Eight-year-old third-grader Aolani Dunbar of Carroll County, Georgia wanted little more than to fit in with the other kids at her grade school. For her, one way to achieve that was having long hair that she could brush and style like the other girls in her class. But what happened to Aolani may leave her permanently scarred.

Aolani, like lots of kids these days, had hair extensions weaved into her natural hair, with a splash of pink for fun. But when she arrived at school wearing the extensions, her classmates immediately surrounded her and began tugging on them. They spent the next two weeks bullying young Aolani, spending every day taking turns ripping bits of the weaved locks out of her natural hair. The attacks were so severe that Aolani’s grandmother, Dorris Bearden, alerted teachers at Aolani’s school. But by the time she intervened (why she waited so long we can debate), it was already too late: It was not just the weaved hair that had been pulled. Aolani’s natural hair was also ripped from her scalp, leaving a large, gaping wound at the crown, requiring immediate emergency care. The pictures are too graphic to show here—Aolani was essentially scalped, her natural hair requiring shaving to avoid infection—but the doctor who examined Aolani found the wound so acute that Aolani’s natural hair may never grow back, potentially requiring skin grafts to repair the damage. The experience, says her grandmother, has left Aolani with post traumatic stress.

“They kept pulling it and pulling it, especially on the playground,” she said. “Everybody got a chance, and I was in the gazebo sitting there crying because I have no friends to play with that will protect me.”