The media tends to put a lot of light on bullying these days, but most of the stories you'll hear about are kids. Kids who are gay, lesbian, transgender or maybe just too different. But, if you listen close enough, you'll hear the cries of people who may not have as strong of a voice as we do, like the elderly. Elderly people like bus monitor, Karen Klein, who was bullied by a group of middle school-aged kids. By bullied, I mean verbally abused. The venom from their words made me cringe. If you have any shred of humanity, it'll make you cringe, too.
Karen is 68 years old. She makes a little bit more than $15,000 a year. A woman her age deserves to be lying on a beach, enjoying her retirement. Instead, diminishing funds for social security lead her to become a bus monitor. A job which subjects her to miserable treatment by children whose parents have clearly failed them.
Now, Karen may not be a member of the LGBT community, but she is still a victim of bullying. I feel like people often forget how many types of bullying there actually are. Sure, there has been a huge spike in bullying-related suicides among gay and lesbian youth in the United States and across the world, but come on. We aren't the only ones suffering. This polite and kind elderly woman was picked on, called every name in the book and publicly humiliated by a group of ill-willed kids.
In the last 24 hours, the students involved have sent her written apologies, but who can tell if they're sincere or not. You get caught in a media frenzy, mommy and daddy will probably make you apologize just to save face and make sure they aren't viewed as the worst parents in the world. Having been raised in the south, I'm not above a good old fashioned switch. For those of you unfamiliar with a switch, it's when grandma makes you go out in the yard, pick a stick and you get switched with it (don't go for the tiny ones, they tend to sting. Grab the biggest stick you can find, no grandma would switch you with a tree limb). Anyhow, these kids are clearly in need of some sort of discipline (and maybe some soap for their mouths).
Karen was pretty quiet during the ordeal, barely defending herself and hardly talking back to the kids. My question is: what were the other 20-30 kids on the bus doing? Why was no one helping her? It would have only taken one person. Just one other kid to stand up and say "Dude. Quit it. That's not nice." Sure, they may have briefly turned on the person who spoke up, but it may have diffused the situation to a point where this repulsive video wouldn't be 10 minutes long.
So here's my question: when was the last time YOU stood up for someone who needed it? When you see a man yelling at his spouse in the parking lot, do you just drop your head and avoid eye contact? If a middle-aged man jumps in front of an older couple in line at the supermarket, do you call him out? Or do you just stand in line and pretend it never happened? Someone has to SPEAK UP.
There has been an overwhelming amount of support for Karen Klein. But for every Karen, there are thousands of others who go unnoticed. So this is my challenge to you, the reader: say something. Whether it's a kid in your class getting picked on for his socioeconomic status or the handicapped lady down the street being harassed by a group of thugs, speak up. No one deserves to be harassed. No one deserves to be treated inhumanely.
If you would like to make a donation to Karen's vacation fund (but at this point, $600,000 is a TON of vacations), you can find the website is here: http://www.indiegogo.com/loveforkarenhklein
I apologize for the brevity of this particular post, but I am delusional from pain medication due to a back injury. The fact I've made it this far is a miracle. I think I'll have a cookie now.
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