Punk Ass Bully

Last night, my Sophia snuck off and chopped off a big chunk of her hair.  Initially, I was upset at HER, assuming this was another one of her hair-chopping shenanigans she used to pull a couple years back.  But the more I thought and thought about it, something just didn't feel right. Mother's instinct? I'd like to think so.

But here's the backstory: 

At the beginning of this week, Sophie walked into the house after school with her head down, stomping, "This kid Justin said I have moustache!" Now, my daughter has thick dark hair...which of course, well, yeah there may be a slightly darker color to her upper lip. But at this age when monkey bars and sandboxes should be the only thing on their innocent little minds...appearance should absolutely NOT be a concern!!!

We had a little talk about it, asked her how she felt about the situation, asked her what she wanted us to do to help, and gave her a little advice. She seemed to feel good about our conversation and we let it go. 

The next day, she came home again, a little more upset than before. "Justin was pointing to each girl and saying 'pretty' or 'ugly' and he called me ugly."

Really?!?! There was nothing I wanted to do and hunt this punk down and pommel his face. Instead, we sat down with her again. We talked to her about bullies, but really, I didn't quite know what the proper thing to say was. I never had to deal with this when I was a kid.  I didn't even realize kids could be so mean.

And so yesterday, I spied the state of her hair, and oblivious mom yelled at her for doing it.  Then this morning I asked her again why she did it and she hung her head and muttered, "I was just so mad at him."

This girl is vivacious, and spunky, and just an incredible unique little individual. She's comfortable playing by herself in the playground if nobody wants to play what she wants to play. Her heart is huge and she refuses to say anything unkind to anyone.  And to think one little delinquent can make her feel so insecure and bad that she felt the need to cut her hair off....I am beyond words.  My heart is broken I couldn't protect my precious little girl from this.

She looked at me with tears in her eyes, "Mom, can you make him stop?"

Hell, yeah I can. Phone calls to the school counselor and proper notification to the principal have been made.  This kid WILL be stopped. Even if I have to demand this kid lose his bus privileges.  Even if I have to hunt his home address down so I can corner his parents. 

Have any of you had any type of experience dealing with this? What did you do? Advice, people, is needed!!!