Ms Karen Klein Bullied? How do you feel?
It has gone viral. See how Ms Klein was brutally bullied by kids on the school bus by 7th graders!!
Horrible:
Or view the video on the server at:
https://video.tsemtulku.com/videos/KIDSBULLYSCHOOLBUS_MonitorKarenKleinRochesterNY.mp4
And see this:
Or view the video on the server at:
https://video.tsemtulku.com/videos/BusMonitorGrandmotherKarenKleinBulliedbyStudentsCaughtonTape.mp4
See her on the news… Ms Klein in tears:
Or view the video on the server at:
https://video.tsemtulku.com/videos/MakingtheBusMonitorCry_KarenKleinBulliedbyKidsonGreeceDistrictSchoolBus.mp4
When we were kids we dare not speak up towards adults/elders. We dare not say anything rude. We were taught to be polite and kind at all times no matter what towards adults. Being vicious and vulgar towards the elderly from kids is not a behavior we should tolerate ever. A good lesson to learn.
Ms Klein is still gracious and kind in the end. She is a inspiration. Watch how she speaks. May she heal from this and may many others who suffer the same not have to endure this again.
How do you feel about this? Do you think perpetuating a culture on popular media of children/young adults rude and arrogant towards adults feed this type of behavior? Will you show this video to your children? What would you say to Ms. Klein?
Tsem Rinpoche
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I see Ms. Klein was some sort of benevolent kind and lovely lady. From the way she respond to those bullies tells it. She no meaning to harm or create trouble and yet these people are taking things for granted. Being silence doesn’t mean is weak and many people think likewise.
Kids in this century are very much influenced by their parents ignorant. The parents should take full responsibility in general educate their children moral conduct. With skilful and wisdom knowledge, hence they will grow to become better person in future or else they turn into society trash lice.
I am shocked…
Where’s the respect? This is very sad, calling her poor and commenting on her weight is sick. I feel sorry for this lady and I wish that I was there to stand up for her.
This is just horrible to watch. How could anyone even bully people like that. It is not only rude, but this is just out of hand. Ms Karen Klein has experienced so much more as compared to the kids, how could they just insult her in this manner? It just do not make any sense at all. We should all respect and treasure people that are older then us.
I believe that this is due to the way the parents have brought up the children, if they have showed them how to respect others and taught them properly, things like that would not have happened. I believe that parents would have to take on the responsibility to this as they have failed as parents in teaching their children.
This is very mean of the kids! How can we bully the someone who is much elder than us? I feel so sad for Ms Karen Klein. There’s nothing wrong about being fat, even I am fat. So what’s the big deal? It’s not you’re gonna get sued or what. Not to be offensive, but I think the adults should really educate their kids properly.
Thank You for sharing Rinpoche.
Love, beatrix.
I think that parenting methods make up 99% of how children are influenced as they’re growing up. People like to blame ill behaviour on the media but even how much exposure to television, movies, the internet and video games can be determined and controlled by the parents. Don’t say that it’s because society has become this way – society doesn’t just become this way on it’s own. It’s how we interact with society and how we teach children to interact and respond to what’s around them.
I have been hearing of these new age parenting methods from friends and family, where new theories state that it’s important never to punish children for bad behaviour, but to allow them to fully express themselves and do whatever they want. So this is where kids can watch as much bad television they want, talk however they want, (mis)treat others however they want, scream and run wild in public as they like. So the kids who bullied Ms Klein probably don’t see anything wrong in what they’re doing because they’re brought up thinking that behaviour like this is fine – there was no repercussion for similar behaviour before; nor did anyone ever explain to them WHY you can’t and shouldn’t act like this. The same goes for children who throw rocks at rocks, step on kittens and abuse all kinds of animals. When you’re young and you’re not quite able to fathom what is right or wrong yet, you’re still in need of a guiding compass. And the best people to provide that are our parents. So if they fail to do this, then who else is there to blame for the awful behaviour that society is now churning out? We blame this big, bad imaginative body called ‘society’? or we blame the people who bring these kids into the world? I think the answer is very clear.
This is extremely terrible behaviour that the children have these days. I always believe that how is the child acts and behaves is very much depend on how the parents educate them. I totally understand the parents these days are busy working and no time for the children but that is not an excuse. Parents have the responsibility on their child’s behaviour, educated them to become a good human and not a monster!
This post and video is very disturbing as I can’t believe these kids are terrible rude and the words from them are totally shocking! They event make fun about her late son, this is too much!!!!! I hope after watching this video, parents should really take some time and go through this video with their kids and let them understand that these bullied action and behaviour are very wrong. Have a discussion with the kids on these incident and see how they think.
Kechara Manjustri Kid’s class can also have a session to watch this video together and have a discussion too. I think is important as nowadays kids are scary, you will never know what are they thinking.
Ms. Karen Klein is compassion and kind enough to forgive these kids. I wish her well and be happy. She deserves a better treatment.
Love,
Helena
I thank Ms Karen for being so kind throughout despite the kids mentioned about her son who took his life. The mental violence towards Ms Klein is not even necessary but it shows that the kids derived pleasure or even a sense of identity by bullying this helpless grandmother. May this video be a lesson for many parents to instill good wholesome values into their children.
Ms Klein is old enough to be their grandmother but these kids didn’t show any respect to an elder. People are more insensitive these days and materialism is common. Children need to be guided in their formative years to enable them to grow up into caring and worthy adults. The best material to use in by applying Dharma teachings. Parents have to set good examples as their children are observing them. Many parents are lacking too so more awareness must be created for the parents to become better role models. Teachers also play an important role as children spend part of their growing up years in the school. Communication in the family should be encouraged as many parents and their children are absorbed in their latest technology gadgets.
I feel really sad watching this. She was so helpless. Kids over this part of the world are a little bit better, but in time they’ll reach that shallow state of mind as well. Sometimes a ‘good’ child can be changed by peer pressure. Parents and society in general should act with kindness and respect cause we need better role models than the shallow ones we see on TV.
Latest video update. Ms Klein received 600K from online donations after a person suggested a petition to give her a vacation. She said she don’t want the money but instead she would giving it away to others who are more in need.
http://abcnews.go.com/US/school-bus-bullies-learn-punishment/story?id=16682868
I feel sad when I watched the video. It is quite common these days or even earlier during my school time, some ‘bad’ students will shout and challenge the school teacher. There are many circumstances, parents are not giving attention and spending time with their kids at home. The kids mixed with other kids, and because lack of guidance they spend more time with each other outside playing, having fun, in this case bullying. Ms Klein has good composure when she was interviewed, she is matured.
Parents are responsible for their kids, spending time with them, showing good example as adult, and discipline their kids. It is most critical to teach kids respects before they enter school. As my parents used to say you can pickup bad behavior in 3 days, and you need 3 years to pickup good behavior. That says how much importance for parents to inculcate kid with good behavior.
As kid we are responsible to respect and learn from elders because they have live longer and more experience in life.
i have encountered with a lot of same kind of kids and it is sad that their parents are not able to see the true face of their kids in public. Most of their parents do not spend much time with their kids, monitor their behavior and ended up their kids will react and follow with whatever behavior they have picked up from their peers most of the time. Although i am not yet a father, but i was brought up under a strict restriction from my mum. i really wanna thank my mum for punishing me and restrict me from all the outside activities during my young age. i was once mixed with the bad hats in school and i truly believe that the young kids are innocent.
According to the American Medical Association, 3.7 million youths engage in bullying, and more than 3.2 million are victims of “moderate” or “serious” bullying each year (Cohn & Canter, 2003). Almost 30% of youth in the United States are estimated to be involved in bullying as either a bully, a target of bullying or both. This numbers show how sickening the bully culture is now.
I think to cultivate a bully-free society should start at home. Like teaching self-control through discipline and moral values. Teach the children how bad is mistreating others by physically or psychologically hurting others. Bullies are tend to be having behavioral problems like high or low self-esteem, hate to lose, dominant, low tolerance, telling lies and good at hiding, etc…
Kindness and compassion are two elements that are lacking in this society and it should really be instilled into our mind since young. Parents should also lead by example for what you are teaching your children, if you tell your children bullying others is not right, then you should start treating people around you nice and when your child gets into trouble, you should accept the responsibility for his negative behavior and not justify, because by protecting your child, you are actually bullying the other party who is bullied by telling them ” My child is a bully, so what?”
As adult we may see whatever we say is ‘correct’ and ‘normal’, it could be a form of bullying. By putting down on others, discouraging others effort, complaining about others, I am ‘bullying’ others because by making other feel bad, I can boost my inferiority. Criticizing others because we don’t like the person, and defending our criticism until we ‘win’, we enforce our own ‘bullying’ behavior. “There’s nothing wrong with me, they are not physically hurt”, but what we don’t see hurt the most. Our speech become abusive speech which hurt.
Ms Karen Klein的短片，看了真令人愤怒！难以想像以后这个社会会变成什么样呢？我相信这些问题的发生，身为父母是不想的，需要从很多方面去分析。比如学习的环境，朋友的影响和父母的教育等等。。。无论如何，Ms Karen Klein的片段值得我们在多方面有着警惕之心。
Western societies are a lot more liberal and creative as compared to for instance Asian countries, I personally like the creative and the free spirits that they have but unfortunately things can go wrong easily if things are misused.
Lots of funds have been raised to help Ms Karen, and the amounts of funds amaze me as it is more than a hundred folds than the original target.
I hope Ms Karen can get over this event and make good use of the funds raised, those kids will learn this lesson well and not to repeat.
Speech, although formless, can hurt people a lot more than physical actions.
Better to educate and correct kids’ Behavioural conduct at young age before its too late. We never will know for certainty, if ever when they grow up and become leaders of society, how many people may die at their hands if they may turn into another notorious Hiltler, or like so many bad leaders. Ms Kien has shown a classic example by not retaliating. It is logical that adult behaviour like parents, teachers, kind close caring relatives and adult friends, are usualy accepted or taken as “role models” examples for growing-up kiddies. Thanks to Rinpoche for this valuable teachings for all parents or would-be parents to note and also should be should to the kids to watch and hopefully to transform themselves if necessary.
This is a very disturbing video , reflects on how the younger generation are being raised.My heart goes out to Ms Klein and i am inspired by her calmness and graciouness. I always remember what my parents told us when we were young and that is if a child behaves well and does good for others, the child receives the credits and the praises. However if the child behaves badly and does harm to others ; it reflects on the parents : that the parents does not how to bring up the child properly , that the parents are not fit to be parents etc etc.
This has been instilled into us that if we love our parents, we would never do anything to shame our parents and cause them to be hurt in any way.I think nowadays , there is a different approach in bringing up children, and it saddens me when i see disrespect from a child to an adult , all the more so to an elderly person.
I believe there is always a balance between kids being good or bad no matter what era we are in, be it now or 50 years ago. Karma is the main factor that controls how people behave and there are many cases where kids grow up to be decent people even though their growing up experience contradicts. However, having said that, we as mere humans cannot control karma.
However, adults should not neglect their responsibility to ensure the kids do not turn up to be monsters by focussing on other controllable factors such as upbringing methods, media, environment etc. It is important to cultivate and instill good qualities in kids since young when it is easy to adapt by setting a good example for them to follow.
I’m sure everyone agrees that Ms Klein does not deserve this sort of torment that has been happening all the while before the video. Her patience and kindness is very admirable. On top of not receiving much apologies from the teenagers nor parents involved in the video, she did not go further to press any charges against them and wished they would not go to jail for this. A wonderful person like her deserves a grand and wonderful holiday.
I really feel disgusted with the kids. How can these school going children show so much disrespect to an elderly Person? What are the schools teaching the children nowadays? This kind of bad behaviour has hurt Ms. Klein mentally and she will be scarred for life. An elderly lady does not deserve this kind of treatment from anyone. Even though she was the victim, she was not angry with the kids. This shows her kind and forgiving attitude towards people who have hurt her.
Of course, the reasons children become rude and showing bad behaviour to the elders may be due to poor upbringing by their parents. Parents are busy chasing for material wealth that they neglect their children or they pass the responsibility of raising kids to other people. Bad influence from the media especially TV and the internet.
If I have children, I would show them this video and tell them this is not something they should do or follow. It is BAD example. If I bring them up right, then they will empathize with Ms. Klein, because they can see that Ms. Klein is hurting.
I would tell Ms. Klein that she is an inspiration to many and she gives strength to other victims of being bullied. Thank you for the lesson of forgiveness and kind heartedness.
I read the comments; some of you said is the parents’ fault that the children copy from them. But I don’t think all of them copy from the parents. Their parents may not behave like this; the fault of the parents nowadays is they do not have time for their children. They only provide the material things to the children. Therefore as a Dharma center, we can play a role here to provide “spiritual materials” to both parents and children.
Ms Klein, you are a kind and nice lady.
You have valid points. The parents may not behave this way but did their grandparents brought up parents this way with materialism as well? Does parents work getting material things for themselves or for their children? We never know, perhaps parents are one who need more spirituality than the kids, so they can spend more time on themselves, their kids, and less on pursuing material things.
Things already happened, both parents and children need to change. 🙂
These kids are terrible, they are making fun of people, inflicting pain on other. They do not think what they are doing is wrong. They grow up in an environment where bullying is ok, making fun of people is ok. As a results, children will do what the rest is doing.
If they have Dharma when they are young, they will not accept bullying as ok. They will understand it is not ok to hurt others.
Is this the direction of the children of today heading? They have no idea what is respect and what is moral. They are rude, cruel and violence. What lead to this? Why are they behaved in this way but no one taking action? The society let it happened and the parents ignore what the children did. It will become worse if the authority do not take any actions.
This need to be stopped. I believe there are many more people being abused and bullied by these kids out there but kept quiet with it.
What those kids did in the bus was totally unacceptable! They were real bullies!
This is the result of over exposured to violence on tv and movies. Children are like spans, they take in whatever is shown to them.. Also the parents did not instil manners at home.
From young we were taught to greet everyone when meeting people, before having meals, say good morning, and wish everyone good night before resting. When we give something to anyone, we have to use both hands, etc etc.. All these are to teach us to be polite and respect other people. Obviously these kids were not given such guidance.
Most of us will choose to fight back if facing the same circumstance. Ms Klein use her patience & kindness to set a good example to us we do have other choice to facing all this terrible actions.she gained respect from us. children is our responsiblities to ensure their are on right path, to developed good virture to care for other, we as a parent need to become a good example to avoid our children to behave like that.
Most horrendous and shocking behavior from people so young!I’m appalled because of the malice behind their words and action. They accuse MS Klein of causing the death of her son who had committed suicide. They use a long ruler to poke at her and say that she had so much fat ( like butter) that a knife could go easily through her!
I would say that the popular media in the States(TV especially) as well as violent computer games have spawned a generation of American young who take joy in violence and abuse. This can be blamed on parents who just don’t have time for their kids and leave them to be ‘nurtured/fed’ on a diet of violent TV programs,violent computer games, and TV programs that laud abusive and disrespectful speech and behavior by the young toward adults and the aged.
I would show it to young kids, if any, are placed in my care. But I would be careful how I introduce the video to them.
My words to Ms Klein would be as follows: “Karen, I can imagine how terrified you were that day on the school bus. You were wise not to try and grab them and give them a spank. Can’t imagine how violently they would have retaliated.
Thank you for forgiving them, and letting it go.
I’m happy for you that people have been kind afterwards and have collected such a tidy sum for you to go on a holiday or to even retire if you wish to. You deserve a break, anyway.”
This a total degeneration of the Human species. Yes even at my age of 64 years, I still show respect to elders, actually I show respect to all people. I was taught from young to have respect for another person.
I am disgusted with this kind of a behaviour and Miss Klien was kind enough to be so patient with them but yet to think of it what can she do with so many bullies, they might even harm her.
As a mother and grandmother, I seriously dislike such behaviour and will definitely ask my grandchildren to watch this post and never never repeat such conduct.
Such conduct reminds me of animals, with no decency and respect, and in their madness what will these kids do to each other. Kill or something worse.
Minds like these will end up with merciless and senseless killings that had been happening on school campuses. I shudder to think further.
天啊，一张纯洁的白纸，怎么会变成如此的难堪？
父母的错，社会的错，还是宗教的错？
常常听朋友父母说，手停口停。 必须努力工作！就是这样子， 忽虑了孩子！
与佣人为伴， 电视节目为伴， 结交朋友？ 可能不是父母教导问题， 只是他们从没尝试过！这是非常严重的社会问题！必须重视！
现在马来西亚， 有许多的宗教学校获团体。 这些学校与团体也常常打开门， 接受这些问题学生！轻少年，在叛逆期，是非常想吸引家人朋友的注意。 那么这些宗教学校就会举办一些乐团， 歌唱表演的，打开他们的世界！
但是各位家长， 请不要把你的问题对给这些学校！千万别虐待， 这些好心人！
Watching this video is a wake up call for all of us, whether we are parents or not. Everyone of us have parents and elders to look up to, and some of us have children. Our society has progressed in such a way that we cannot turn back the clock, and go back to basics. My mum most of the time only use one word “have Manners”, nothing fanciful, but it works always. We were suppose to greet the elders to show our Respect. Our parents were there for us all the time. As kids, we don’t have the luxuries as internet, ipad etc etc. I guess that is a blessing in disguise.
Parenting now is best when we lead by example. Children watch us unknowingly. Therefore, we must work on ourselves before we can instill our values to our children.
我在报章也读到这个新闻，读了之后我心里真的有点不舒服，心里面想这个世界，整个社会以后会变成什么样子呢？尤其是儿童他们长大后是社会的主人翁，他们从小需要栽培，教育和自律，长大以后如果要成为好人或坏人，他们的命运都掌握在父母家庭的手中，看到这遍新闻报道这几个小孩用如此没有家教的行为去欺凌一位手无寸铁，还是一位肯在学习中的老太婆。这些孩子的父母看了后不懂有什么反应呢？
我个人意见，这个情况我不会去怪责孩子，我会去怪责孩子的父母，因为，我相信孩子出世后尤如一张白纸。他的举指行为都是父母的影响，所以在这个社会里，没有问题孩子只有问题父母。。。
为什么有问题孩子呢？因为有问题父母的家庭。。。真的希望有孩子的父母要三思，教育出对社会有用的人，不然的话就不要生育，免得害人害己。。。
Ms Klein 有着慈悲和忍辱之心，我觉得她的伤心不是因为自身受到欺凌而是对这些小孩子感到悲哀。。。希望许多人尤其身为父母的看了这个短片后，能够有警惕之心。
It is very sad to hear such stories. It is so horrible and evil. The way I was brought up is so much different. I will get cane if I do anything wrong or being naughty. Parents have a huge role here, how a child turns out to be when they grow up depends on the guidance from parents when they are young.
The above videos shows how senseless people can be! The kids who bullied Karen without mercy, if said weren’t brought up properly by their parents would be unfair to the parents, as we do not know whether it was their up bringing or was it due to these kids themselves being surrounded by a lot of negative influence which is easily accessible from the current media which promotes violence, chaos and brutality. And peers pressure of wanting to be acknowledge and simply wanted attention.
I feel pity for Karen, at the same time to the kids in being senseless and insensitive for what they have done. Karen is kind and very forgiving for not wanting the kids to be put in jail, but only wanted them to learn their lesson and move on and that the many other children out there to learn from this (not to be a bully). I personally feel the kids should compensate for their actions by doing community service work.
As for the kids, I hope they take this lesson seriously. It may be a good thing that this video surface and people are aware of what happened (If it didn’t, the kids who are involved may do even more harmful things in the future because they may feel, nothing happened what?).
Parents should always care for their children and monitor closely if there are any signs of violence and misbehaving, most importantly to take time to know what their kids are into! That way, their children will be more open about how they think, instead of wandering off in search of acknowledgement from peers that may lead to unthinkable consequences.
Joe
I feel very bad but at the same time i respect Ms Karen Klein client a lot because she still have the patience, wisdom and able to control her feelings even though being provoked over and over again by the 4 kids (God knows what the 4 of them will be turning into when they grow up!) Many would not have let the 4 go just like that. For me, she is a real winner!
Kids in this modern world is fast turning into inhumane and most do not even respect their own parents. If nothing to be addressed on this problem, the community of today will become even more dangerous and volatile. More and more robberies, murders will happen. How can human become more and more deteriorate till the level of even basic moral values are forgotten/ignored nowadays? Sad
A baby was born just like a plain paper, how the picture be is due to the parents make it. As in this article say ” When we were kids we dare not speak up towards adults/elders. We dare not say anything rude. We were taught to be polite and kind at all times no matter what towards adults ” so why it is happen now??
Parents are playing the most important parts in this kind of situation. Maybe last 10 or 20 years our parents are more time to be with children and more concern for them. Not just about that, parents at the time almost very respect to elders so they able to accept their comments and guidance. And they will follow elders especially in Dharmic actions.
But whats going on now? Every family busy for chasing money, for a better life that means they wants their children live better. Is good but this kind of action must add with Dharma knowledge then only can avoid this kind of happen arise again.
Thanks Ms Karen Klein to stand out to show us and alert us. Wish u are always good health and good fortune.
So much hatred already in minds that are so young. Where did they learn to taunt and hurt another person and for the fun of it. We can blame the kids for not having moral values, we can blame the schools and we can blame the parents. But as I was watching the video I could not but wonder who else may have been in the bus. The bus could not have been driven by itself. Why didn’t the bus driver not stop the kids? Did the rest of the people in the bus not intervene? There is no doubt that not only are we a society with diminished ethics and morals, but we have also developed into a culture of denial and looking away.
I would certainly show the video to other children and tell them for sure that bullying is wrong. In addition I will also highlight to them that letting others get away with cruel acts is also wrong. Cruelty can also be by neglect.
I am not sure if the money raised for Ms Klein is any compensation for her grief and pain but at least she does have the option to retire. Despite being tormented, she remains kind and harbours no ill will towards the bullying kids. She is an inspiration.
This conduct is atrocious and beyond rude. It makes me feel despair and think, “What will these kids become when they are 18? Robbers? Rapists? And think they can get way with it?” I definitely think that they must be taught a lesson. A harsh one like thrown in juvenile for a while. Children today because of so much exposure via public media have good and bad influences. These kids are results of bad influence.
I do not see any point of the parent getting heart broken but instead should take firm actions and punish them. If no firm intervention takes place now, they will grow up to be menace in society. I have three sons, and if I ever catch them doing things like this, they will be very sorry.
As parents it is our duty to raise kind, good and intelligent children NOT monsters who hurt people for entertainment. This video shocked me. And I will show my kids.
Bless Ms. Klein for still being so kind even at this point….
真的是觉得这班小孩很无聊、可耻！他们也不算是小孩了,但还竟然做出及说出这么伤人的话。
从这个片段就是个最好的例子来证明“语”的伤害力。也就是在我们皈依时有多条的戒律是和“语”有关系的。
我想这里面小孩们的家人应该也从来不知道他们孩子的道德教育是在哪个程度。所以最先要反省的就是所有的家长们。个人认为每一个小孩从小的学习榜样都会是来自于父母亲。家长的所有所作所为都会一一被孩子们看在眼里。但现在的科技已发达。孩子们在这个花花世界实在是有太多的诱惑及影响。但如果从小一个小孩能被父母亲种植了种种正直的道德观念，纵然是有再多的诱惑，小孩都应该可以分辨出是与非。
真的希望MsＫｌｅｉｎ可以走出悲伤，放下过去。也真的认为她当时的处理方式真的很理性（虽然对她是很残忍）。她对调侃她的小朋友们也不计较，这真的是值得我们学习的地方。
我真的认为，这片段是可以也应该和小朋友们分享的。但是需要大人的陪同辅助好让他们可以从这个反面教学的片段中吸取知识。
难以想象现在的年轻一代可以这样的欺凌一位年长的女士，实在令人愤怒！
从小父母就教导我们要尊敬长辈，不能无礼对待任何人，非常庆幸以往父母严厉的教导以及灌输道德教育给我们，让我们到现在都是彬彬有礼的对待每个人。
父母以身作则是个良好示范，我相信没有问题孩子只有问题父母。
Ms Karen Klein是个富有慈悲的老人，孩子让你受委屈了但您还是忍了下来，您的忍辱之心值得赞赏的，也因为社交媒体的力量让全世界正视这事件，警惕了全世界的父母，千万不可让孩子们滥用社交媒体，如果通过社交媒体来炫耀这样的行为是万万不能要的，反之宣传良好及有意义的讯息才不白费。
Incident of such nature is quite rampant these days and it can also happen the other way round. It’s not really surprising as there is so much violence and negativity, be it on the street, at home or even in school.
In this video, the kids might just be fooling around, for some kids tend to be very naughty and playful. It might have got out of control as the bus monitor was a 68-year-old woman of mild character. Don’t you think that the situation would be different if the bus monitor was someone of strong character?
Children who exhibit bad behaviour are often not intentionally doing so. Learning to test boundaries is a part of the growing up. Sometimes, however, this behaviour can turn from mischief to very frightening displays of abuse or violence. What better time is there for a person to develop qualities such as kindness and compassion? Whether in churches or temples, there are classes where children can learn how to develop harmony, confidence and find ways to guide them in life.
Parents have a responsibility to ensure children have effective and appropriate discipline in their lives. In addition, parents must teach their children the values of their society such as honesty, respect, patience, forgiveness, generosity and above all, compassion!
After all, a family with well-behaved children is a family filled with love and happiness…
What I saw in this video really disgusts me. I believe cowardice is one of the main reasons why people bully other people or animals. People who like putting other people down do it because they themselves feel low and in order to feel “good” about themselves, they have to put other people down. Bullying is an activity only the weak enjoy. Part of the reason can also be blamed on the parents of these children, who probably raised them up to be spoilt and too demanding.
Its really alarming to see this kind of behaviour in young children… but i don’t think its something new… probably its quite prevalent but just so happens this one got into the public’s eye. i’m not sure what the end result of the posting of this video for everyone to see, but so far i believe the majority response is to condemn the actions of the kids. i’m an optimist (or more like an idealist) and would say that most people will know in their hearts what is right and uphold it. if i had children i would definitely show the video to them and explain to them clearly what happened and why and what we should do if we see other people doing that.
in my early teens, my friends and i did say nasty things about teachers we disliked, but never directly to them. we wouldn’t dare.. we still respected authority in a sense, or perhaps feared the disciplinary consequences more. we knew it wouldn’t be right anyways. the kids here seemed to be doing it to deliberately make Ms Klein feel bad and they delighted in that.
i wouldn’t point fingers at any particular group for this kind of attitude from the younger generation… Buddhism always talked about universal responsibility and inter-connectivity.
I would say to Ms Klein, “i’m sorry you had to endure this kind of behaviour, and to have your old wounds picked so cruelly by ignorant children. i thank you for not reacting back negatively at them, your ordeal has now become a lesson for the world. now parents and future parents (everywhere that youtube can touch) will remember the importance of teaching empathy and respect to their children. have a happy holiday.”
on a side note, this article provides some explanation why Ms Klein’s story went viral and the role of social media: good to read http://on.rocne.ws/Nozxmz
Its truly sad to see the videos. She is truly a kind person because she endured so much and yet she did not retaliate. It’s not easy for someone to be able to do that. Most of them will just start to push around because that is what they are trying to do, provoke you to start a fight. Yes, I do blame the media for feeding the kids as kids learn because they think it is cool. Even if you don’t let them watch TV or play video games that doesn’t mean that their friends don’t do so.I will show this video to my kids and tell them this is wrong to treat someone and explain to them why. I would have told Ms Klein that I am proud that she is so kind and forgiving. She is showing a good example and inspire many to be like her. I aspire to have her good qualities.
There are causes to being a bully and here is an article on 5 main reasons why they became bullies – http://urbandojo.com/2010/06/16/bullying-reasons-why-do-people-bully-others-why-do-bullies-bully/
The video outrages me and I showed it to my son. He told me kids are not allowed to do that to teachers in Chinese medium school and they will be reprimanded if discovered. Adults need to reprimand kids who bully others to show them it is wrong.
Bullying the weaker demonstrates dominance or having power over the other person. Bullies become confident due to encouragements from their friends. This happens in school, school bus and tuition classes. The root causes may stem from anger (these kids may not have their own space to vent their frustration so they take it out on others or out of boredom or no guidance from parents), ignorance (if these kids have some dharma knowledge, they may think twice before taking action) and delusion (the kids feed on their own ego and mindlessness and lack direction in life).
Current popular media does have an impact on the young minds of these vulnerable kids but parents would need to know what important values to instill in them prior to growing up.
Ms Klein – I would have done the same by ignoring these bullies. These bullies need to be sent for disciplinary action to tell them their act is not acceptable by the society morally.
I don’t know if I should add this, but it reminds me
of something which happened in the uk recently. .
there was a 94 year old grandmother who was beaten in her own home
while she had been asleep, and ended up in hospital for around a month before she passed away –
these two things, are really different in a number of ways, especially in severity, but it sort of makes me think of a trend of not caring or treating with respect those who are older, and have a greater amount of life experience – which I think tends to make people kinder, and more accepting of others maybe? not always..
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/may/29/assaulted-pensioner-emma-winnall-dies I wonder how it is possible, to prevent this from happening so much, maybe no way until.
It is not unusual to see rude behaviour among school children. They influence each other and become bullies to show off in front of their peers. They probably did not have a religious upbringing and were not taught to respect older people. In Eastern cultures, there used to be a lot of emphasis on filial piety and respect for the elders. But in modern times, young people have no time for their parents and when the parents grow old, they are sent to old folks’ homes. I’d share this with my child and ask Ms Klein to forgive the children and show them love and kindness. By responding like this she will heal.
As a grandfather about same age as Ms Klein,I really feel sad that young kids are behaving in such a manner. What is more scary is that these are schooling kids( its not that they are deprived of education ) and the target for their abuse is not an equally offensive peer but a neutral harmless person.
For a balanced view, there must also be just as much if not more exposure of kids who behave well and performing good examples.There is risk if only bad examples are shown in popular media as it can send wrong message that it is the norm rather than the exception. My children thank Buddha are well behaved and respectful to us as parents and also to elders . It means we had brought them up and educated them the right way. So I have no problem video might have negative impact. But I wouldn’t if they already behaving like those kids. I would tell ms klein , to let go of the hurt and trauma she had to endure by forgiving the kids as they are also victims of a degenerating society, wrong parental guidance, education system that do not emphasize ethics and good attitudes and without strong cultural roots and value systems.
I cant imagine how these young generation will turn out to be in future. With this kind of upbringing they wont grow up to be pleasant adults. It just reflects on their parents of not raising their kids well.
I feel upset and angry at those kids who showed no respect for the elders and using foul language at this young age. I don’t think it is the western culture to think that this type of behavior is cool or popular. All religion and culture teach us to treat and respect others.
Children should be shown this video to teach them that this is not the right way to act. Learn from this video and don’t make this type of mistakes.
Ms. Karen is a kind-hearted lady but she should be firmed with those monsters and not let them took advantage of her.
I was horrified and speechless when I watched this video. It’s horrific how American teenagers can do such things to a gentle old lady, who did not do any harm towards them, and whom they would have seen daily on the school bus. Her only crime was to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, and to not appear to conform to what society may think to be the ideal situation.
The behavior of those kids is appalling and reflects strongly on their parents in so many ways. Did the parents not teach their children to be respectful to their elders regardless? Did the parents make similar comments about other people with their children watching? Did the parents imply by speech or deed that it is okay to do something nasty as long as you can get away with it? Did the parents show bad examples, not sticking up for someo e who is in trouble, and allowing their kids to succumb to peer pressure? Did the parents allow the kids to watch violent videos on popular culture, allowing their minds to be polluted by unacceptable behavior? I am sure it is any or all of the above.
When we bring a child into the world, it is our responsibility to ensure they grow up to be a responsible, good, human being. Otherwise, don’t have kids because you will leave society to deal with your irresponsible, evil offspring because you yourself refuse to train them to be a good person. I hope the parents see this post on this blog, because they need to take a long good hard look at themselves.
The fundraising website indiegogo has raise more than usd630,000 for ms Karen Klein. She plans to retire on that money, pay off her debts, donate some to charity and live off the rest. As for the kids, they have apologized in letter and in a police statement to Karen Klein, who does not accept their apologies and wants them to have penalties such as not being able to take the bus for a year, and no sports activities.
Yet other website criticize Karen Klein for not standing up to the kids, not taking adult disciplinary action, not confronting them in the bus, and basically not doing her job. I feel there is an element of truth in that, but given the context, my sympathies lie with Karen Klein.
What I would say to her is – I respect her for not wanting to press criminal charges against the boys, that I hope she will use her windfall wisely to help those with similar problems, not to quit this job just because of what happened but to find better opportunities in life. She seems to be a strong woman, and I wish for her to to use it to do more with her life.
Thank you for this latest update. That is good to know. At least Miss Klein has an avenue to breathe.
What is baffling is not so much how Ms Klein takes the bully but what goes through the minds of those kids who did and say all those abusive words. I mean, what do they get out of it? A moment of feeling of superiority that they are stronger than an adult? Bullying is an expression or extension of one’s insecurities.
It is very sad to see an elderly person being subjected to such bullying. I do not blame it on media. That would be unfair. There are many good shows aired, not just those of bad influence. So why did the kids not choose to emulate what they watched on those that have morals instead? I would definitely show this video to my kids and tell them that if they ever did that, i would beat the crap of of them!!!!
Bullying is a problem that effects people of all ages.The effects of bullying can last well into adulthood.Teaching children about bullying and preventing bullying early is the best way,while it is a serious subject,children can be taught through fun and games.We can instil spirituality into them from a young age.
It’s very sad to see such cases as this,where moral values are lacking in today’s degenerate time.It is the essential building blocks of our character and nature.The sum total of our character and our nature is what we all are as human beings.Moral values have to be instill to save us from becoming criminal perpetrator as it gives us a guilty conscience when something wrong has been deliberately done.
Karen handles it quietly hoping her tormentors will get bored,when her passivity actually only seems to encourage it.You are a brave and kind person.May you be well always.
Ms. Klein should have smack those kids! Very appalling. My mother would if it was her.
Yes definitely the media and how parents are bringing up their kids these days plays a huge role in their children’s behaviour, especially now with social stress, career stress and financial stress which will surely increase as we become more and more advance. Most parents these days are working and hence seldom get to spend real quality time with their kids. The kids are left to the maids to bring them up and discipline them, which is hardly the case. When they do get to spend time, it is almost always giving in the the children’s demands due to their own guilt of not being there most of the time. For those who strike a balance, usually you will see a grand mother or grand father in the picture to help them.
This lifestyle is common and very prevalent today. Perhaps more so in the west because of the different values and culture. In this case the Asian culture is much more sensitive towards moral and filial values that are instilled in children – this should be well preserved as we grow to be more hungry and aggressive in today’s materialistic culture. Hence it extremely important to instil spirituality in children since young so that they are nurtured to be kind, generous and loving towards everyone. This is something being taught in all Buddhist schools and should be supported by parents strongly in order to raise the next generation with good moral ethics and compassion.
Here’s an interestin story to share from Rinpoche’s blog…http://blog.tsemtulku.com/tsem-tulku-rinpoche/animals-vegetarianism/discipline-amazing.html
什么世界这些孩子真的太过份了！老人家都要欺负！！一点道德价值观都没有，基本尊重都不会。是教育出问题，还是家长忽略对孩子的教导。对他人尊重和礼貌都不会。看了这个短片。希望大家警惕自己的行为来教育下一代。。。。
Bullying is like displacing our own insecurities onto another person and by making that other person completely insecure, we think we are out of trouble. After all, if we all get together to bully somebody, then at least it won’t be ME that is bullied.
I say this because I have been bullied (who hasn’t…) and I have also bullied, and when I did it, I felt sorry for the poor guy, but I also thought to myself, “this time it’s not me”.
Of course, this is not considerate, this is not compassionate, this is selfish, this is ugly, this leaves a bitter taste in the mind, this is certainly not putting others before ourselves.
It hurts short term and long-long-long term too.
People started raising money on internet for that lady to offer her the means for a nice holiday, with a target of 4,000 USD and in a few hours they collected 400,000 USD… I heard this on the news yesterday…
It shows how people do sympathise with her, shows how strongly hurt many have been by being bullied.
I imagine, this lady would be my mother, it would be hard to remain aware of the emotions arising in me…
Little monsters will grow up to be big monsters. They are a reflection of their parents and upbringing. If they are not dealt with now in the right manner when they are grown-ups I can imagine what they will become in future. This is the degenerating age when parents are spending more time on materialistic wants and they lack time focussing on their kids. This is the outcome of not teaching kids to respect the elderly people and others.
Yes, is true that our children behaviour is mostly on our parents, how they treat people & how much times they spend with their children. And also most the the parent nowadays put their children under the care of the maids even during weekend, this is not right. The children will learn bad things from the maids. Yes, younger people have to respect elder people but they need to respect eveyone & treat them with respect around ur family members.
Thank you Rinpoche for showing us this video.
This is an example of how society has degenerated, when proper moral values are not taught by parents to children or at school. This is becoming more and more common as we place materialism more important than basic moral or spiritual values. The strong and young bully the weak and elderly. To achieve materialistic goal and result, respect and kindness for others are frowned upon.
My heart go out to Ms Klein. The kids hurt her right at her weakest point about her own family rather die than to be with her. Yet she remained calm and accepted the hurtful speech silently. She understands that by retaliating with anger will not solve the situation – an eye for an eye the whole world will go blind.
I certainly would show this video to my children and grandchildren- to see what they should never follow.
I strongly believe that kindness and compassion is the only solution to any problem in society,organisation and family. These are the qualities that separate the wrong doers from the rest.If we want to spread kindness and good moral behaviors to others, we must be a walking example of these qualities.
So sad watching these videos looking at how those kids being so nasty. This is what happens to the kids at this generation. No respect, no moral value and obvious no spiritual teaching. Every single word from the kids is to hurt people. Seem likes nothing good in their mind! Moral teaching in the school is merely just like a story telling because the emphasis of the school system is very much into academic achievement. Very much we see that even in the newspaper were just reporting on how many students scores how many great Grades and which school they are coming from. Obvious sign and results of the education system priority. It’s getting scary.
Setting up an example is important within the family as they learn from what they see. Be nice, kind and create a harmony environment within the family but this doesn’t mean to pampered. We shall have controlled to what best to give and no replacement of moral value with materialistic.
Spiritual teaching is the most important for the kids especially from young to let them habituate the positive values as early as possible. Now the kids can just do what the adults are doing and getting worst. Spirituality is so much important as the world is getting more advances. It even important for adult and parents for setting good example to the kids.
Mrs Klein has just being calm and she said she did not react because she doesn’t like to hurt people. This is the great value that even being put down but still thinking for others.
What these kids did is definitely unacceptable. But we can’t blame everything on them.
Our society is sick. A lot of parents just focusing on their own work in order to fulfill what the society wants from them which is material gain, fame and status. They seldom spend time with their kids who need love, care and good nurturing.
Kids grow up this way who are not strong enough will always try to get attention and recognition from their peers. Bullying is a way to achieve this. It will make them the “Heroes” among their own group of friends. It is always easier to get “friends” when you do something bad eg gossiping, sharing bad thoughts and doing something which is normally prohibited. The same pattern happens even among adults, only in a more subtle form. This is sad but this is also a fact.
To lessen this kind of problem, education is important but not the only method. Media does play a role but not all too. True care and time spent with family is much more important. From I observe, village teens tend to respect elderly more than city teens. I don’t think they receive more moral teachings than city teens. I guess this is becuase village parents do have more time to spend with their children and I think it works. A person who has got enough love will normally be more willing to share his love with others than harming others.
If I have kids, I will show them this video with explanation and guidance, but I will show them more videos emphasizing on good human qualities. Reason is I do not want them to have anger towards their peers if they happen to see the same thing happen. They must stop their peers from doing such but they do not have right to simply judge or scold others if they themselves don’t understand the true problems behind it. This will not help improving the situation.
I am thankful to Ms. Klein that she is so kind that she didn’t take further action to the kids, but I do hope that if this happen again, she should say something very firmly to stop them from doing this.
One’s speech can be used to make or break others. In this case, it was wrongly used to break someone. Our speech is a very powerful tool that we have,..just from one’s speech alone, it may be used to raise funds to benefit others or drive someone to committing suicide.
Luckily, Ms Karen was okay and withstood the criticisms and bullying from a group of monstrous kids who certainly ‘had fun’ in the worst way possible. Their behaviour reflects clearly what their condition at home is, and how they have been brought up. Kudos to the intiative to start a fundraising campaign for Karen to go on a vacation though! Brilliant idea.
To answer Rinpoche’s questions:
1. How do you feel about this?
Watching the clips angers me but it doesn’t surprise me because I have seen worst and heard worst tauntings. It saddens me also, because there should have been many more kids on the bus who could’ve stood up to protect Karen but no one did. How the kids went out of line with their insults shows how selfish they are – relying on other’s misery to bring themselves esteem. Sad.
2. Do you think perpetuating a culture on popular media of children/young adults rude and arrogant towards adults feed this type of behavior?
I don’t think it will feed this type of behaviour, because the behaviour has to be conditioned. I feel that it starts of with something small, then it grows bigger, and that the children/young adults pick it up from seeing/experiencing it with and from people around them. There are many different cultures and behaviours that are perpetuated on popular forms of media as well, but how come they don’t get the children to be inspired and take on the examples of good behaviour? Because if they don’t have it in them, they won’t act on it regardless if they watch it on popular mediums or not. Also, I think it doesn’t feed this type of behaviour because they can see the repercussions of what could possibly happen too, like with Ms Karen’s case.. It might have the opposite effect and turn them away from negative behaviors instead? I feel ultimately, the behaviour of the child/young adult, is largely correlated to their upbringing at home, and is independant of whether such rudeness/arrogance is shown on various medias or not.
3. Will you show this video to your children? What would you say to Ms. Klein?
Yes, if I EVER did have children, I would show this video to them becuase frankly there is nothing to hide. It is what’s happening in the real world, and I feel they should really know. It would be used as an education tool, to show them what they shouldn’t do to others.
To Ms Klein: Thank you for being so graceful despite the hurt that was caused. You’re beautiful for being you.. best thing is that I see no anger from you towards the children and instead, you seem worried for them. Thank you.
Rinpoche, thank you for sharing this.
Love,
Carmen
I wish Miss Karen Klein will come out from the pain quickly.
The kids who bully Karen Klein are rude but what about others who look at it silently? And many of us for most of the times belonged to the group that keep silence when our voice are needed.
Compare to leave harsh comments on Youtube or threaten to kill/punish the kids, it would be more constructive to remind ourself to stand up and speak up anytime when something bad is going on around us.
This reminds me of Albert Einstein who said: The world is a dangerous place, not because of those who do evil, but because of those who look on and do nothing.
Terrible…………… Terrible…. T.E.R.R.I.B.L.E……………………… ><!!
I do think of, the parents have to bear the greatest responsibility, regardless what society we are having now. The new generation kid’s learn really fast, especially in this mess society. I understand parents needs to make money to keep up the cost of living until no time for taking care of their kids, and some parents just leave their kids to be raised by strangers in a day care or in a private home babysitting service. And I have notice that, some of the parents never comprehend the people who raising their kids, before sending them or even during the time, how were they raised, what kind of morals do they have, are they really qualified to raise their kids, what are they teaching to their kids?……. PARENTING, is an important part of loving, caring, educate their kids. If we adult don't have the time to raise and teach our kids, don’t have any kids then. As a parent, we got to take back our kids and be responsible for them. If we don't, what kind of country are we going to see in the future when they become adults and start running the country?? You will not want to know by then.
If I have kids, I definitely will show this video to them or/and other kids, explain and teach them in a good way.
Ms Karen Klein, the way you speak and react from the kids, show’s that what kind of person you are. You are kind, honest, gracious and brave! You voice out to the public! and this is a warning to other’s who might facing the same problem! You are a great person Ms Karen Klein! I wish you heal from this and may many others who suffer the same not have to endure this again. Also your older son that you have lost (10 years ago), god will be with him and bless him. And no matter what is your decisions (to continue your job or retire), i wish you all the best!! xxx
Thank You Rinpoche for sharing. xxx
It’s scary what kids can do to others nowadays…..Karen is a fine example of a kind and wellmannered person whom even as a victim did not even badmouth or hurt any of them then..We can label this sick kids as bullies and bullies are parent made.Children watch every move that their parents make most of the time and they bullies be’cos mom and dad are bullies. If it’s not handled well the bully child will grow up to be bully adults…Parents of such kids should attend parenting class to learn discipline and compassion first and teach the kids that they are other people and other people have feelings too.
I would blame on the parents and society, parents is first guru of the kids, kids will absorb what parents act and say. also kid programs now in tv is fill with violent & sex. for example, powerpuff girls and happy tree friend.
if i have kid i will show this video to them and telling them not repeat the same thing.
I would tell Ms Klein that she have a good heart.
I wonder what kind of monster these kids will grow up to be if they can behave like this at 7th Grade!
Don’t blame the kids, blame the parents! Yet, it’s the kids’ karma to be born to parents who do not bring them up properly. However, parents can change themselves for the better and take responsibilities of their children’s personal growth. If not, why have kids?
这一班孩子真的太过份了！！！也许西方教育并不如东方教育般推崇礼义廉耻，所以许多西方小孩对长辈没有基本尊重。
今世今日无国界的网络已成了大人小孩生活的中心，所以其实所谓的西方东方开始教育开始没什么分别了，我们必须严谨选择好的部分来好好学习。
像这样子的影片如果像以上的方式来呈现的话能提醒更多人对他人尊重。但如果欺负他人的影片传播出来只是为了炫耀，这肯定会荼毒许多年轻人的思维，认为这是很好玩的。教育真的扮演非常重要的角色，如果从小以宗教或德行来教导孩子，社会的下一代就有希望；若道德继续沦陷下去，别说未来，现在大家的日子也不好过。所以大家应警惕自己的行为来教育下一代。
亲爱的Ms Klein, 你真是一位富有慈悲心的人！虽然面对这糟糕的遭遇，令你伤心流泪，从你说话的语气中听得出你没有责怪他们，就默默地承受他们的欺凌。你的忍辱之心非常值得尊重。谢谢你站出来说话，也谢谢你让我们向你学习！！愿你平安健康，生活愉快！ _/\_
I personally feel that kids are very much “monkey see, monkey do” until they reach a level of thinking that checks their own actions and words. That does not necessary happen and that is when “feedback” on their behaviour becomes very important to stop them and plant the seed for them to evaluate their actions and behaviours.
Parents therefore are very important as role models and displinarian, when a child fails, is that the fault of the child or fault of the parents? My parents were educators before they retire, and sad to say, behaviour like this is already happening in Malaysia. When teachers reprimand, the parents come to school to scold the teacher, so the vicious circle starts and continues.
So I say, Ms Klein, thank you for being an example of graciousness and kindness.
And in my heart, I pity the kids too. One day, if they do not change, they will learn the difficult way the consequences of their words and actions.
Is so sad while watching this video, can you image Ms. Karen Klein is our mother and fall in this situation- verbal abuse. And is quite sad to the kids on their rude behavior too. I’m keep thinking, will their rude and vicious action have to pay back with punishment? Their have to responsible to their action and speech, this is the lesson.
Still remember when small, we don’t dare speak loud to adults, so don’t even talk about rude words. And we will get certain punishment at school if we behave rude, not follow to instruction. ( Yes, i get a lot ‘rotan’ for my naughty behavior, haha). But nowadays, teacher even cannot speak ‘heavy tone’ to our ‘lovely’ kids, if not they will get complain from the parents lah, public lah and even on newspaper, so the kids know this ‘trick’ like telling them teacher is not a big deal, can be threaten. I jz wanna say both side education is very important. RESPECT this words is more important value to learn then the score on school report.
We always say kids who’s learn about dharma is the kids would’t behave bad in the way. It’s so true. If i have kids one day, definitely will send to dharma class, and teach them about the ‘real’ moral value by bring them to do dharma,community works together. But not only talk on moral book ( sorry to say the moral book and score on moral exam is totally waste time :P) , show the good example to the kids is more important.
Dear Ms. Klein, may you and who in suffer not endure with this again, heal fast with love from whole worlds.HUGs…
Thank you Rinpoche by sharing us this, is inspire us how’s important of the lesson to kids.
Totally outrages, the education system is a failure for not instilling good moral behavior to he students. What evertthey teach is of failure not only the school but also the whole country education system is degenerating.
The parents of these evil children has fail their duty because they had raised a child who turn out being an evil bully who targets the weak and take joy and verbal assault as entertainment for them, the parents should be ashame of thmself for not taking care of their children and educate them for being respectful to elderly and the weak.
Although Ms. Karen being verbally taunted, yet she kept her composure and did not retaliate and being angry with the bullying. She is a nice lady.
I believe it is very important to instill religion to the children from a very young age, and teaches them about respecting others and help others. The parents should also be a good role model, as children copy what the parents do. The media should also play their part in providing moral value into the program, as the media industry is portraying gangsterism, and hardcore social life too much.
I feel sad for the kids who did that, because they will get back one day what they did to others one day in any form. There is a Chinese idiom 人必自侮，然后人侮之，meaning that the reason people insult you, is because you insult yourself at the first place. Being disrespectful to the elders makes yourself look ignorance and lack of moral or maybe just illiterate. How would people respect people that is stupid, illiterate and arrogant in the same time?
Yes I understand that youngsters are rebellious, but disrespectful that showing through insulting others is totally more than rebellious. It is not considered as rebellious but purely cold-hearted and arrogant. Youngsters could debate with the elders, it is not something really wrong, but please, in a respectful way. Always remember to respect anyone, no matter how old the person is.
I would say thank you to Ms Klein that she didn’t do anything that harm the monsters. Is good to show to the monsters that, there are people who can bear the bitterness no matter how. Let the kids reflect, no matter what ‘pushes’ you to harm others, let go, cause others don’t deserve that.
How horrible. I wonder what’s on the bullies’ mind. I guess in pursue of material wealth to leave for their children, some parents has neglected to teach their children proper moral values.
*have neglected… typo.
Dear Rinpoche,
Thank you for sharing this video. Now, I really understand how powerful social media can be. Just by posting this story and share it at Youtube, make so much difference of the amount of money to be donate to Ms. Karen
I strongly felt sorry to Ms. Karen for what the kids had done to her, how degenerate this world has become.
In another way, that makes me contemplate,that’s why Rinpoche wants us to reach out more to the public through social media and now this prove that social media is really powerful once it became viral to the world.
The kids were not only rude towards the lady but they intentionally hurt her with nasty remarks. The kids derive ‘pleasure’ from hurting others with malicious intent. There is nothing remotely moral to begin with.
The kids’ actions should condemned and the kids be reprimanded to rehabilitate their behavior.
Ms. Karen was courteous and patient throughout the entire ordeal, and she appeared to be compassionate towards the bunch of losers, just because they’re kids. Utterly disrepectful. They need more than a few tight slaps. 7th graders did you say? Where did they learn such values? If they were my kids, I’d be the first to admit that my parenting was a total failure because they turned out like that. Why have kids if you’re not willing to invest time nurturing and disciplining them? That would be downright irresponsible. As they’re already that vile at only 14, think what they’d be when adults. Words are not harmless, they can hurt and they can cause wars. These boys are creating their own cause to be treated the same way when they get old, and maybe even by their own kids. Monkey see monkey do.
Well said Elaine! That’s how war started. At first it was all talk talk talk then it is all bom bom bom!
Bringing it closer to home, yesterday some Indonesians became violent and vandalised the Malaysian embassy in Jakarta when they became enraged after an outburst exploded over Twitter over a small silly argument about some traditional dance I’d never even heard of before. Whatever for? It’s about national pride, but it’s really about the ego again. Isn’t the ego the root of all the world’s problems?
Sad to witness this kind of rude behaviour from young generation.
From their verbal abuse shown failure in educational system as well as no moral behaviour virtues belief rooted in the youngster minds
Nowadays kids ‘ behaviour easily influence by medias and adults, especially violent tv shows or animations etc
After this news spread viral, better training is making its way to thousands of bus drivers and monitors across the country. Ms Klein is one of the incident of bullying case, this became the spotlight of the problem. Ms Klein was verbally abused but her tolerance level towards the kids was very high! She is such an inspiration to others.
I will show the video to kids but watch together with them and educate them the importance of respecting elders regardless where you are.
Seriously look at this, the kids and their parents should be embarrassed, and they owe Ms Klein an apology, otherwise it’s sad to imagine what these kids might become when they get older.
What we saw could be be very scary, as in time to come when we are of aged, we too could be a victim ,if society keep on evolving forward with the degeneration of dharma knowledge.I all religion,there is always a part that is especially dedicated to respecting the elders.This is normally thought to children at a very young age.
In Malaysia, Ethics or Moral is a subject thought in primary school of all medium ,which remind them the importance of family values and how to fit into society appropriately.Parents too play an important in developing the character of their children.If they themselves show a bad example to their children ,(example language,gesture and reaction)then how should you expect them to behave in a proper way.
Ms Karen is a very brave women to be able to face these rude children day in day out.The viral video could be one of her daily ordeal she have to go through daily .She is a polite and patient person ,who does not react to cruel and rude remarks with anger. But accept the fact that due to the child ignorance,she hope they would come to their senses .
Best wishes for Ms Karen,may those around her show her the respect she deserve.
How degenerate this life can be? Can’t imagine having kids like these! Bullying at school level; kids around the same age and perhaps a little younger is bad enough. Come on this is an elderly person here!
Where I was brought up, if we so much as utter something rude to an adult, the first thing we get is a tight slap on the face! Children was supposed to be seen but not heard at that time! See how much freedom kids enjoy nowadays and how wild they can turn out to be.
Rude and obnoxious children roams free everywhere; even in Asian countries now. Have seen even Asian kids shout at their own parents and fight with grandparents. Some to the extend of getting physical.
Parents show love by giving too much face and leeway to children. Even Asian children get away with murder with their parents these days. They are not punished or even reprimanded whenever they are rude even right before their parent’s eyes!
As a parent myself, I believe that by sparing the rod you actually spoil the child rotten. I am sure there are ways to punish a child without causing grievous harm to the child. Perhaps by taking away privileges, a spanking when the child is still young until the problem is resolved or eradicated completely.
Sadly but true even kids who attend Sunday Schools in church and Dharma classes can be very rude. I know because I teach children and I have seen many rude and naughty kids and kids with bad attitude problems in my line of work all the time.
Parents too have a role to play here. I always believe that how a child turns out when they grow up depends a lot on guidance from parents. Surprisingly, I have seen and met many children from single parents who grew up to be very polite and God/ Buddha fearing people.
It all boils down to upbringing. In this video clip, one of the bully’s parent when interviewed expressed shock over the behavior of his son. Parents should always keep a close watch on their kids and nip what ever problems in the butt there and there itself before it turns out to something worse and uncontrollable.
This poor lady’s son committed suicide. The bullies just kept taunting her! This is so insensitive and evil. How difficult it is for a parent to bury their own children!
Anyway, Karen you’ve got US$ 300,000.00 now. Go tour the country. You deserve it. As for the kids, we can’t be to harsh on them too. They have already got what they deserve. Imagine the stigma they have to live with now. Their parents now will also feel very tortured as there are now death threats and perhaps a bounty on their heads.
Let this be a lesson to all the bullies out there and a realization for all children around the globe.
Its very sad to see how some people in society behave towards others, it was a horrid experience for Karen to go through.
I hope the children learn what they have done and change their ways.
This sort of thing is becoming more common, i was learnt recently of a guy who was stabed and killed here in the uk after asking kids to stop throwing things at him. Also i don’t think the fact that people don’t step in to help is because they think the kids actions are ok, more that they are fearful of people who possibly think your life is only worth them thinking you have been disrespectful.
Society is the cause, we don’t teach our young what is expected of them, what being a person means, or give them good role models to follow. Instead we prop them in front of the tv or computer, happy that they are keeping quiet without a thought to what they are watching and learning. I fear things will have to get worse before there is enough motivation for each and every one of us to do something and to take a long hard look at ourselves and the life we choose to lead.
Im shock at these kids how evil and harmful they can be!!! Could this a product and results where everybody have the rights to speak, and eventually this right is abused and become hurtful to others?
Ms Klein is definitely the victim, but is her the victim of the younger kids only? or the kids parents have been saying the same time in front of their kids and influence their behavior?
Kids normally follow and copy their parents behavior, a good family, well educated and mannered kids wouldn’t have such harmful and aggressive behavior, this indeed is a social sickness and has reached an alarming stage, i hope the family and society will take immediate action and rectify this situation!
It’s sad yet alarming to hear stories, read the news on TV and newspaper of teenage children resorting to abusing others, be it their peers or adults. There had been reports of school children bashing up their teacher in school. It’s scary because these are children who will grow up to be citizens of the world. And if they behaved as they did during their teenage years, I wonder what will be become of them when they are adults.
I believe it’s vital parents instill love, patience, kindness, giving, sharing, tolerance etc to their kids when they are young, not when they are at the rebellious age. Then it may be too late. To further cement this, young children will benefit from attending spiritual classes with children of their age.
I show all types of videos to my children, aged 13 and 15 regardless if it’s violent or x-rated and explain to them that these are happening in the world we live in. But I started them young explaining about the negative side of violence leading to harming others, giving and sharing with others, the good values, etc. I did not stop a video nor turned off the TV when there was a movie where there was violence or x-rated stuff. After all, they will learn about these anyway, better at home than at school. Didn’t we? Curiosity kills the cat.
Mrs Klein, bless your heart. You showed those kids and others who are watching this that violence did not beget violence.
This is not a good sign about the young generation. The kids are using foul language at such a young age. What’s worse is that they are hurting an old lady and enjoying it. They made fun of her son’s suicide which they know will hurt her very much.
I believe these kids have been spoiled rotten. They get what they want and have no respect for the elders. I guess the culture of respecting the elders is not strong in the USA. Most old people live on their own or stay in nursing homes. Their children do not take care of them like how Asian families do.
The popular media can show whatever they like, but I believe the parents must instill values, principles and ethics in their children and lead by example. Protecting people from reality out there such as being rude to adults, violence and sex will not resolve the root cause of the problem. Ignorance will lead to more ignorance.
I would show children the video and tell them how they should never hurt another person. Nobody deserves to suffer. I would say to Ms Klein, “I am very sorry that you went through the torment. I’d like to thank you for showing us your grace and kindness. You showed us how we should not perpetuate the sufferings we received from others. I will pray for you to heal from this horrible incident.”
I felt really uncomfortable watching this and I have suffered a similar kind of situation when I was a teenager. A few kids my age were quite nasty a few times an the school bus. I reacted the same as Ms Klien and tried to ignore it, but I did feel quite scared as on a bus it is quite a confined space to be by people malicious towards you. I’m not going to show my son this (he’s only 4), as what they say is very violent and especially nasty but I am teaching him how important it is not to say things to people that will hurt their feelings. For example, he has recently started using the word fat quite a lot and I’ve told how important it is not to say anyone is fat as it will hurt their feelings.
Also, these kids that bullied are not inherently bad or evil. Buddha taught all things to be empty by nature and dependant on a number of conditions, so these kids are the result of our society. They have ingested many images of violence from films, the TV and computer games. Also, cases of domestic violence are on the increase. All these factors and especially lack of parental guidance may have contributed to their cruel and disrespectful behaviour. It is important to teach our children love, compassion, patience and respect. We may not be perfect examples of these yet, but at least we know what we are aiming for and our children need to know the same.
These kids are just evil! I can’t believe kids so young could be capable of being so mean. The kids appear to be enjoying themselves taunting the poor old lady. I makes me sad to see this and its a pity no other kids told the rude kids to shut up.
They just looked and thought it was all very funny. It’s not very funny because she’s hurt and she’s actually a very nice and gracious lady. She didn’t even shout back at the kids. I tell you, if I were her, I would shout expletives back at them. If they don’t relent, I will stand up and smack their smelly mouths. Since their parents wouldn’t discipline their mouths, let me do the dirty work.
I do think it is the Americanized pop culture that encourages kids to demand their freedom and it becomes cool and ok to talk back at your parents and treat them like equals or worse. If I had kids, I would show this video to them to teach them manners and how to treat elders.
I would tell Ms Klein that she’s a kind and nice lady and that she should be fiercer with kids or they would just take advantage of the situation. I feel if she spoke up and shouted back, the kids would be silenced.
I am shocked that a group of school done something horrible to the elder.
When I was small girl my mum always teach me how to respect elderly people and younger brother and sister. This like an informal moral class before we go to school. After started school, my teachers seem moral subject as very important class, normally we have two classes in one week. While I growth up, one of my childhood friend became a teacher in our government school. She told me no more moral class in school instead of others class which the school thought it is more important than moral class.
She told me she cannot do all things about this situation, she feel sad.
No religion, no moral thought in this degenerated century, caused a lots social problem such as divorce, relationship breakdown, family tragedy and so forth…in the video few young school student bullied a elderly grandmother in the bus in public…they are seem like free to do it and no one stop it?
Very scary!
This is such horrible things happen. I think the blame is on the parents and society. Kids always watch what the parents and people do, and the copy. If they always see parents ill treat others, they will follow.
However, when they see parents treat others well and serve others with humility, they will follow suit. As such, I as a parent need to set good example, not just talking, but physically server other with humility, this will be a much better world to live in.
Therefore, it is EXTREMELY important to give kids spirituality when they are young, to learn to serve others, and not just tell them about money and material enjoyment.
There is a continuing story on this.. A guy started a fund raising campaign on http://www.indiegogo.com, asking people to donate US$5,000 to give her a short holiday, and the amount shot up to US$330,000.
On a more unfortunate note, the kid who made the nasty comments received death threats…