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At $500K, Is It Time To Put The Brakes On Karen The Bus Monitor Fundraising?
By
John Del Signore
Published Jun 22, 2012
Modified Jun 22, 2012
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By
John Del Signore
Published Jun 22, 2012
Modified Jun 22, 2012
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The Indiegogo fundraiser for Karen Klein, the upstate New York school bus monitor who was tormented by some rotten kids in a viral YouTube video, will pass $500,000 today. What started out as a modest fundraiser with a goal of $5,000 to give Klein a vacation could very well make Klein millionaire—there's still almost a month to go, and the average donation is rising. (There's also a petition calling on President Obama to let Klein take the money tax-free.) Which makes you wonder, what's the appropriate compensation for ten minutes of taunting?
It's certainly nice to know Klein has some serious "fuck you" money to throw in these kids faces, and while she insists she's not going to quit her job, she should at least take a day off once school starts to drive alongside that bus in a gold convertible smoking a cigar and tossing dozens brand new Xboxes under the wheels. And it looks like she's not even going to have to use this money for a vacation: Anderson Cooper announced last night that Southwest Airlines is giving Klein and nine guests an all-expense paid trip to Disneyworld for three days.
Assuming it doesn't come out that Klein's a serial child molester who turned the back of that bus into her sick sexual playground, we've all got a happy ending to feel good about. And yet... Not to be a Debbie Downer, but at a certain point, should charitable people around the world take a deep breath and consider kicking that $20 to someone else in need? Being a bullied bus monitor sucks, but so does being homeless, or caught in sex trafficking, or being Buddhist in Tibet. While we're at it, we'd also like to see a Kickstarter to bring The Palms back this summer. That was awesome.
This whole thing's getting a little out of control when*there's even a fundraiser for the guy who started the Karen Klein fundraiser.* You know, without blog posts like this one publicizing the fundraiser, we doubt there'd be half a million raised so quickly. (WHERE'S DAH BLOGGERS' CUT (preferably tax-free)?) Klein, for her part, will believe it when she sees it. "It’s a nice gesture, but I don’t know if it’s real or not,” Klein told Cooper yesterday. “It sounds too good to be true."
As for the little beasts who tormented her on that fateful bus ride, two of them have apologized, but Klein isn't really buying it. One of the punks, Josh, wrote a statement saying, "I am so sorry for the way I treated you. When I saw the video I was disgusted and could not believe I did that." After Anderson read that to Klein, she shrugged and said, "Of course he's gonna say anything. Josh always has a smirk on his face... He always likes to cause trouble. So I don't think I'd believe anything Josh has to say." Aw. Indiegogo fundraiser for poor unpardonable Josh!
Tagged
barts people
bus monitor
karen klein
teenagers
war on youth
John Del Signore
Originally from the Albany area, John Del Signore has called NYC home since 1995. In addition to his thousands of meticulously-crafted bespoke blog posts for Gothamist, his writing has also been published in The Awl, Deadspin, The Nervous Breakdown, and performed at The Brick Theater in Brooklyn.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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