‘We’re punishing self defense?’: Furious father calls out principal after school tries punishing daughter for defending herself from bully

An angry father has taken to TikTok to call out the school his daughter attends after he claims staff failed to intervene when his daughter was being bullied by another kid. The infuriating part was that the principal wanted to punish her for retaliating.

TikToker “gabectomy” explained that he received a call from his daughter’s school asking him to come in after his daughter hit another kid. The father immediately made his way there to find his daughter sitting by herself in the office. When he asks her for an explanation she claims that she was trying to run away from a boy that was bullying her and her friends. At one point the boy had gabectomy’s daughter cornered and even pushed her down. Not knowing what to do she grabbed a rock and threw it at the kid.

To gabectomy, that sounded like self defense, however, the principal was less inclined to agree. Although the whole thing was apparently recorded on CCTV, proving the daughter’s version of events to be true, the principal wanted to discuss disciplinary action for the young girl. At this point the father speaks up, telling the principal that his daughter’s actions were clearly self defense, but they simply don’t listen.

After much back-and-forth, the father eventually gets his point across with a written apology being made by the bully and no disciplinary action for his daughter. However, the whole ordeal left a bitter taste in his mouth and so he took to TikTok to share his frustrating story.

TikTok commends the father

Gabectomy’s story soon went viral with the vast majority agreeing with how he handled the situation. “She’s so lucky to have such a good dad,” wrote one person, “I was bullied my entire childhood and nobody ever had my back.” Another viewer added, “Thank you for teaching her not to take bullying.” Bullying should always be taken seriously and punishing the victim in this case sets a very worrying precedent.

A few advised taking things further or making preparations in case the story suddenly changes and proof is needed, “I would call my lawyer and make a request for a copy of that video,” one viewer suggested. A few others recommended having a lawyer at the ready, advice which gabectomy seems to have taken on board.

Although the principal wasn’t too happy with gabectomy’s video, the father’s story sets a good example for parents looking to navigate tricky situations such as this. Thankfully the video proof exonerates his daughter but gabectomy was still left frustrated with the fact that no adults intervened during the incident and rather than look into that very significant failing on the school’s part, the principal chose to try and discipline his daughter for defending herself.