WASHINGTON, June 21: People across the United States joined hands on Thursday to raise about $300,000 for a bus monitor who was bullied by a group of middle school students.

Karen Klein, 68, told police she will not press charges against the four seventh-graders who had tormented her and instead would let the school discipline them.

Sympathies and money poured in from across the country as someone put a 10-minute video of her suffering on the internet. By Thursday afternoon, more than 1.6 million people had watched the video.

One of the sites, indegogo.com, also set-up a fund for her, appealing to send Ms Klein on a lifelong vacation. Thousands responded, already donating about $300,000 for her. People still have 30 days to donate.

“I am overwhelmed. I don’t know what to say,” said Ms Klein in a television interview when informed how thousands of people had come forward to help her.

Ms Klein, a retired bus driver, makes about $15,000 a year, which is below the poverty line by American standards. The video — “Making the Bus Monitor Cry” — shows her ignoring the verbal attacks by students on a bus operated by the Greece Central School District, near Rochester, Nnew York.