The bullied bus monitor is doing fine just one year after a video went viral showing an elderly woman being picked on by kids on a school bus.
Karen Klein has become stronger despite being taunted by school children in a video that made many cringe a year ago, the Associated Press reports.
Klein, 69, is now retired and started her own anti-bullying group after she received funds from around the world in an online collection.
Klein had spect 20 years as a bus driver before becoming a monitor for three years. In a 10-minute cell phone video, the woman was ridiculed, cursed at and threatened by a group of seventh graders from a school in Rochester last June. The boys make fun of Klein's hearing aid, outfit, weight and more as she tried to ignore them.
"Unless you have something nice to say, don't say anything at all," Klein said in the video.
One boy made a personal hit when he said, "You don't have a family because they all killed themselves because they don't want to be near you." Klein's oldest son committed suicide more than ten years ago.
The video was recorded by one of the students and made its way to YouTube, where it was viewed more than 1.4 million times.
One of those viewers was 25-year-old Canadian Max Sidorov. He was so impacted that he started an online collection to send Klein on a vacation. More than 32,000 people from 84 countries donated and pledged $703,873 in donations.
"It's just the way it hits them, I guess. I don't know. I don't know," Klein is still shocked by the response, as is Sidorov, who called it "ridiculously more than I expected."
Klein hasn't used the money to buy new furniture or a car for herself. Instead, she used $100,000 towards Karen Klein Anti-Bullying Foundation, which has been seen at concerts and in books. The group recently partnered with the Moscow Ballet as they tour around the US and Canada to raise awareness of cyberbullying.
"There's a lot I wish I could be doing, but I don't know how to do it," Klein said."I'm just a regular old lady."
Klein has also spent some of the money to help her family and friends but she's keeping the rest safe for her retirement. She is considering buying a motor home to do some traveling, but she also has to take it easy as she just had a pacemaker implanted in March.
"There are other people who it would probably change dramatically," said Klein's daughter, Amanda Klein-Romig. "But for her, no, everything's the same pretty much. It's not like she's jaunting every weekend to a different place."
Klein has learned to see the good in people.
"There's a lot of nice people out there, I have learned that," Klein said. "And to ignore the negative people."
Klein also has some critics. Some said that the incident was Klein's fault and she wasn't doing her job. Some think she was just taking it for fame and money.
"They make it sound like I did this on purpose," Klein said. Klein didn't know the incident was recorded until school officials called her in to question her.
Since the incident, one of the boys went to Klein's home to apologize. Three others sent typed letters, which she doesn't find as sincere.
"I hope they learned a lesson; they probably didn't," Klein says, shrugging. "It might have been a big joke to them."
This article is copyrighted by Travelers Today, the travel news leader
