P.S. Your avatar scares me!

Ok, so I am officially ticked off now.

There is a girl at school who has been giving Alyssa trouble all year.  First, it was making fun of her clothes.  Then, it was making fun of the "baby" foods and utensils that she packed in her lunchbox.  Next, she jeered the way Alyssa laughs.  Another time, it was busting on her hat.  I have not intervened, except to tell Alyssa that she will have to deal with nasty people her whole life, and this little girl is good practice for her.  The proverbial straw that broke the camel's back occurred this Monday, when Alyssa came home from school with the closure ripped off of one of her shirts.

I asked what happened, and Alyssa said that while playing in the gym, this little girl pulled her up from the gym floor by her shirt, ripping the closure.  I corroborated her story with Ella via Aimee.  So, I decided to write the girl's mother a nice email:

Hi,

I just wanted to touch base with you because apparently the girls were in gym class, and "anonymous" pulled Alyssa's shirt so hard that the closure ripped off.  Accidents happen, but I would appreciate it if you could ask "anonymous" to please be more careful.

Thank you,
Aubrey

Nice, right?  To the point, but not unfriendly.  Full of please and thank you.  (Professional writer.)

Well, I didn't get a response for almost a week, and nothing was said to Alyssa at school, so I figured that she blew me off.  Oh, well.

And then today:

"Anonymous" advises me that she was not pulling Alyssa's shirt. We do not know how this happened.

That was it, in its entirety.  No greeting (no admission of guilt, no apology,) and no closing or name.  Seriously?  I believe I understand the problem now.  In lieu of writing a snarky response that would quite obviously not make any difference in this situation, I am venting to you, my readership.

Since I'm not sending the snark out into the world...I am going to unleash a teensie bit of it right here:

This was the mother's avatar-thing (is that what it is called?).  I guess you can customize these little cyber people to look like you.  In this case, apparently, wearing a perma-sneer and angrily arched eyebrows.  All I'm going to say is, if I were the kind of person who would indulge a nasty e-mail with a nasty response, I would close it with: "P.S.  Your avatar scares the beans out of me!"