Happy Ending

Karen Klein’s Happy Ending

Some of you may remember the story of Karen Huff Klein, the 68-year-old bus monitor who was badly bullied and berated by four seventh-graders, who recorded and then streamed the assault online.
Amid the 10 minute long stream of insults, swearing, and even physical approach which drove the woman to tears, one boy even states that, “You don’t have a family because they all killed themselves because they didn’t want to be near you.”
Klein, in addition to being widowed at 51, lost one of her children to suicide 10 years ago.
The deeply personal and savage assault on her, further compounded by going viral online, surprisingly may have a happy ending thanks to a random stranger online, Max Sidorov. Max saw the story and decided to start an online campaign to raise $5,000 for Klein to enjoy a vacation, but the campaign went viral, too. Over 32,000 people have contributed more than $700,000 to Klein – a whole lot more than her normal annual salary of just over $15,500.
With the new funds, coming this next week likely without taxes, Karen is going to enjoy a well-deserved retirement, but has no intentions of sitting around sewing. Not only does she intend to help out her family, but she also wants to get involved in helping to prevent bullying and suicide.
“I’m not a great speaker… but I would like to try to do something,” she says. “Kids write to me and tell me that they’ve been bullied. The kids that get bullied…I hate it.”
All of this coming from one act of cruelty and childishness. Thankfully, we have four brats trying to berate one adult, but 32,000 compassionate people looking to make things right. Karen says it best:
“I didn’t realize there were so many nice people out there in the world.”
http://www.changeathought.com/professionals/public-service/karen-kleins-happy-ending/

Remember, bullying ends when people quit putting up with it.  If the people surrounding them on the bus would have stepped in and stopped what was happening, Karen's feelings could have been spared (of course she wouldn't have reaped the benefits later).
How did the "internet bystander" help her?
Why were the words hurtful to her?
 How has she turned this into a positive experience?