Following the Bullying Video Seen Around the World, maligned school bus monitor Karen Klein is turning her torment into good, founding an anti-bullying charity.
After the verbal attack she endured from seventh graders in upstate New York went viral this year, it was seen more than 8.5 million times by sympathizers.
So extreme was the video that a good Samaritan set up a donation site to send Klein on a vacation. A modest goal of a few thousand bucks turned into over $700,000.
The result, Wednesday’s Today show reports, is The Karen Klein Anti-Bullying Foundation, whose slogan is "Stop Bullying Now." Simple, declarative and effective.
Appropriately, October is also Bullying Prevention Awareness Month.
Klein admitted that she never watched the entire video. "I just couldn’t," she said, adding that she doesn’t completely understand how the clip made its way to YouTube.
"I hope nobody else has to go through anything like that. I’d parent [parents] to tell kids that it’s not to be done. It’s not right. How would you like it if somebody did it to you?"
"But I’m afraid some of the kids have been bullied, and that’s why they did what they did."
If Klein’s efforts spare even one person this, it will be money well spent.