Outrage Over Grandmother Bullied on Bus Proves Anti-Bullying Campaigns Are Working

COMMENTARY | By now, most people have heard about the grandmother who was bullied on aNew York school bus. A video of the unfortunate act was posted online and immediately went viral. People have raised over $185,000 for the grandmother, Karen Klein, and authorities are investigating the middle school students who bullied her.

As a student who was bullied on a school bus in my childhood, my immediate reaction to this story was that the anti-bullying campaign taking place across America still has a long way to go. This story was also surprising in that much of the bullying that takes place these days is on smart phones and behind computer screens.

However, I now have a positive spin to put on this terrible story. Although this behavior is far from being wiped out, the reaction to a grandmother being bullied in 2012 is a positive sign. Twenty-five years ago, when I told my high school counselor I was being bullied on the school bus, he told me it might stop if I wore contact lenses instead of glasses.

To look at this bullying story objectively, it is practically impossible to wipe out any vice in our society. Despite anti-drug, anti-smoking and anti-bullying campaigns, all of these deleterious activities continue today. Plus, we all remember how well Prohibition worked out when we tried to make the sale of alcohol illegal.

In addition to facing a possible detention or suspension at school, the students who bullied the grandmother are now facing a far worse judgment. Their actions are being ridiculed by millions of their peers around the world. This would have never happened if not for the success of today's anti-bullying campaign.

For middle school students, nothing is more important than peer relations. That's why most students at that age will choose to dress like their classmates rather than their parents. Discipline from parents, schools and even the police are important. But to truly curb a negative behavior, peers must convince their friends it isn't cool.

Although it was traumatic for a grandmother to get bullied on that school bus, the reaction to this heinous act proves we are moving in the right direction. Twenty-five years ago, someone may have just told her not to wear glasses.


http://news.yahoo.com/outrage-over-grandmother-bullied-bus-proves-anti-bullying-220000763.html

A Toronto man's online fundraising campaign for a 68-year-old upstate New York grandmother is nearing $450,000, after a video showing the woman being bullied to tears by children on a school bus went viral.

The victim of the deluge of taunts, insults, slurs and threats of violence was Karen Klein, a school bus monitor in the Rochester, N.Y., suburb of Greece.

Her tormentors were a group of four 13-year-old boys.
In a profanity-laced exchange, the 10-minute YouTube video posted this week showed the students calling Klein "fat," "ugly" and a "troll," and jabbing her with their fingers as she wept, apparently trying her best to ignore the comments. The children continued to abuse her verbally after she removed her sunglasses to show she had been crying.

One student taunted: "You don't have a family because they all killed themselves because they don't want to be near you."

Klein's oldest son killed himself 10 years ago.

Klein told CBC's Mark Kelley Thursday night on Connect that she decided not to press charges against the children "because these kids — they're kids."

"I'd hate to see it go in their file or whatever. They're only 13 years old," Klein said. "Middle-school children are a different breed of children."
Hugs from strangers

While Klein said she was surprised to learn a video of the incident had been posted to YouTube, she was even more taken aback by the flood of support she received from strangers who viewed the clip.

The video has been viewed more than 1.8 million times within just two days.

"I can't believe the people and how nice they've been. I mean strange people stop by and they give me a hug," Klein said Thursday.

Sidorov, who told CBC News he was a victim of bullying as a young immigrant from Ukraine, noted that Klein only earns $15,506 a year. He had set a goal to raise $5,000 for her to take a much-needed holiday.Among those affected by the footage was Torontonian Max Sidorov, who created a page through the online fundraising service Indiegogo.com for Klein.

"Lets give her something she will never forget, a vacation of a lifetime!" Sidorov wrote on the page.

But the fundraising drive soon wildly surpassed expectations. As of 8:30 p.m. ET Thursday, more than $375,000 had been pledged to go toward Klein.
Hopes for retirement

In her first conversation with Sidorov since the money was raised, Klein said onConnect with Mark Kelley that she was overwhelmed by supportive emails, Facebook messages and flowers.

"It certainly has been an experience. One I'll never forget," she said.

Klein said she hasn't yet decided where she might go on vacation.

Earlier in the day, Sidorov told CBC Radio's Carol Off on As it Happensthat he hoped the money would give Klein the freedom to stop working and take it easy.

"I think she's going to retire with this money, and I hope she does. It's enough money to send her on a very much earned retirement," he said.

As for Klein's tormentors, she said the father of one offered her a sincere apology and added that a written apology from his son would be forthcoming. She has also requested a written apology from another of the youths.
Death threats for boys

Meanwhile, a deluge of people have demanded harsh punishment for the boys featured in the video.

John Auberger, supervisor for the Town of Greece, said in a press conference the suburb was likewise shocked by the hurtful nature of the taunts.

"We, too, are outraged by the behaviour of this group of students and want to emphasize that the actions of a few do not reflect our community as a whole," he said.

The boys remain under police protection.

"They've received death threats," Greece police Capt. Steve Chatterton said Thursday. "Their families have been threatened. We have custody of one of their cellphones, and he had over 1,000 missed calls and 1,000 text messages threatening him. And he's 13 years old. That must stop."

Police said it's not clear if they committed a crime under NY State law. Klein said she simply hopes the kids learn a lesson and act respectfully.


http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2012/06/21/bullied-bus-monitor-karen-klein.html

Earth Hour 2012

Let us all Participate in the world’s largest single campaign for the planet: Earth Hour. 

It starts by turning off your lights for an hour at 8:30 pm on March 31, 2012 in a collective display of commitment to a better future for the planet. This is the easiest thing we can do for our Mother Earth. We should all come together for a common cause.

Mexico Earthquake

A 7.4-magnitude earthquake struck Mexico this afternoon, centered between Acapulco and Oaxaca, with no reported injuries.The quake's epicenter was about 115 miles east of Acapulco and 10 miles underground.Workers at two hotels in Oaxaca said they noticed a few seconds of shaking but no real damage or injuries."Yes, we felt the shaking for 15 to 20 seconds, but no damage," a woman at the front desk of the Hotel Marina in Huatulco told ABC News.Despite the lack of building collapses or serious damage, hundreds of panicked people took to the streets, fearing the effects of possible aftershocks. No deaths or injuries have been reported.Mexico City Mayor Marcello Ebrard tweeted, "we have an earthquake," according to the Associated Press.Mexican President Felipe Calderon tweeted that no serious damage had been reported and that the epicenter was in the municipality of Ometepec, in the state of Guerrero.Calderon also tweeted that "all of the power generation facilities are unaffected and functioning." He said officials have taken care of the few service disruptions.He added that there were "only scenes of panic and building evacuations, at the moment."Marco Martinez, an employee at a perfume and makeup shop in Guerrero, said some merchandise fell and broke and some cracks appeared in the wall. Martinez said the store's seven employees felt more tremors"We all dropped to the floor as soon as we felt it," Martinez told ABC News by telephone. "Merchandise was falling and many of our perfumes are broken, but everyone is safe. That's what matters. "We're scared and we don't want to go outside."Martinez said he was "too scared to be on the phone right now" because she still felt tremors.

Additional reporting by ABC News' Alicia Tejada.

Remembering Japan Killer Earthquake and Tsunami

This town of 40,000 on the north-east coast of Japan was the first place where the tsunami reached land, and many in the crowd visibly blanched, their eyes wet with tears, as the wail of the alarm transported them back to that day.


At least 440 people died and a quarter of the town's buildings were destroyed as the wave, funnelled into the tight V-shaped bay, rushed almost two miles inland, growing to a height of 77ft.


"When we heard the warning, we did what we had been drilled to do: we headed for the primary school, our evacuation centre," said Murakami Hitoe, 60. "But when we saw the wave, it looked very big. So we quickly decided to run up to the temple, the Hanzo-ji. That is what saved us," she said. Looking back, we feel a mixture of relief and anguish. We lost our house, but others lost a lot more."


On Sunday, less fortunate families gathered to bid their dead a final farewell. They queued along the water's edge to strike a cast iron bell, burn three pinches of powdered incense, and clasp their hands together in silent prayer.


Kawahara Kazunori, 74, lost his sister, Noriko. "We were very close, she was just a year younger than me," he said, bowing to a small memorial where she used to live. "We managed to survive the [Second World] War together when life was truly hard. I thought we would survive this too.¡± Her house lay more than a mile inland; she thought she was safe and did not run.


Throughout the region devastated by the tsunami, only 58 per cent of the population evacuated when they heard the sirens, according to a government survey.


In the days before the earthquake, there had been a series of smaller foreshocks, including one that measured magnitude 7.2. In turn, Japan¡¯s meteorological office had issued tsunami alerts, all of which had proved false. By the time the earthquake struck, some had begun to disregard the warnings.


Others simply decided that the wave would not affect them. In Ofunato, a brown stone marks the furthest point which a previous tsunami had reached in 1960. Over the years, the town came to regard anything built beyond the marker as safe. But last year's wave was twice as big.


Sato Tokiko, 48, lost her 74 year-old father, who had survived the 1960 tsunami and assumed his house was beyond the safety line. "My mother died two years before the tsunami," she said. "We think my father just wanted to be with her. He would not have wanted to leave her altar in the house."


When the wave struck, Japan's sophisticated set of offshore buoys, designed to measure the height of tsunamis, malfunctioned. The official alert dramatically understated the size of the wave, misleading many to think they would be safe.


Along the north-east coastline, 15,854 died in the disaster and 3,155 are classified as missing, either because their relatives are still searching for them, or because they do not have the paperwork to register the death. Police teams have pledged to keep searching for the dead, despite the hopelessness of the task.


In Ofunato, the day began with snow, a reminder that those who survived the disaster went on to struggle for weeks in the winter cold, many without heating or supplies.


But as the moment of the anniversary neared, the warming sun emerged from the clouds. After a series of speeches, mourners lay white lilies and chrysanthemums and silence fell, a palpable sense of sorrow rippling across the crowd.


And then: a collective exhalation, relief and perhaps a sense of closure. "For a lot of people this year has passed very quickly, like a bad dream," said Hashimoto Katsuo, a 74-year-old monk who has counselled the town and helped conduct an earlier memorial service.


"The mental anguish, including a feeling of guilt for surviving, is very deep. I know one man who lost his wife who was just a few feet away from him in the water. But we must try to be active, to communicate with each other, and search for happiness. That is how we will get over the terror of what has happened," he said.


As the ceremony ended, Buddhist monks chanted sutras and the crowd streamed to the docks to release prayers and paper cranes into the water. The bay was entirely calm, the water a deep cobalt blue.


The town's remaining eight boats were already out. They had sailed to where two of the fleet had capsized, drowning all on board.


"When we heard the alarm last year, we sailed straight out to sea," explained one fisherman, Watari Koichi, 58. "We made it past the wave before it got to shore and stayed out there for two days. But our friends never made it out of the bay."


The fleet only started fishing again two days ago, and it was the first chance for them to mark their friends' passing. "We circled the spot where they died three times, cut our engines, said a prayer and a final goodbye," said Kotsubo Teruo, another fisherman.


Ofunato's largest ship, the Mikasa Maru, then set sail for the mouth of the bay to complete the remembrance service. As part of the 'toro nagashi', a Buddhist memorial ritual, paper lanterns inscribed with prayers were floated onto the ocean.


Afterwards, in the late afternoon sunshine, as the town's residents slowly filtered away, there were smiles, some laughs, and a feeling that the dead had been properly honoured.


By Malcolm Moore, Ofunato


Courtesy of http://www.telegraph.co.uk




Photos: TOMOHIKO KANO, THE ASSOCIATED PRESShttp://www.ocregister.com

Stop Kony

I want to share this video that is going viral over the internet about the children from Uganda being abducted to become soldiers and girls being held as sex slaves and Grisly killings for Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) that is led by Joseph Kony. This video aims to let the whole world know who is Joseph Kony, not make him famous but to make an awareness about his heinous acts. The group has been blamed for the murder of thousands of civilians in four countries, and the U.S. classifies it as a terrorist organization. A Twitter campaign targeting celebrities and influential figures took off last night using the hashtag #STOPKONY.

A Ugandan boy who goes by the name Ali Ali, sits in a hut and reveals the nearly-healed wounds inflicted as punishment for trying to escape from the Lords Resistance Army (LRA) rebels who had abducted him, at a center for victims of war in Gulu town, in Uganda's war-torn northern region, 285 miles north of the capital Kampala, Friday, March 20, 1998. Ali, who escaped from the rebels, had been one of the thousands of young Ugandans abducted and forced to fight alongside guerrillas of the LRA, a rebel group which operates from bases in neighboring Sudan. (AP)

An Ugandan Red Cross worker distributes blankets to displaced people in a primary school in Lira, 230 miles (370 kms) north of Kampala, Friday, May 29, 1998. Some 10,000 people have fled attacks from the rebels of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) to find shelter in Lira. The LRA, operating in small units, have managed to elude government troops, continuing their penetration deep into Uganda, and residents of Lira and Oririm fear the government is on the losing end of the insurgency. (AP)

Displaced women with their babies wait for a distribution of food and blankets in a primary school in Lira, 230 miles (370 kms) north of Kampala, Friday, May 29, 1998. (AP)

Rebel Lord's Resistence Army boy soldier, Samuel Okumu, with his gun stands at the Sudan/DRC border Friday, July 28, 2006. (AP)

Lord's Resistance Army boy soldier, John Komakech, stands on guard during the visit of their LRA deputy chief, Vincent Otti to the Sudan/Congo border for talks with Sudanese Vice President, Saturday, July 29, 2006. (AP)

The leader of the Lord's Resistance Army, Joseph Kony , left, and his deputy Vincent Otti, sit inside a tent Sunday, November 12, 2006 at Ri-Kwamba in Southern Sudan during a meeting with UN humanitarian chief Jan Egeland. Egeland met with Kony, the elusive leader of Uganda's notorious rebel Lord's Resistance Army and one of the world's most-wanted war crimes suspects, seeking to secure the release of women and children enslaved by the group during their 20-year conflict with the Ugandan government. But Kony denied that his forces are holding prisoners. (AP)

Ugandans look at bodies of civilians killed in an ambush by the Liberation Resistance Army (LRA) at Olege in Bibia Amuru district about 400km (248 miles) from Kampala, as they lie in a truck, Tuesday, May 1, 2007. (AP)

Pictures and captions are courtesy of http://www.huffingtonpost.com/

We should put a stop on this by helping to spread this message. Post this on your Facebook wall or in your Twitter account to let your Family and Friends know about this Movement to Stop Joseph Kony. The LRA is reportedly fractured and weakened, however its leader Joseph Kony remains at large. I was moved when i watched the video, any child dont deserve to be treated that way. I felt really sad for those children in Uganda and I am really mad for these Group of People who did such heinous crimes.