School bullying is a national crisis, but one woman thinks she found the solution—give the bully a taste of her own medicine.

On Wednesday, a Murry, Utah-based woman named Ally Olsen, 41, discovered that her fiancé’s 10-year-old daughter, Kaylee, was bullying a classmate. Kaylee’s teacher had emailed Olsen, explaining that the girl had been teasing a student for the past three weeks because of how she dressed. As a result, the victim no longer wanted to come to school.

“When I received the email, I was confused because just a few weeks ago, Kaylee had received an award from her principal for stopping a bullying incident at school,” Olsen told Yahoo! Shine. “I confronted Kaylee who explained that she had called another girl ‘sleazy’ for wearing Daisy Duke shorts and a tank top. We’ve taught Kaylee to dress conservatively but never expected her to be judgmental.”

Olsen said Kaylee was not apologetic so in lieu of grounding her which she felt "wouldn’t resonate” she turned to Facebook, asking friends for advice on how to handle the situation. By the next day, Olsen had a plan of action. She took her family, who regularly frequented thrift shops, to a local store, pretending it was a routine shopping trip. As Kaylee deemed various articles of clothing “ugly” and “embarrassing,” Olsen had her try them on as a joke, eventually telling the fourth-grader that she was purchasing the clothes for her as punishment. “I wanted Kaylee to truly experience the embarrassing feelings she had evoked in someone else by wearing clothes she felt self-conscious in,” says Olsen. “The goal wasn’t to select clothes that were cheap; it was to buy things that Kaylee herself said she hated.” Also, Olsen told Kaylee that she wasn’t going to force her to apologize to her classmate; her remorse had to be genuine.

Although Kaylee cried, the next day she headed to school wearing one of the outfits under a coat that she had zipped up to her neck. “When she came home that afternoon, Kaylee said the kids laughed at her for wearing ‘pajamas.’ She also felt so guilty that she pulled her classmate aside and apologized for her behavior the previous day." To solidify the punishment, Olsen snapped a photo of Kaylee wearing the outfit (her face was blurred to protect her identity) and posted it on Facebook.



By then, Olsen decided that Kaylee had suffered enough—until she learned that she had gotten into another altercation with a second girl. “When Kaylee explained how she had spoken rudely to a friend who was picking on her clothes, I decided that she needed to wear another embarrassing outfit the following day,” said Olsen. Kaylee was also made to attend her father’s soccer game wearing the clothing and posed for another photo in the outfit (her face was blurred again), which Olsen posted on Facebook. “We wanted adults to see the example we set.”



Surprisingly, Kaylee handled her punishment gracefully. “What people don’t understand is that Kaylee genuinely learned from this experience. She actually thanked me for making her go through that,” said Olsen. “I’m keeping the clothes in case she is mean to other kids again. Hopefully one day, we’ll be able to laugh about it.”

Shaming misbehaved children is hardly news and there's no shortage of parents who turn to social media to post embarrassing photos of their kids or have them stand in the street holding handwritten signs apologizing for bad behavior. But where's the line between a parent airing their family dirty laundry and being inappropriate?

“On the one hand, it sounds like this mother’s heart was in the right place,” says Kirsten Filizetti, Ph.D. a San Diego-based psychologist. “She was trying to help this girl understand what she had done and teach her a life lesson.

“However, parents should be careful about introducing shame and guilt onto kids as a form of punishment,” she says. According to Filizetti, a better plan of action may have been to sit down with the child and understand the motivations behind the bullying, then use that knowledge to expose him or her to children who are different from them. To further the learning lesson, it may also be wise to have the kid sit down with the peer they hurt and listen to how the behavior was hurtful. “It’s less important that the bully explain where they were coming from and more important that the victim feels heard,” she says.

Yahoo! Shine

The parents should have flogged her. That would have been a better punishment.

Just, especially when they are young before they become too hardened at it

Hmmm I actually think those outfits are cute.
Anyway that is play play parenting as far as i am concerned. If you want to deal with a bully that happens to be yours, you deal with them very well that they wont forget in a hurry. What nonsense. Anyway everyone with their own parenting styles.

CFCfan: The parents should have flogged her. That would have been a better punishment.

You only flog in Africa

ogugua88:
According to Filizetti, a better plan of action may have been to sit down with the child and understand the motivations behind the bullying, then use that knowledge to expose him or her to children who are different from them. To further the learning lesson, it may also be wise to have the kid sit down with the peer they hurt and listen to how the behavior was hurtful.

I tink this is better....

vanitty: Hmmm I actually think those outfits are cute.
Anyway that is play play parenting as far as i am concerned. If you want to deal with a bully that happens to be yours, you deal with them very well that they wont forget in a hurry. What nonsense. Anyway everyone with their own parenting styles.

Lol, each parent knows what hurts his/her child the most....

She knew what would make her child remorseful, and she employed it.

ogugua88:

[size=13pt]I don't think she'll forget wearing thrift shop clothes to school and being ridiculed by her friends, not when the woman took photos of her.[/size]

If she is popular in school, trust me, most girls will want to copy the style. Little girls can be sheep like in their behaviour.
Anyway, each to their own.

I guess the girl learnt and will probably change for the better

The parent's method worked and that's what matters.

vanitty:

If she is popular in school, trust me, most girls will want to copy the style. Little girls can be sheep like in their behaviour.
Anyway, each to their own.

I agree. If the girl and her friends wanted to make a statement out of it,they could have. All they would have needed to do was to join her in wearing similar ugly dresses stylishly and proud.
It would have rubbished the mother's intentions.

ogugua88:

[size=13pt]I don't think she'll forget wearing thrift shop clothes to school and being ridiculed by her friends, not when the woman took photos of her.[/size]

That's a very sad thing cos I laffed at the second pix as well when I saw it on Yahoo News this morning.

At least, she got the message.

cant make head or tail of the story, and where's the girl's father?

ogugua what did you say is your explanation for the story.

break it down for the rest of us who are slow, thanks.

THIS is the reason why she bullies her peers, any parent that would do this to a kid must be messed up..

ogugua88:

[size=13pt]Did I say I had any explanation? Did I give one?[/size]

what i really want to know is how you can actually change fonts. I really want a sissy font when posting similar to the one, one particular a55hole MOD on Romance uses.

Help a bruva out

Lol at the outfits.

The clothes are not so bad. Infact I think the first dress looks adorable

Salmoneus: THIS is the reason why she bullies her peers, any parent that would do this to a kid must be messed up..

Indeed... but you have to suit the punishment to the kid. Sounds like this girl learned her lesson. Tho I dont think shaming is the way to go

Hohohoho ... Lafing in korea

Oyibo crap... Bully ko, dress ni. I rememba bck then in primary, a guy beat me up for fun... I returned home crying. On hearing my story, my mother(I love dat woman) gave me a very BIG STICK saying ''Go back and meet dat boy again with this and make sure u give him a beating of his life or 4get food in this house 4 a week!!!''
Driven by the prospect of not eating food for a week, I returned to school with my stick poised 4 action. On sighting me and the stick, the boy must have smelt trouble... he took to his heels... For where? I caught up with the boy, gave him a very thorough 'romancing' with my stick and returned with 'good' news to mum. She smiled and said, ''know this: nobody can make you inferior without ur consent''
@op, I think the problem is with the pesin being bullied.

why all that stress when she could give her 6 strokes of cain on her bottom and tell her not to do it again mtchew. These oyinbo people self. I trust my mama no time for nonsense

xynerise:
You only flog in Africa

Please, I beg to differ... A lot of parents still whack their kids in the Uk. Stop peddling the cliche and ubiquitous rumor that it's only in Africa the kids are flogged.

?

[size=16pt]FLOG THE SHYZ OUTTA HER! SACRIFICE HER TO AMADIOHA![/size]

to cut d long story.... bullying is bad. do not engage in it.

i tink i support

Well....what can i say?

Oyibo no sabi discipline children jor.

CFCfan: The parents should have flogged her. That would have been a better punishment.

do it with your own child .. it would be a nice idea

PAGAN 9JA:
[size=16pt]FLOG THE SHYZ OUTTA HER! SACRIFICE HER TO AMADIOHA![/size]

lmfao