AITA for discuss with a teenage girl ?
I (a 19 yo man) have a 17-year-old younger sister who is constantly being bullied on her school bus (and at school) by an 18 yo girl.
This girl has been physically and verbally harassing my sister for the past few months. My sister had never mentioned it until a few days ago when she came home crying, with her clothes and hair sticky. She told me that this girl had cornered her in the bathroom and locked her in “as a joke”; my sister was late for the school bus because of this, and in the group chat, this girl started harassing her. Really upset me was seeing how the bus driver was also participating in the harassment just because this girl in question was his favorite. The last straw was seeing that they had doused my sister with vanilla milk on the bus for being late; the driver allowed it and participated.
Our mom isn't around much and has addiction issues, so I was the one who had to talk to the driver, and we got into a huge argument. He seemed very aware that I'm 19. I asked to speak with the girl's parents, but the driver told me he could only give that information to my mother.
The harassment of my sister only increased, so I complained openly (without naming the boys) in the parents’ group chat. I immediately identified this girl’s parents because of how defensive they were. I sent them a private message to talk about what happened and got a flat-out “my daughter would never do that, you’re the one with the problem,” because they thought it was my mother.
I decided to pick up my sister at dismissal time to speak directly with this girl and ask her why she was bullying my sister. Maybe it wasn’t the best decision, but I was desperate (and very upset with the driver, with whom I had another argument).
The girl wasn't as rude to me as she was to my sister, but it's obvious that I'm no authority figure to her (and I didn't pretend to be one). She got really defensive, telling me that these were girls' problems and that a guy shouldn't be intimidating a girl over something like that. We argued a bit back and forth until the girl's boyfriend showed up and told me I should argue with him instead. I wasn’t going to argue with either of them; I just told them to stop harassing my sister or I’d take action at school. I was already pretty upset, and I won’t deny that my voice was getting louder and my words weren’t as appropriate or respectful as I would have liked. But this is my little sister we’re talking about. Things escalated quickly with insults flying, and this girl acted all offended.
Then, my mom’s phone started getting messages from this girl’s parents telling her she shouldn’t have sent her oldest son to talk to their daughter over some girl drama. That he was a coward and pathetic. Apparently, the problem is bigger now, and the main issue is the 19-year-old guy who confronted an 18-year-old girl and her boyfriend. They haven’t picked on my sister, but they’re ignoring and excluding her as usual. I don’t know what to think.