I’m sure most of you have seen, or at least heard about the video of several middle school punks taunting and abusing an elderly bus monitor in New York.

The lady’s name is Karen Klein, and the little shitbags hurled so much abuse at her on that school bus, they brought her to tears. We’re talking profanity, insults, taunts and outright threats against an elderly lady, who is by the way a widow, and whose son committed suicide 10 years ago, according to one news report.

Nonetheless, these scummy little shits are seen in the video taunting this lady about her weight, about her tears about her home, her hearing aid, and threatening to stab her and cut her. One of them actually said to this mother, who lost a son to suicide, “You don’t have a family because they all killed themselves because they didn’t want to be near you.”

There’s little that disturbs me more than the strong taking advantage of the weak. I guess I have a somewhat overdeveloped sense of justice. Abuse of the elderly, children and defenseless animals literally sends me into a rage. I shed numerous tears for this woman. Even as I write this, I have a lump in my throat.

How can kids be so vicious and soulless? How can they be so horrible to another human being? How can they laugh at her tears? She’s elderly. She’s suffered great loss in her life and is trying to make ends meet by helping the school system ensure these heinous little fucktards are safe on that school bus.

And then there’s the parents. What the hell kind of sub-human parasites are you raising? What kind of soulless turds have you brought up?

Maybe it’s this weird herd mentality among kids those age. They are tweens. They’re entering this awkward stage in their lives that makes them feel out of control and out of sorts, so they exert control about the only way they know how – by abusing those weaker than they are. After all, if you’re able to bring another person to tears, you are stronger than them, and therefore in a twisted sort of way gain self confidence and control. I don’t know.

I know kids can be and are mean. I sat the Redhead down before school started this year and reminded him to give everyone a chance – even if they seem weird or unpopular. That one act of kindness could save a life. And then I pointed him to a story that has circulated the Internet, as well as inspirational speeches for the past several years. A story about two boys and how one act of kindness on the part of one student who helped a lonely kid pick up his books after he had dropped him, helped prevent the boy’s suicide.

Mark was walking home from school one day when he noticed the boy ahead of him had tripped and dropped all of the books he was carrying along with two sweaters, a baseball bat, a glove, and a small tape recorder. Mark knelt down and helped the boy pick up the scattered articles. Since they were going the same way, he helped to carry the burden.

As they walked Mark discovered the boy’s name was Bill, that he loved video games, baseball, and history, that he was having a lot of trouble with his other subjects and that he had just broken up with his girlfriend. They arrived at Bill’s home first and Mark was invited in for a Coke and to watch some t.v. The afternoon passed pleasantly with a few laughs and some shared small talk, then Mark went home.

They continued to see each other around school, had lunch together once or twice. They ended up at the same High school where they had brief contacts over the years. Finally the long awaited senior year came, and three weeks before graduation, Bill asked Mark if they could talk. Bill reminded him of the day years ago when they had first met.

“Do you ever wonder why I was carrying so many things from school that day?” asked Bill. “You see, I cleaned out my locker because I didn’t want to leave a mess for anyone else. I had stored away some of my mother’s pills and I was going home to commit suicide. But after we spent some time together I realized that if I had, I would have missed that time and so many others that might follow. So you see, Mark, when you picked up my books for me that day, you did a lot more. You saved my life.”

The Redhead thought hard about that story for a while, and I woke up the following morning to find this message from him on my Facebook wall:

Mom, today before orientation you really taught me something I don’t think I’ll ever forget. One day I hope I’m as good of a parent as you are and I hope my kids love me as much as I love you. You’re the best mom in the entire world, and I couldn’t picture life without you to teach me the right and wrong ways. I just want to brighten your morning when you wake up and let you know I’ll never forget what you told me today. I love you.

I always try to teach my kids kindness. I talk to them, and I make them understand the importance of treating people with consideration and sympathy.

I wonder what these people are teaching their kids.

Karen Klein tried not to react to their taunts. She didn’t yell or curse or hit them. Personally, if I were on that bus, several of these little fuckbats would be sporting broken limbs. But instead, this lady sat there quietly, took the abuse and didn’t even report these kids.

But someone made this video public. Someone (I don’t know if they took pity on this woman or just merely meant to perpetuate the abuse in a more public venue) posted the video on YouTube, and it went viral. School officials found out and promised to address the issue (yeah, great – school is over now).

Outrage sparked charity, and what started out as a fund to send Karen Klein on vacation, now has grown to something like $500,000 thanks to generous Americans who were appalled by what they saw.

Outrage also sparked death threats to the perpetrators of the abuse and their families.

I will admit there’s a part of me that says, “Good, you little motherfuckers! How’s it feel to be frightened and threatened? How’s it feel to be the victim?”

But Karen Klein said she didn’t like hearing about the death threats, and she doesn’t want any kind of criminal charges filed against the kids. That’s one magnanimous woman.

One of the parents, whose fuck trophy was on the video abusing Karen Klein says he’s enraged and sad to learn his child was one of the boys in the video. According to CBS, “Early Thursday evening one of the boys’ fathers came to apologize and assure her his son would be punished. The father, Robert Helm, said, ‘There’s not excuse. And we’re going to get to the bottom of that, but it really broke my heart and I shed a lot of tears thinking about that whole thing and I just want you to know that my family, all of us, are deeply saddened by this whole thing and we’re going to get it right.’”

While I think an apology is in order, it shouldn’t come from the parents. It should come from their rotten little crotchfruit. In the form of yard work, chores, and small repairs around Karen Klein’s house.

If this were my kid, he would be at Karen Klein’s house every damn day all summer washing her dishes, dusting, cleaning bathrooms with a toothbrush, mowing her yard and doing any other household chores necessary.

As I said. I would have been a lot less magnanimous.