Grandmother hassled on schoolbus by kids

[LeftAbove]

A video of Karen Klein, a 68 year old bus monitor, being bullied by kids has gone viral online. This raised attention to set up a fund which was raised up to $185,000 as of today. The video shows the lady taking pictures of her, calling her names, until she is broken to tears.


The post connected to the fund says that Klein "doesn't earn nearly enough" to deal with the children bullying her. "Let's give her something she will never forget, a vacation of a lifetime!"

[LeftAbove]

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/06/21/us-usa-bullying-idUSBRE85K15C20120621?feedType=RSS

Link to article.

Video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l93wAqnPQwk

[Deicide]

I couldn't watch all that. It would of pissed me off too much.

[MustCrushCapitalism]

Words fail me. Wow. What assholes people can be.

[Teacher]

Apparently some online campaign to give money to the grandmother has raised almost half a million dollars.

[TheGodlessUtopian]

Thread moved

[LeftAbove]

Apparently some online campaign to give money to the grandmother has raised almost half a million dollars.

Yes. In fact, I encourage anyone to donate to Ms. Klein at http://www.indiegogo.com/loveforkarenhklein as she only earns $15,506 and has to put up with kids who don't give her any respect.

[Ocean Seal]

Wow the kids said that Klein's family killed themselves because they couldn't stand her, and her son actually killed himself. Why the fuck would you do that? What the fuck is wrong with kids? I swear some kids need to get the shit kicked out of them every now and then.

[Comrade Samuel]

I like to think after they stopped recording she got out and threw those kids under that bus.

Absolutely disgraceful, I really hope those kids are in a world of shit for what they did.

[Positivist]

The behavior of kids today demonstrates the poisoning of social relations by capitalism. With the only force binding the interaction of people being raw self interest, people begin to percieve one another only as means to be acted upon in the interest of acquiring 'more.' Whether that 'more' consists of greater access to capital or increased popularity.

[Jimmie Higgins]

The behavior of kids today demonstrates the poisoning of social relations by capitalism. With the only force binding the interaction of people being raw self interest, people begin to percieve one another only as means to be acted upon in the interest of acquiring 'more.' Whether that 'more' consists of greater access to capital or increased popularity.

These kids today... :lol:

I mean, do people not really remember Middle School? What's remarkable here is that they are doing this to a worker, rather than another student and it was caught on tape.

Don't get me wrong I really feel for this woman and it was horrible that she had to be treated in this way. But my memory is that this happened to me and I did it to others as well. In fact we were probably just as mean to our bus driver in middle school (he was kind of an asshole though) and I saw just as mean things done to the Janitor and Lunch-workers though even in middle school I thought that was cruel (they were nice to me and were just trying to do their job unlike the Bus driver who always talked about how he was going to be a cop and acted like a little fascist with the tiny bit of authority he was granted by his driving job).

At any rate, I think in the broadest sense we can say this is due to capitalism, but I don't think "accumulation" or commodity-materialism are to blame.

Schools are socialization factories and they generally socialize kids so that they can be future workers and professionals. So education is alienated - kids learn not to learn knowledge in the abstract, but learn basic skills but also how to learn and how to do tasks which are alienated (learning self-discipline). So I think kids tend to take it out on eachother and low-level terachers... they try to "take back" some power and self-importance by holding it over others. Add on top of this the intense pressure for conformity and claustrophobic social atmosphere in capitalist schools and it's a recipe for abuse.

[Drosophila]

The behavior of kids today demonstrates the poisoning of social relations by capitalism.

Even more obvious is that this woman is in the position she's in because of capitalism. If she had a choice in her job, she probably wouldn't choose a job that's best suited for an authoritative/strict figure.

[RedHal]

Yes. In fact, I encourage anyone to donate to Ms. Klein at http://www.indiegogo.com/loveforkarenhklein as she only earns $15,506 and has to put up with kids who don't give her any respect.

it's already a huge amount donated, no need to promote charity on a rev board, there are plenty of liberals out there. The media will be all over this with a feel good ending because of goodness and kindness of charitable individuals. We want to smash the system that put her in this situation, not promote charity.

[ВАЛТЕР]

Kids can be cruel. I remember as a child I would say the most hurtful things to people I could think of, bringing up dead relatives, divorce, family problems. Things that now I wouldn't dare say to people.

Children just lack boundaries sometimes and don't know what is acceptable and what isn't.

[Jimmie Higgins]

it's already a huge amount donated, no need to promote charity on a rev board, there are plenty of liberals out there. The media will be all over this with a feel good ending because of goodness and kindness of charitable individuals. We want to smash the system that put her in this situation, not promote charity.Personal charity isn't anti-leftist - the idea that charity changes anything beyond the personal level or can "fix" problems in capitalism is what revolutionaries oppose.

I've had to rely on charity of friends and family to make it through rough spots and I wouldn't want to discourage that personal-level of charity - I simply don't go in for illusions or moralistic views of charity... but I'll gladly take it, or give someone a buck if I can spare it.

[rednordman]

I think one of the worst things about this is that she wasn't an actual teacher, but rather a marshal who is there in the kids best interests, and thus had no real authority. She was just a helper really. What the kids said about her deceased family was completely repulsive. There was no excuse what so ever for them saying that to her, at all.

I bet absolutely nothing happened to the kids responsible for this either. The only thing that i would hope for was that they made to understand that what they said to her and recording on a mobile phone was not civilized human behavior, regardless of your age.

Sticks and stones will break your bones, but names actually can cause scars.

[Goblin]

That video was pretty disgusting. I myself have gone through shit like that and it aint fun.

[shinjuku dori]

This kind of thing doesn't exist in Japan. Anywhere. Japanese students even have to clean up their own classroom. Teachers doesn't do that. Clearly this is not something that can be attributed just to abstract "capitalism." Japan is hyper-capitalist and my city looks like a damned video game with the advertisements, yet no one would act like this. This is cultural. I'd like a better explanation of why this is so common in America.

[MarxSchmarx]

This kind of thing doesn't exist in Japan. Anywhere. Japanese students even have to clean up their own classroom. Teachers doesn't do that. Clearly this is not something that can be attributed just to abstract "capitalism." Japan is hyper-capitalist and my city looks like a damned video game with the advertisements, yet no one would act like this. This is cultural. I'd like a better explanation of why this is so common in America.

Except not really. Japan has had a noticable juvenile crime wave in the latter half of the 2000s, particularly among boys. The police have issued white papers on the practice of "oyaji-gari" that documents groups of boys that rough up working men to steal their money. Moreover, there have been long standing disciplinary issues of "graduation lynching" where after the graduation ceremony students attack their teachers, and this has been an ongoing problem even dating back to recent times. It's not surprising that a lot of this comes on the heels of unprecedented youth unemployment.

[¿Que?]

I don't understand why this is in discrimination. Discrimination threads generally discuss the issue of a class of people being systematically marginalized by another, privileged class. Without getting into the complexity that this entails, what I see is a bunch of kids harassing an older woman. I don't understand what this is suppose to show regarding discrimination. I don't even know what sort of discrimination is being discussed. Ageism? Sexism? Classism? And what is the evidence or argument for this being a case of ageism, sexism, or classism?

Revleft, particularly the discrimination forum, is not a place to post "viral videos." It is also not a place to post mainstream media fluff, either. This needs to be in chit chat, unless someone can justify how this is an example of discrimination. By the way, I also noticed that the post had been moved. Where was it before discrimination?

[electrostal]

These little shits need to be sent to work on fields for the summer, to spend all this frustration doing something useful for a change.
Manual labor does wonders. :cool:

[Psy]

Even more obvious is that this woman is in the position she's in because of capitalism. If she had a choice in her job, she probably wouldn't choose a job that's best suited for an authoritative/strict figure.
Yet she doesn't any power, when I grew up school bus drivers kicked kids off of the bus and force them walk for less.

[shinjuku dori]

Except not really. Japan has had a noticable juvenile crime wave in the latter half of the 2000s, particularly among boys. The police have issued white papers on the practice of "oyaji-gari" that documents groups of boys that rough up working men to steal their money. Moreover, there have been long standing disciplinary issues of "graduation lynching" where after the graduation ceremony students attack their teachers, and this has been an ongoing problem even dating back to recent times. It's not surprising that a lot of this comes on the heels of unprecedented youth unemployment.

Did you read that in newspaper? Maybe otaku website? This is kind of shock story to draw in readers. Spectacle. I am Japanese living in Japan. This is not a real thing.

I once read a story about a rich man in Las Vegas who walked around giving money to strangers. Should I guess that every rich man in America is giving money to strangers?

[Princess Luna]

I don't understand why this is in discrimination. Discrimination threads generally discuss the issue of a class of people being systematically marginalized by another, privileged class. Without getting into the complexity that this entails, what I see is a bunch of kids harassing an older woman. I don't understand what this is suppose to show regarding discrimination. I don't even know what sort of discrimination is being discussed. Ageism? Sexism? Classism? And what is the evidence or argument for this being a case of ageism, sexism, or classism?

Revleft, particularly the discrimination forum, is not a place to post "viral videos." It is also not a place to post mainstream media fluff, either. This needs to be in chit chat, unless someone can justify how this is an example of discrimination. By the way, I also noticed that the post had been moved. Where was it before discrimination?
I can't bring myself to watch the video, but it seems the kids targeted her because of her age and weight. If that isn't discrimination I don't know what is.

[Lynx]

Adult students riding on school buses by permission are often subject to abuse. It's a strange mobbing behavior.

[Sea]

I can't bring myself to watch the video, but it seems the kids targeted her because of her age and weight. If that isn't discrimination I don't know what is.It seemed more to me like the kids just wanted to give her hell. I'm sure each of them often see much older / heavier / whatever people in their lives (even family members) that they wouldn't pick on. Convenience seems to be the catalyst for their cruelty more than anything else, especially considering that picked they on her purse for a while too.

If she had a boil, or was disabled, or wore glasses, etc. the results likely wouldn't be very different.

[MarxSchmarx]

Did you read that in newspaper? Maybe otaku website? This is kind of shock story to draw in readers. Spectacle. I am Japanese living in Japan. This is not a real thing.


Otaku website? Get a life. Your arrogance just exposes your utter cluelessness about the issue of juvenile crime.

I could care less whether you're japanese or not (why do you bother bringing it up at all?). If indeed you've been living in Japan, you live under a rock. Juvenile delinquincy has been an ongoing issue in Japan and in many other countries from which no capitalist state escapes. The fact that you seem blissfully ignorant of the increasingly draconian penalties insisted on young people and regulations for things as mundane as surfing the web and treating juveniles as adult criminals in the investigative process speaks to just how blind you are to the state of affairs even in the place you claim to inhabit.


I once read a story about a rich man in Las Vegas who walked around giving money to strangers. Should I guess that every rich man in America is giving money to strangers? Given your idiotic logic that , based on a single, "spectacle" story about a bunch of dweebs acting up that there is something "cultural" about the whole bus monitor affair, and that you'd "like a better explanation of why this is so common in America", I'd suggest your conclusion about how the American rich behave would certainly be an utterly erroneous, but consistent, inference from a single sensationalist story about the "culture" of America.

[Hiero]

Even more obvious is that this woman is in the position she's in because of capitalism. If she had a choice in her job, she probably wouldn't choose a job that's best suited for an authoritative/strict figure.

Many people, including elderly women, choose these jobs for particial reasons like earning extra money and that they will be hired in this position unlike say Walmart who would be worried about their age and health risks, but also because they want to work with children. People do these jobs because they want to do something meaningful with their lives and they believe these jobs are about helping people. Capitalism is what puts people in a position that they search for employment, but people seek out certian roles like this for different reasons.

Often in cases like this authoritative people are not suitable, because kids can be harsh and know very well that symbolic violence of adults is not backed by a soviegn violence (you can warn a misbehaving kid that they will be made to walk home, but you can not physcially touch them and throw them off the bus). So people with a caring attitude and tough skin are usually choosen for these roles, authoritative people are best to work with adults, because adults (and animals) hail to authority more then children.

So capitalism's role here is promotion of a hollow concept of individual rights and the eroding of collectivity. Kids have a vague concept of individual rights (adults can not touch me), but they have a vaguer imagine about how to relate to one other. I find American pop culture instigates a very selfish culture, especially with popularising of pseudo law as a basis for human interaction. Basically the attitude, "i can call you a fat ****, but you can't touch me", a life philosophy of do whatever you can within the realm of law (which is damaging to any radical political movement). I don't think these kids treated her this way because they are inherently cruel, but because they can. It is neo-liberalism at its immoral core, its ugly reality revealed in children.