Hudson Valley ‘Karen’ Humiliates Young Teens at Fundraiser

A Hudson Valley man decided to publicly humiliate a group of young teenagers for something they didn't do. What happened next is even more disgusting.

Jena Lyn was spending her Sunday afternoon like most mothers of a 13 or 14-year-old boy. Instead of relaxing on the couch or catching up on household chores, the Hyde Park woman was out in the cold, supporting her child's sports team.

On this particular day, Jena was standing in front of the Stop & Shop store on Route 9 in Hyde Park, chaperoning her kids who were raising money for their basketball team. The boys were collecting money from shoppers to help fund their AAU team. The donations are used to help pay for uniforms, tournament fees and travel, which, as most families know, can be very expensive.

Hudson Valley "Karen" Humiliates Young Boys

A Hyde Park man who was in the Stop & Shop saw the children collecting donations and, for some reason, thought that they looked suspicious. I can't begin to say how disgusting it is that someone decided a group of primarily young Black and biracial boys collecting money for their sports team was immediately considered to be suspicious, but we all know the realities of the world we live in.

The man claims he saw the children taking some of the money out of their overflowing buckets of donations and putting it in their pockets. Instead of giving the teens the benefit of the doubt, the man began snapping photos of the young boys, posting them to a Hyde Park community Facebook group, accusing them of being thieves.

As someone who has hosted countless fundraisers over the past 30 years for various charities throughout the Hudson Valley, it is common practice to put overflowing cash in your pocket so as not to have the money fly away on a windy day or tempt someone to steal it. As an adult white man, I have never once been accused of "stealing" from the bucket.

Wrongful Accusation Starts Painful Chain Reaction

If this were the end of the story, it would still be completely disgusting, but the unfounded accusations and public shaming of these young boys snowballed, empowering others with the same prejudices to confront the children and harass them even further. According to Jena, a woman showed up after the post was made and began filming the boys with her phone. When confronted, the woman refused to explain herself or stop the filming, leaving these young boys feeling "embarrassed, targeted and unsafe."

Jena claims that an employee of the supermarket also approached the boys, saying they were "not authorized" to be there. After introducing herself as their mother and explaining that she had arranged the fundraiser with the store and completed all the necessary paperwork, Jena says management was "dismissive."

Disgusting Behavior Called Out

As the father of a 14-year-old, I was heartbroken to hear about the blatant prejudice that was aimed at these innocent kids. Would the person who accused these kids of stealing have done the same thing if it were a group of young, white baseball players? I think we all know the answer to that.

Racists hate being called racist, but I can't think of any other way to describe this horrific incident. This is clearly a case of bias and should be called out as such. Anyone who says the unfounded accusations had nothing to do with the fact that these were Black and mixed-race kids wearing hoodies is simply lying to themself.

"Karen" Responds to Making False Accusations

After realizing the accusations against these boys were completely unfounded, Jena says the man reached out to personally apologize. To her credit, the team mother encouraged the man to make his apology public, the same way he had embarrassed and harmed her child's reputation. The man did make that public apology and has also agreed to personally meet with the team face-to-face to offer his apologies.

Hopefully, this will serve as a learning experience for this man, as well as those who immediately believed his unfounded accusations based solely on a photo. Unlike him, I'm not going to publicly shame anyone by blasting out his name or workplace information. I think everyone, even someone who does something as despicable as this, deserves a chance to explain themselves and make amends before being blasted all over the internet.

How to Show Your Support For These Targeted Teens

If you're as angry about this story as I am, I encourage you to focus that energy on supporting these young athletes. Instead of fighting anger with more anger, let's show these kids that this incident does not define our community.

You can check out the team's online fundraising page and show them you have their back by not only making a donation but also dropping them an encouraging message, letting them know that they're not alone and that we're all just as hurt by this horrible situation as they are.