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On 19 February 2015, a user-submitted story about a mother's angry response to her daughter's being punished for punching a male classmate who snapped her bra was published on the website Not Always Learning. The story, titled Was Bra-ced for a Different Reaction, reported that a female student (identified only as daughter) was about to be punished for hitting a male student (identified only as boy) before her mother stepped in and explained to the teacher that the school should be punishing boy instead of daughter since boy was the one who had sexually assaulted daughter when he snapped her bra: The details of the above-quoted story are impossible to verify since all names and locations have been redacted. Without this information we have to rely on the source, the content of the article, and basic intuition. While Not Always Learning publishes user-submitted stories that are based on actual, real events, the FAQ section explains that some stories are changed from second-hand tales to first-person accounts for dramatic effect: The stories published on Not Always Learning are user-submitted anecdotes meant to entertain readers. While the editors supposedly endeavor to ensure stories are based on real events, an amusing story clearly takes precedence over a factual one. Which brings us back to the content of Was Bra-ced for a Different Reaction. The story is filled with unnecessary detail to make the mother character the only credible voice; for instance, the story gives plenty of detail about the mother's heroic work in the A&E (accident and emergency room), while the other characters are painted as ignorant and incompetent: The mother's quick retorts also seem implausible. The story depicts a very frustrating situation, yet the mother manages to find the perfect words at every turn. While this is possible, it seems more likely that the story was written after the incident as the writer recalled exactly what she should have said. There's no English word for this concept: the French use the term esprit de l'escalier, the Germans know it as treppenwitz, and fans of Seinfeld call it the Jerk Store Paradox. The story concludes with a final speech about sexual assault from this enraged mother as she scolds the teacher and the headmaster, threatens boy, and takes daughter out of the office: Since this story does not contain any specific details about where or when it happened or who was involved, it is impossible to verify. But since the editors at Not Always Learning strive to only publish stories based on factual events, we'll concede that somewhere at some school at some time some girl hit some boy after some boy snapped some girl's bra. Possibly.
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