An Internet Cascade After Viral NY Bullying Video

Even in the fast-moving world of information flow, the response to a video showing the bullying of an upstate bus monitor is a stunning example of the power of people in the new, Me-Media era.

The video shows four seventh-grade boys cruelly taunting 68-year-old bus monitor Karen Klein outside Rochester, N.Y. It has been viewed by millions of people around the world

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Through posts on social media, word spread geometrically, leading to a fund drive that began with a modest goal of $5,000.

By Friday afternoon, the drive had sailed past $520,000.

Lee Rainie, director of the Pew Internet Project, says these kinds of moments have occurred before but he still calls the response to the Klein video "head-scratching." Karen Klein, School Bus Monitor, Feels Sorry for Kids Who Bullied Her http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20605959,00.html http://www.csmonitor.com/The-Culture/Family/2012/0621/Bullied... One of the boys who was in on the bullying is said to have received 1000 death threats!