kids are mean

Can you believe that when I was in the 3rd grade the ever-bullying boys used to call me Nikolai Volkov? Do you remember the original WWF wrestlers? Nikolai was this huge Russian, not to mention UGLY "bad guy" in the pro wrestling world and it crushed me to think that someone would equate me with that. I know it was just a play on words but kids are mean.
My daughter came home from "school" and said the kids called her ugly and a dummy. Now had they called her bossy, I would have sided with them because, well, she is. She likes to control playing. She regulates and dictates and it makes me wonder if maybe she isn't destined to take over, if not the world, a large corporation at the very least. But they called her 2 names that are anything but true and how do you explain to a 4 year old (who coincidentally scolds everyone, including characters on television who use the words ugly or stupid, by saying, "we don't say that, do we mama?") that kids are mean?