Her name is Karen Klein. If you don't recognize the name, that is all right. Her name will not exist in the public eye for much longer. She was a media sensation just long enough to receive over $700,000 simply because she was the object of some middle schoolers' ridicule. If you have not heard of the event, you can watch some coverage by clicking here. The video hit the Internet, and people immediately supported her, finding the actions of these boys disgusting and disappointing. I agree with the outrage toward the boys. The problem lies with the form the support took for Klein.
A concerned person created a donation site for Klein, a bus monitor who had no place riding on a bus with middle school-aged children as a "monitor." After a short while, the thoughtful public had donated the aforementioned sum. Thoughtful is actually the wrong word. If these people had thought much about this at all before typing in their credit card numbers, I don't see how they would have determined the best response to this was to reward this woman.
Of course, I feel sorry for her. Those kids deserve severe punishment. An adult should not have to deal with that. An adult would not put up with that. A person in an authority position, getting paid to do a job, would not deal with it. Why was Klein acting as a bus monitor if she had no skills or abilities to combat that type of behavior. Did she have any training? Had she complained before? She held the job for three years. In those three years, it seems an employee would develop a set of skills that would allow her to take charge, rather than become the victim to some boys' bullying.
I realize bus monitors do not receive a high enough wage considering the behavior they see each day. However, some twist of fate put Klein in that position as a 68-year-old woman. Perhaps she had a lack of other job skills, needed to work to support other family members who weren't contributing or deemed herself capable of that position. Clearly, she was not capable. Where were her supervisors? A woman with three years of experience in this job should have been able to discipline these boys herself.
This situation is another example of our country compensating people despite their inadequacies or maybe because of them. Consider your workplace. You likely have seen some of your colleagues promoted based on their inabilities to fulfill their job duties, resulting in a promotion to another job that they cannot fully complete. How about politics? I can name a few legislators locally who continue to "serve" the people due to reelection even though they have done nothing to prove competence. I could continue listing examples, but it seems pointless because I am certain a few minutes of contemplation on your part will result in your own frustrating examples.
Karen Klein now has over $700,000 because she could not perform the duties of her job. Congratulations to her. Today she announced she will go ahead and retire, after three year in the job. She finds it difficult to go, but "it's time to move on." Now she can sit at home and have no job. Certainly she will be capable of that.
So many people are happy for this ending, especially those idiots who forked over their hard-earned cash. Money they earned by likely completing their responsibilities at work. These people will dismiss the underlying issue here. They will dismiss the fact that their money could have assisted children in our country who live in poverty or people who would love to have a bus monitor job because it is a job. They won't think of the worthy causes their money could have aided. Nope. They won't think of that because it would be too difficult and taxing. Rewarding incompetence is just so much easier . . . and everyone else seems to do it.
