who made Klein cry, the Greece, New York Police Department told the local NBC affiliate that the kids will face disciplinary action. Karen, meanwhile, faces a $28,005—actually, now it's $28,302 (wait, $28,377... $28,507... $28,571...) windfall thanks to donations.

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