u/Much-Aside-2781

So I have a sister named Emily. She is 16, and I am 18. We live with our grandparents, and I'm also married, but that's not important to the story.

Emily has really long hair. I mean, it goes down to about her knees Actually passed her knees that's how long it is. That's not even an exaggeration. Emily absolutely adores her hair. I love her hair, everyone loves her hair, and we love braiding it, curling it, and straightening it. She embraces it so much.

Emily had to switch schools, and she has only been there for about three weeks. Because of her really long hair, the school originally thought she had extensions, but she was able to prove that it was all her natural hair.

Well, imagine my surprise when my grandparents got a call from the principal wanting a meeting with Emily and my grandmother about her hair. They wanted her to cut it so it would be a more "reasonable" length.

Emily was crying and screaming the moment she got home. She ran into my room, climbed into my bed, and cried while I cuddled her and told her everything would be okay. I told her she wasn't going to have to cut her hair because they had no right to make her do that.

I thought that if we braided her hair, they couldn't claim it was distracting, and it would be less noticeable. So I gave her two French braids.

Then, imagine my surprise when I got a call from my grandmother telling me to pick Emily up from school. The hotel where I work is only about three minutes away from her school, so I went to get her. When I arrived, she was bawling her eyes out.

Apparently, the principal still wanted her to cut her hair. She was trying to frame it as "just a little bit," and she said the braids were not suitable. At that point, I was furious and started going off on her.

Then she showed me the dress code, and it stated, "No hair past the waist."

I told her I was willing to compromise. I was willing to put Emily's hair in a bun. I was willing to keep it in braids. But this woman refused every suggestion.

I finally had enough and told her, "You have no reason to control what other people do with their hair. You already have a uniform policy and plenty of other rules. If this is really an issue, my family will take you to court, and I'm also going to contact the school board about this."

The vice principal immediately started begging me not to contact the school board, saying that would be overkill. Eventually, they agreed to let Emily keep her hair and not punish her for violating the dress code. They also agreed that she wouldn't have to braid it, put it in a bun, or do anything special with it.

Later, my grandparents arrived, and after talking everything over with my grandmother, we agreed that we were still going to contact the school board.

All of the names are fake. The reason I mention that is because some details are changed in different stories.

I was with my sister, Emily. I'm 18, and she is 16. We both live with our grandparents, and I'm married to my husband, Rick. Rick is 21 years old.

Emily goes to school every day. She attends a specialized school because she couldn't stay at her previous school due to her autism and the fact that she needed more support.

School had only been in session for three weeks when a girl named Casey, who is also 16, started causing problems for Emily. I mean a lot of bullying. It happened on social media, in person, and involved Casey and her whole posse of friends.

Some examples included calling Emily "retarded," taking pictures of her without her consent and sending them to people, and spreading rumors about her. A lot of it seemed to be because Emily is autistic and a little different.

Rick and I were talking about the situation, and we started looking up information about Casey. We found the school's directory and saw that she was on the cheerleading team. I called the cheerleading team and explained the situation. Our grandmother also explained what had been happening.

Later, I went to work. One of my coworkers, Shirley, is a very humble woman from the South, and she's amazing. While talking with her, I realized that Casey's last name matched Shirley's last name. At first, I thought it was just a coincidence, but then I found out that Shirley was Casey's stepmom.

I told Shirley everything. I showed her screenshots and explained every single thing that had been said and done. Shirley was mortified. I thought that would be the end of it.

Then my grandmother got Shirley's phone number, and they started talking. Shirley ended up telling the other girls' mothers as well.

A few days later, Emily came home and told me the bullying had stopped. Again, I thought that would be the end of it.

Then I got a text from Shirley asking me to bring Emily to the hotel where I work. Shirley brought Casey and her entire posse there. She made Casey and all of the other girls apologize to Emily. Emily was so happy. Casey and her little friend group were crying.

However, this is where I might be wrong.

Later, I got a call from Emily's school, and so did my grandmother. They told us that we should have come to the school first. Apparently, Emily had never gone to the principal, vice principal, or any other school administrator about the bullying, which was something she failed to tell me.

Because we never reported it through the school, it ended up causing a lot of problems. Other students and parents became involved, especially after learning that Casey and her friends had allegedly been causing problems for multiple students. The school said that some students no longer felt comfortable going to the principal or vice principal because parents were handling issues outside of the school's process instead.

Now I'm wondering if I was wrong for talking to Casey's stepmom and getting parents involved instead of going through the school first.