Dear Roger: Monkey's Getting Bullied

The signs have been increasing over the past few weeks, the offhand comment about not wanting to go to school from a child who used to pop up every morning like a spring, literally vibrating and eager for the bus to arrive. The change in wardrobe from her typical flashy, punky style or her fancy dresses to a more subdued almost bland, pre-middle school camouflage of plain t-shirts, jeans and tennis shoes. Her temper has been shorter and I've gotten reports of her being in trouble for shoving another child or yelling at another child, and when I ask about it, she tells me that either they shoved her first or had been picking at her calling her,"Weird" and "Freak" among other things or they had try to take her Jackson on days when the kids are allowed to bring lovies for some reading event.
Today was such a day. She thought it was pj day so she had worn a pair of leggings along with her boots and a very funky cool long sleeved t-shirt that you couldn't even tell was a pj top unless someone told you, and of course she took Jackson. I was at work around 930 when I got a call from her begging me to come get her. She said it was because her clothes were wrong, but I should have known it was more, her voice sounded tense and upset, and I could hear the principal rushing her in the background. I was swamped at work and it was pouring rain so I told her she would be fine in what she had on, that it was raining too hard to walk to the school to get her and then walk home. It bothered me to do it, but I did.
When she got home in the afternoon, I got the whole story, it wasn't just her clothes that were the problem. They had a substitute who essentially allowed the little pack of girls who harass her, to have free reign in the classroom, and when my daughter left the room to use the bathroom, one of the more hateful of the girls kidnapped Jackson and was swinging him around by his tail and calling my daughter names when she got back and demanded his return. Apparently the hysterics and threats were pretty ugly and dire.
She doesn't understand why they hate her, and yes, they tell her they "hate her". They tell her she is a,"Freak" and "Weird" and all kinds of things and I really cant figure out why she has become a target unless its the whole Gifted thing and that she stands out from the crowd. I told her that she is weird. We are all weird in this family and we relish our weirdness. Where they are plain and boring and easily forgettable, she obviously sticks in their minds enough to bother them and that makes her interesting and uncommon and someone who is headed places better than them.  I try to be supportive, but it is wearing on her. She told me today, "They said no one wants to play with me or be my friend and they told "B" not to play with me either or they wouldn't play with her."
I told her about what it was like for me growing up and that I was bullied and ostracized and while there were reasons for some of it,(I usually was dirty, smelled like cigarette smoke or a dirty house and I was a horribly arrogant smart ass), she doesn't have those reasons  except for maybe the smart ass thing, and that it is survivable and sometimes those people grow up and years later look back at how horrible they were to you, and then they become better people and apologize and raise their children to be better people.I told her to consider that maybe she was being tested and that her suffering was part of her path to becoming a good person and helping them to become better people in the end.
Its not easy to tell her that stuff, the old me wants to teach her some really stealthy ju jitsu moves that will have those little shits crying on the ground without and mark on them and no idea what happened except for the smile on my daughters face, but then again, I am trying really hard to be a better person so my kid will win out in the end, but I swear by all that is holy, if that candy ass of a principal does not get this crap in hand by this next week, we will be having a talk and he will not like what I am going to be telling him.