By now most of you have heard about or watched the viral YouTube video of the elderly bus monitor, Karen Klein, being bullied by seventh grade boys in New York. Bullying has become a hot topic as of late, and is getting regular national exposure as the stories of bullied kids committing suicide continue to surface.
Below is the bus driver video. It is a sad example of the real world we live in today (that I believe starts at home with the family and how we parent our children). Yet, the after-story shows some positives in the world we live in, as complete strangers helped this elderly lady by giving her over $600,000. Check out the video below (warning there is foul language).
(Update: If you’d like to donate to the Karen Klein vacation/retirement fund, you can access the link here.)
Bullying…not a big deal
I will be honest, when I first began to hear about bullying being a problem I kind of dismissed it. I thought about my childhood and kids teasing one another, or taking lunch money from other kids. But I never viewed that as a major problem. It was just something that kids did, and laughed about later when they were older.
Learn more and fight it
However, seeing it more and more, and learning what can happen as a result has caused me to have a different opinion. Fortunately there are good organizations that are now educating people, who were naive like me, and helping kids who have been bullied or have been bullying. One great organization that is doing great nationwide work (based in Indianapolis I might add) is Angels and Doves.
I encourage you to not be naive to bullying. Learn more about it, talk to your kids, and take a stance against it. It is no small issue.
Question: What are your thoughts on bullying? Have you or someone you loved been on either end of the bullying spectrum? What are your thoughts on the video? Please share your thoughts in the comments section below.
SPACE
Jackie, great piece about a tragic situation – echo your sentiments and wrote a similar post about this exact situation last week.
Thx Tor! Will check out your post now!
Oh Jackie! You hit the nail on the head with this one! Most people I know felt ‘bullied’ in school. We survived it, so we figured it was just a ‘rite of passage’. YouTube has shown us that we are wrong. My kids experienced various degrees of bullying growing up. My one stepdaughter, Allie, really suffered. We felt frustrated and helpless, the school didn’t help, all we could do was love her. Not very creative or useful then, although she is a happy adult now. I agree it starts with parenting. We taught our girls not to be that way. We didn’t allow talk that was cruel in our home – regardless of the subject. We tried to instil in them a sense of empathy. It seems we were successful. Do these parents have no empathy? As I said on my radio show this past Monday, watching this video made me afraid. I’m not much younger than she is, and I am afraid of the future and how ‘old people’ are increasingly seen as targets. Makes me want to take a course in Tae Kwan Do or something. Except if I was sitting in that seat on the bus, and the kid poked me, and I grabbed him and took him down, I would be arrested for assault, sued in civil court, lose my home and job, and probably end up the villain. Sigh.
Yes, it is serious. And it can get complicated…although she was the victim, had she defended herself then she would have been the villain…except maybe in Florida (sarcasm…sorry).
I would be mortified if any of those kids were mine. I can’t believe it went on for that long. No human being should be treated like that. It’s disgusting. No one around them stopped it either. I don’t really know what else to say right now. I have to think for a while. All I’ll add is that my youngest daughter was bullied and it affected her for a long time. It’s a serious and complex issue and I’m thankful for the media coverage that is increasing awareness about it now.
Yes, that would be tough to handle has one of those kids been mine. I think I’d have to take a long look in the mirror as to what could lead to this type of behavior.