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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsDonations for bullied bus monitor soar past $500,000
The fund was set up after a 10-minute, profanity-laced video depicting Klein being relentlessly bullied and driven to tears by four middle school boys went viral earlier this week.
Ashley Austell, one of more than 24,000 people who donated to the campaign, said it was the least she could do.
I couldnt stop thinking, What if that were my grandma? Austell, 24, told msnbc.com in an email after she saw the video. When she cried, I started bawling because it was so heartbreaking. You felt for this woman. She could be any of our grandmothers.
Austell, who lives in Arlington, V.A., donated $100 because she wanted to be part of a whole world showing Karen Klein that people care about her.
Two of the students and the father of a third implicated in the harassment have issued apologies to Klein via statements to police in Greece, N.Y.
http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/06/22/12357236-donations-for-bullied-bus-monitor-soar-past-500000?lite
bluestateguy
(44,173 posts)And I wonder how much of it the IRS would take.
Gin
(7,212 posts)These entitled spoiled brat kids need to face some consequences......the audacity of doing it, taping and posting it boggles the mind.
Glorfindel
(9,730 posts)Nothing on earth is more despicable than a bully, whether he (or she) is six or a hundred and six years old.
bluestateguy
(44,173 posts)But she also may want to start seeking out a CPA. As it stands now, the IRS and the state of New York would likely take about 35% of that money, which may not be what the donors had intended.
Nye Bevan
(25,406 posts)And her tax issues are her own concern. As is how much, if any, she decides to donate to charity.
hrmjustin
(71,265 posts)not the salvation army.
Posteritatis
(18,807 posts)Peregrine Took
(7,415 posts)First there is a passionate swing towards one opinion and a few days later - the opposite opinion is in vogue.
Doofus on MSNBC today said she should give all the money back but a small sum and defended the "kids" as youngsters who are just finding themselves at this age and shouldn't be blamed. They are now being bullied by the public, yada yada.
To assuage the upset they have caused us all I think they should appear on tv with their parents and they all owe us an apology, in addition to the one owed Karen Kline.
RandySF
(58,904 posts)If my kid did that, I cannot fathom a punishment that would begin to balance the scales. Those kids not only tortured that poor lady, but shamed their families as well.
Posteritatis
(18,807 posts)cherokeeprogressive
(24,853 posts)She won't even be liable for taxes on it; it's a gift. The gifter pays taxes and then only after $13,000. I doubt there is any one person who has donated that much to the fund. Good for her.
The single most destructive, hurtful, hateful thing in the universe is a small herd of adolescents in a closed space. I'm sure she's had to deal with a ton of shit in her time.
Enjoy it, Ms. Klein.
As for the little monsters who did this, at the very least they should be excluded from riding the bus for the next school year. Suspension doesn't sound too bad either. That way it would be on their school transcripts.
RandySF
(58,904 posts)If I was a parent of one of the offenders, I would insist on in-school suspension (no vacation) followed by helping the janitor at the end of the day, followed by a year of chores at Ms. Klein's house and community service. No extra-curricular (assuming these kids are even the type), no athletics (including little league), no television. And I would just be getting warmed up.
cherokeeprogressive
(24,853 posts)And perfect.
unreadierLizard
(475 posts)I'd throw them out of their house for a week. See how they survive off the kindness of strangers.
Sociopaths won't last a day.