The boy who took the video? He posted it on Facebook, then another kid uploaded it onto YouTube. There aren’t too many secrets out there today, and this is one of them. Apparently, someone in the family has Down’s Syndrome. And Klein, looking spiffier than she did that day on the hot bus, has gone on TV to say she plans to give some of the money away. Southwest Airlines is flying her and her family and friends to Disneyland in California. She’s been on Anderson Cooper and NBC and CNN. “Karen Klein gets apology from father.” “Karen Klein gets call from Ryan Seacrest!” “Karen Klein bullies receive death threats.” Since the video went viral - it’s had 4 million hits in a little more than a week now - the headlines have accumulated in true American fashion. “We feel compelled to act and take a step and do something.” “So many of us are horrified that there are so many ugly things in our culture, and this video embodies the worst of what goes on around us,” Lipshutz said. So what did we do? We did what Americans always do when we don’t know how else to fix a problem: We gave her money, close to $750,000. “For a grown woman not to have the inner resilience to take care of herself and protect herself and assert herself, you just got a sense of her as a lady who really didn’t know how to take care of herself.” “She looked like a woman who had been beaten up in life,” Lipshutz said. In short, Klein was being bullied - something that really didn’t occur to me until I talked to Palm Beach Gardens therapist Linda Lipshutz. But Klein was clearly not cut out for this job, where she was paid - a pittance, for sure - to sit on a school bus and rein in obnoxious kids who have no interested in being reined in. After all, it’s wrong to blame the victim. That’s the part that sticks with me, although I’m trying to overcome. population 96,000.Īnd you know what? We need to smack ‘em down, even though Karen Klein couldn’t. They’re riding on our school buses and sitting in our classrooms.Īnd they’re obviously alive and well in Greece, N.Y. They’re in our movie theaters, fast-food restaurants and bowling alleys. Kids like this are on our streets and in our malls. Over and over, the most awful things, and all you can think about when you’re listening to this is, Who are these children? You’re going to die of diabetes, you’re so fat. On and on and on, not one child heard calling out in protest. And after watching the YouTube video, all 10 minutes and nine seconds, I happen to be channeling my disgust to this one particular kid, a girl who in the end might have been the meanest of all, unleashing the most jaw-dropping vitriol: If I stabbed you in the stomach, it would go through like f- butter. Of course, most of us are human, most of us, so our hearts go out to Klein. She never once acted like a grown-up in charge, getting up and telling the kids to knock it off. Al Sharpton, she couldn’t remember if the bus ride happened in the morning or the evening. They then ran off.There’s something hinky about the Karen Klein video, the viral story of the 68-year-old school bus monitor now famous for being tormented by children in upstate New York. The driver exited the bus and the NYPD said she was knocked to the ground, punched, and kicked by the couple. The woman boarded the bus in the Bronx and threw some unknown liquid in the driver's face. Last month, a couple who apparently were upset they couldn't get on a bus in between stops brutally attacked the driver. My members are going to act and they're going to act because they're frustrated." - J.P. "If we don't feel like we're getting the safety that we need, the city could shut down. Patafio suggested the city build bus operator cockpits to keep drivers separated from passengers and have police officers ride the buses with more frequency. My members are going to act and they're going to act because they're frustrated." He threatened that drivers would not continue to do their jobs if their requests weren't met. Patafio said bus drivers need more security and protection from the city. RELATED: NYC bus driver attacked after refusing to make unscheduled stopĭuring a briefing with the media Tuesday afternoon, TWU Local 100 Vice President J.P. Patafio said the bus system in New York City is going to have "serious hiccups" in the next few days if more protection is not given to bus drivers.
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