Girl Who Donated Her Hair To Charity Gets Bullied For Looking Like A Boy

When Ohio 10-year-old Jetta Fosberg donated her hair to charity, she thought she was doing the right thing. Unfortunately, her classmates thought the good deed was nothing more than an excuse to bully her, and now she and her mother are fighting back.

WHIO reports that the young girl had wanted to do something for cancer victims, who often suffer hair loss from the treatment, and found the charity Wigs For Kids, which makes wigs for cancer victims out of donated hair, all on her own.

Jeffrey Paul, of Wigs For Kids, told Opposing Views that cancer treatment often causes the victim’s hair to fall off, which can be a traumatic experience for anybody, but especially for children.

“Children shouldn’t have to worry about how they look, especially when they’re in the middle of a health crisis.We want to give these kids the opportunity to feel good about themselves again.”

Jetta’s mother, Heidi, said that Jetta had 14 inches of her hair taken off.

“Of course, we were super proud. We thought it was the coolest idea that she came up with on her own.”

But Jetta said that when she went back to school, the bullying started, according to Yahoo News.

It was a really big surprise. Usually my friends are really supportive, but they were saying I was ugly, that no one likes me anymore, and calling me names like Justin Bieber and Miley Cyrus.”

Jetta’s school, Pathway School of Discovery, is a charter school in Dayton. When the bullying started, Jetta’s mother took her complaint to the school principal, but she didn’t get the results she’d hoped for.

“[The principal] told me that he didn’t know of any child that had ever died from words, and that we needed to toughen up and deal with it, and he would deal with it how he saw appropriate which was obviously not the response we were looking for.”

Jetta’s mother pulled her daughter out of school because of the bullying, and has since filed a complaint with the agency that manages Jetta’s school. WTVR reports that the agency has launched an investigation into Heidi’s complaint.

In the meantime, the family has set up a Facebook page, Stand With Jetta, to bring attention to the bullying problem, and is spreading the word on Twitter via the hashtag #StandWithJetta.

As of this post, Jetta has missed about two weeks of school because of the bullying.

[Image courtesy of: WDAY]