Video of a grandmother bus monitor being bullied by a group of students has outraged the nation. Today, INSIDE EDITION spoke to the bus monitor and the father of one of the bullies.
Robert Helm's son was one of the middle school students who bullied grandmother Karen Klein to the point of tears in that now infamous school bus video that is shocking the world.
Helm told INSIDE EDITION, "It was very hard to watch that and even tougher as a father to see your child treat someone like that. It broke my heart."
Today the families of the children involved are finding themselves the subject of scorn.
On The Talk, Aisha Taylor said, "Can you imagine if that was your mother or your grandmother? It is just the worst thing I have ever seen."
On the Today show, Kathie Lee Gifford said, "People want to know who the parents are of those children and they should be held as accountable as the kids."
But this father said he was just as shocked as everyone else when he watched the video and understands that his son has to be taught a lesson.
Helm said, "It's not just going to stop at 'You're grounded, you don't get TV.' This is much bigger than that. This is something for a professional to interview Weslie and find out what the underlining problem is. I said ‘If this was your mother or your grandmother how would you feel?' He's very remorseful."
He said his son has already written a letter of apology to bus monitor Klein, a grandmother of eight.
There is something this dad would like her to know. He said, "I would say 'I'm sorry. This is not the way I raised my kids. I never would in my wildest dreams think they were capable of anything like this.'"
INSIDE EDITION is learning more about the 64-year-old grandmother. She worked as a bus driver for 20 years in a school district outside Rochester, New York, before taking the job as a bus monitor three years ago.
This isn't the first time she's been bullied on that same school bus. INSIDE EDITION found other videos online that show her being bullied on other days.
INSIDE EDITION spoke to Klein at her home.
Klein said "I just wanted to slap them but, you can't do that. So you just have to grin and bear it."
Klein is now being embraced with love and support, not just from her grandchildren, but the entire nation.
A man from Canada started a website, "Lets Give Karen a Vacation!" and already more than $200,000 has been raised.
Klein said, "I got two things of flowers from people I don't even know. That is awesome!"
On Thursday, the Principal, the district's Assistant Superintendent and the Police Captain came forward to say they are just as upset about what happened as everyone else.
The Principal said at a press conference, "I am deeply saddened and embarrassed by the actions demonstrated recently by some of my students."
The Police Captain said, "As a police department and as a command staff, we all have, most of us have teenage children. Most of us were outraged by what we saw."
Robert Helm says he's going to spend the summer teaching his son a lesson about bullying.
Helm said, "It's a mob mentality. It is. They feed off each other. I think that is what happened here."
