It’s true that not all heroes wear capes. Some of them wear hair bows and use their hairstyle as a type of superpower.
That’s what a teacher did when things started to go wrong for one of her students who was new to kindergarten.
After getting a short haircut, one little girl began to get relentlessly bullied.
At her Texas school, kindergartener Priscilla Perez was happy to begin school. But pretty quickly things went south. Her mom cut her hair, from what was more of a shoulder-length bob, to a much shorter pixie cut, and the other students in her class began to pick on her.
It got bad fast. Priscilla is normally a pretty outgoing and sweet kid, but when the bullying started she became much more withdrawn. People who she considered friends were being really mean for no reason, and called her names such as a “boy.” She would come to school wearing hats or hoodies, and keep them on all day.
Priscilla’s teacher could not step back and watch the bullying happen.
Shannon Grimm was Priscilla’s kindergarten teacher and she noticed when her student changed. Eventually, Priscilla worked up the courage to confess to Ms. Grimm that she was feeling insecure about her short hair.
Ms. Grimm knew of one way to help support her student: she decided to cut her own hair in order to match with Priscilla’s! It was a way to show Priscilla and the other students that all types of hair and haircuts are great, and to show them all the importance of being kind.
Her haircut was pretty drastic.
Ms. Grimm used to have hair that was down to her waist. However, as soon as she heard about Priscilla’s plight, she knew she had to do something. Like Priscilla, she chopped off all of her hair into a matching pixie cut, and proudly walked into school showing it off.
To make things even better, Ms. Grimm and Priscilla started wearing matching bows in their hair. In Ms. Grimm’s classroom, there is a box of hair bows that are Priscilla’s and a box that are Ms. Grimm’s. Each day they pick out a bow and wear the same color and style. That’s one way to help someone feel included, and no longer ostracized!
For Ms. Grimm, this was not just a kind act, but one necessary for a well-rounded education.
She says that empathy for all her students motivated her to do this for Priscilla, and that children need to be taught and shown love in order to become their best-educated versions of themselves. She says:
“I am gonna do other things for my friends in my classroom other than just teach them. I am going to show them the love and the support that they need in order to learn.”
To make things even better, both ladies with the cute haircuts ended up winners.
Ms. Grimm wanted to boost Priscilla’s confidence even more by nominating her for the district student of the month award. In a beautiful twist, when Ms. Grimm and Priscilla showed up to the school board meeting where Priscilla would receiver her award, she had also decided to honor her supportive teacher by giving her a medal. Priscilla’s reasoning was that Ms. Grimm, for her compassionate actions, was her hero.
Watch the video below to hear more about this beautiful story!
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