Bullied Bus Monitor Karen Klein Starts Her Own Anti-Bullying Foundation
Remember Karen Klein, the upstate New York bus monitor who was viciously harassed by her middle school charges in a video that went viral in June? Her story had a happy ending, as an internet fundraising campaign to send the 68-year-old on a “nice vacation” raised over $700,000 from 32,000 people around the world.
That’s more than enough money for Klein to retire from the yellow school bus grind. And she plans to. But she is also using a good chunk of the cash — $100,000 — to set up the Karen Klein Anti-Bullying Foundation.
The goal of the anti-bullying campaign is to help teach kids and teens about being kind, friendly and playing nicely with others,” Klein says on her foundation’s website. “Because of my own personal bullying story, I’ve now decided to become an advocate of change.”
The foundation will provide funding to established anti-bullying organizations. It officially launches in October with an anti-bullying tour that will feature Klein as well as Miss Teen USA Logan West and Miss Universe Leila Lopes of Angola.
While the video of Klein being bullied was one of the saddest things we’ve ever seen on the internet, so far it seems like only good things have come out of the clip.