I think her ears look worse with the surgery. Everyone is going to notice that she got the surgery done, and now they're going to make fun of her even more for having the surgery done. It's like that South Park episode where Token invites all the rich people into town. At the end they told him that they were going to make fun of him more now that he was whining about being teased.
Her ears weren't even that bad. She could have easily just covered them with her hair, or she could say that she's learning jiu-jitsu and that it's a mark of her skills. She's being coddled here. All kinds of kids get made fun of for things, and they should have just told her to deal with the insults. If it went too far that's one thing, but being called "monkey ears" isn't even that bad.
I think that coddling someone to this level makes them worse off because it might cause them to run away from problems instead of dealing with them and facing them head on. If you get beat up or hit by food then it's a problem that needs to be dealt with. If kids are just making fun of you then suck that **** up and see that everyone is being made fun of as well as you. "OMG they are teasing my kid!" Well duh. That happens with everyone. Hell her daughter could have been teasing other kids too.
