Rarely will I post something for you that I haven’t watched myself, but I’ll cop straight up to not having watched this one. I can’t take it; the descriptions are bad enough. The cruelty’s so gratuitous and the target so sympathetic that it’s a bit like reading a story about someone torturing a small animal. A taste from the Blaze:

Among the comment that hurt the most, Klein told WHAM-TV that one child’s statement that she is so ugly that her “kids should kill themselves” was particularly hurtful. Her son committed suicide 10 years ago.

She’s a widow, hearing-impaired, and a grandmother of eight. But all’s not lost: Thanks to Reddit and the viral outrage this clip has caused, there may yet be a happy-ish ending.

Now, as awful as this was, there was a silver lining in not only the universal condemnation of the actions of these kids, but also in a call for support for this poor woman.

Her name is Karen, and she has been a widow for 17 years, has lived in the same town she grew up in and is about to have her 50th high school reunion in the same school district, and deserves so much better than the actions shown by those in this video. Let’s figure out ways to show her that there are still good people out there…

A redditor has established an indiegogo account to collect donations. I can offer no assurances that these funds will reach her, but will make sure to update this thread once verification is obtained. In the meantime, if you would still like to donate, here is the link:

KAREN FUNDRAISER UPDATE $21,300 as of 2:10pm PST!

Follow that link in the blockquote. They just cracked $30,000 as I’m writing this. Klein apparently makes a little more than $15,000 a year as a bus monitor.

HuffPo seems to have the definitive round-up on this so go there to see how it went from random YouTube video to Internet cause celebre and national news story within 24 hours. As New York magazine says, she’s bound to turn up on the morning shows before the week is out so you might as well get up to speed now. As for the kids, take comfort in this: They can’t all be budding sociopaths. Some of them must be garden-variety brats who couldn’t resist the temptation to join in on rhetorically stomping a helpless victim. They’ll get older and they’ll mature, and then they’ll see this video again and what you’re about to feel will hit them too. Imagine that guilt. Unspeakable.

Lots of profanity here, from what I understand, so please observe your content warning.