Money for the Bullied
Does anyone else think it’s just totally strange that people are giving the woman who was bullied on a school bus hundreds of thousands of dollars? Obviously, it’s a terrible thing for a person to go through, but can someone build a time machine and send 9-year-old Mike Dang some money on the day all those kids made fun of his Halloween costume, so he literally ran out of the school and got chased down by a school monitor, and then was sent to the principal’s office? And then the guidance counselor told him to go home and change into a less humiliating outfit? Because I’m sure that experienced scarred him for life.
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Previously on The Billfold
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Awww, Mike. What were you wearing? I bet it was awesome.
I also would like to hear about 9-year-old Mike Dang’s Halloween costume! Kids are the worst, but that guidance counselor also kind of sounds like a jerk? Unless I’m interpreting the tone wrong, that sort of sounds like that teacher on The Simpsons going, “the children are right to laugh at you, Ralph.”
Can someone give me $400,000 because I had to wear a back brace for most of 9th grade?
@Megano! Seriously. I had to wear a collar after a car accident, and people intentionally shoved me into the lockers.
Also, they used to tap me on the shoulder and then move before I could turn all the way around, but that’s just mildly annoying. Shoving me into the lockers was freaking DANGEROUS.
@Quinn A@twitter Oh man, no one even did that to me. But I was also bigger than most 9th graders.
I think it’s sweet but seriously over the top at this point. Can I have half a million dollars because I simultaneously had an eye patch and a bowl cut?
Three comments about this:
1. Someone I knew from high school posted on facebook “Ironic home some of the people on my FB who are outraged about the Greece bus monitor incident used to bully me when we were kids.”
2. I hope that she donates some of the money to an anti-bullying charity. Obviously she’s under no obligation to do so but… I dunno, it would be a good thing to do.
3. It does fascinate me, and occasionally make me regain faith in humanity when news stories result in donations pouring in when shitty things happen. Two good examples are the girl who died running the London marathon this year (http://www.justgiving.com/Claire-Squires2- up to £937,000) and when a 9 year old girl’s food blog was told she couldn’t put pictures of her school lunches on (http://www.justgiving.com/neverseconds – £96,900).
Obviously those cases are different and are examples of people giving to charity as a result trajedy/injustice, so actually I think I feel a bit differently about this one. Like I said, I hope she donates some of the money to an anti-bullying charity.
ALSO, have you seen this? petition to waive income tax on donations to Karen.
I don’t know how I feel about that. My gut says taxes shouldn’t be waived. Even if she’s a nice person. Taxes are still a good thing.
@cmcm Obama cannot waive the taxes.
Seconded on wanting to know what Mike’s costume was.
Also, the fact is anytime something unfortunate happens to a sympathetic character (or not so sympathetic — e.g. Zimmerman) and it receives national media attention, they’ll get hundreds of thousands of dollars from strangers. Probably a lot of these strangers are opposed to things like taxes and welfare and “socialized medicine.”
America is a very weird country.
ALL the money for ALL the acne… that I’m still dealing with, America!
Aww, Mike! Surely there are pictures?
For serious, can we donate some of that to an anti-bullying organization please?
Mike Dang had a Southern accent?