"Making The Bus Monitor Cry" is one of three videos filmed in June 2012 which focused on a
bus monitor, who was targeted for
bullying
Bullying is the use of force, coercion, hurtful teasing or threat, to abuse, aggressively dominate or intimidate. The behavior is often repeated and habitual. One essential prerequisite is the perception (by the bully or by others) of an imba ...
by four
seventh graders attending
Greece Athena Middle School
Greece Athena Middle School is a middle school in Greece, New York, a suburb of Rochester; it is located on the 3rd floor of the Athena Complex & covers grades 6–8. This school (along with the high school) was visited by President George W. Bush ...
. The video went
viral
Viral means "relating to viruses" (small infectious agents).
Viral may also refer to:
Viral behavior, or virality
Memetic behavior likened that of a virus, for example:
* Viral marketing, the use of existing social networks to spread a marke ...
and received numerous video responses and news coverage. A donation campaign was launched for the victim.
Background
The bus monitor, Karen Huff Klein (68 at the time of the filming
) was an employee of the
Greece Central School District in
Upstate New York. After serving 20 years as a bus driver, Klein had been a bus monitor for 3 years.
Klein, at the time of the incident, had been a widow since c. 1995 and had eight grandchildren; she was partly deaf and used a
hearing aid.
Video of the incident
The video was originally uploaded on
Facebook. Later, a
YouTube user reposted the video onto YouTube on the day after; June 19, 2012, with the title "Making The Bus Monitor Cry", alongside two other videos with the titles "Bus Monitor Harassment", and "Bus Monitor Harassment 2". Within a few days, it had been watched by millions of viewers.
The Bus Monitor Harassment video series is filmed primarily in the back of Bus #784, lightly focused on Klein. In these videos, one of the children becomes angry from being disciplined and says "Karen, you're fat". The third video, "Making The Bus Monitor Cry" is directly targeting Klein. It was organized by three of the four boys, and the fourth student later stated that he had been asked to film the bullying by means of
peer pressure.
In the video, the 7th grade boys are heard bullying Klein with taunts that include her appearance, age, as well as her purse, and comment about "the water on her face", at first saying it was sweat. Once she explains she is crying, they reply that the reason is that she misses her box of
Twinkie
A Twinkie is an American snack cake, described as "golden sponge cake with a creamy filling". It was formerly made and distributed by Hostess Brands. The brand is currently owned by Hostess Brands, Inc. (), having been formerly owned by private ...
s. They then proceed with remarks about Twinkies, call her a "fat-ass" constantly, touch her, and demand that she provide her address on camera. They also threaten to egg her house, to urinate on her door, to ejaculate in her mouth, and to stab her.
One boy refers to Klein's family, saying, "They all killed themselves, because they didn't want to be near you." In reality, Klein’s oldest son had committed suicide ten years earlier. It was not known if the boy who made the comment was aware of this. Klein attempted to ignore them, and forced herself not to retaliate. She instead remarked a few times such as "I know all of ''your'' addresses! I'm going to send you all thank-you cards, for being so ''nice''."
Klein said she had been bullied by the boys before, and that one time, she had her hearing aid knocked out. When asked by the media if the bullies were just being
jerks or if they were actually rotten apples, Klein responded, "Two are jerks, and two are rotten apples."
[
]
Reaction
After the bullies' identities were revealed, they received many death threats.[ The video prompted an investigation on the part of school officials and local police. Klein stated that she would not press charges against the students, partly because of the flood of death threats and criticism aimed at them. She also stated she would like an apology and a different bus route. When an apology was issued, however, she rejected it as insufficient.
On June 29, 2012, the Greece Central School District announced that the boys would be suspended from the middle school for one full academic year, and each boy would also be required to complete 50 hours of community service with senior citizens and complete a formal program in bullying prevention.
On his show '' Anderson Cooper 360°'', CNN anchor ]Anderson Cooper
Anderson Hays Cooper (born June 3, 1967) is an American broadcast journalist and political commentator from the Vanderbilt family. He is the primary anchor of the CNN news broadcast show ''Anderson Cooper 360°''. In addition to his duties at C ...
announced that Southwest Airlines
Southwest Airlines Co., typically referred to as Southwest, is one of the major airlines of the United States and the world's largest low-cost carrier. It is headquartered in Dallas, Texas, and has scheduled service to 121 destinations in the U ...
offered to pay for a trip for Klein and nine people of her choice to Walt Disney World for a three-night visit.
Epilogue
In March 2015, two of the four students who appeared in the video with Klein were accused of bullying a special-needs classmate with several other students in a bathroom in the local high school, forcing him to hold his crotch and consume urine out of a toilet. When interviewed about the incident, Karen Klein told WHEC, "I don't believe this is happening again".
References
External links
* {{YouTube, id=l93wAqnPQwk, title=Making the Bus Monitor Cry
School bullying
School buses
Viral videos
2012 in education
Transportation in Monroe County, New York
Indiegogo projects
2012 in New York (state)
2012 YouTube videos
Internet memes introduced in 2012