Teacher Chops Waist-Long Hair for Bullied Girl

Shannon Grimm misses her waist-length hair, but she says chopping it off was a small price to pay for brightening a child's life. The kindergarten teacher at Meador Elementary School in Houston noticed students were teasing a girl in her class about her short hair, saying it made her look like a boy. "I would cry because I would think school was not fun," 5-year-old Priscilla Perez tells KTRK. That is, until Grimm showed up at school in January with a new pixie cut and matching hair bows for her and Priscilla, whom she's nominated for the district's student of the month award, per CNN.

"When [students] come to school upset and sad because of the way they look, that destroys me as their teacher," Grimm says in a Facebook video, viewed more than 4,400 times. "What better way to show them that you can look any way and still be true to yourself ... than to cut my own hair?" Priscilla is appreciative. Describing her teacher as her hero, she presented Grimm with a medal at a school board meeting last week. More important to Grimm is the lesson learned. "Who's beautiful?" she asks Priscilla in a CNN video. "Me," the girl responds with a smile. (Nashville's Clare Bowen would approve.)