dd accidentally accused girls of serious things they never did

Your dd needs to ditch her 'bestie' immediately even if it means no friends because 'bestie' is obviously really bad news.

She needs to say a really short but direct sorry and admit she was wrong to the other girls, let them know her door is always open then leave them the heck alone. They will come back to her if/when they're ready. They're doing nothing wrong to distance themselves right now. It may be that once they see that your dd has distanced herself from 'bestie' they trust her more and see the bigger picture.

No good will come of creating more false drama out of this than there's already been. Hopefully your dd has learned a valuable lesson. She has to reap what she sewed now unfortunately

This! Exactly. She needs to learn her lesson and move on.

The whole thing has not been dealt with well. The school for a start. This girls lies should have been exposed sooner. Your DD ignored the teachers advice. and the whole thing dragged on. This troublemaker who made up the tales should be dealt with and the truth uncovered. Ridiculous that yet again nothing will be done until after the holidays.

The girls have been acting weird around her; we are on holidays now and they snap her less often and replaced with surroundings instead of their usual selfie.

Good on the girls to keep your dd at an arms length, that's the way to do it. Your dd accused them of something very serious and caused them pain and drama. These girls have graciously accepted dd's apology but do not and will not eve trust her again. The best your dd can hope for is distant but polite treatment from the girls she falsely accused. This ship has sailed, encourage your dd to move on and branch out. You come across as single minded hoping that these girls will accept your dd into their circle. I'd tell my dd to be polite and civil but stay well away from your dd in this situation.

She did take ownership of her role in it she just doesnt want to be seen as plotting with her ex bestie to get them into trouble when she was actually misled.

Your dd was misled but she now has learned a valuable lesson, to be wary of trouble makers like her ex 'bestie'. Making mistakes is human and a learning opportunity. Did she not ever have a bad feeling about bestie before all this drama? Ex bestie must have form, surely.

Thank you for your advice! The letter was long and she took full responsibility for her actions, so the face to face would just be a repeat of what was in the letter. She is also not sure if she should bring up the situation after the letter unless they do.

A letter to apologise is just adding to the drama, it's frilly and socially a bit inept {this is AIBU, so I'm being blunt}. At 15, the girls comms are usually online, a letter is distinctly old fashioned and in my view a bit controlling. You should have marched your dd to each of the girls' homes or set up a brief meeting with these families and apologised to each girl and their parents in person. A letter is distant and a tad cowardly because she's not facing the girls in person.

Let this go, at this age, it's up to your dd how she sorts it and it will be sorted as everyone will move on. Although I don't think she'll be friends with any of them but she can make new friends either outside of school or with other girls. Encourage your dd to get involved in school life and do not pressure your dd or let her pressure the girls to be friends, leave them well alone.

My DD had a situation not too dissimilar during last year’s summer holidays. ExBestie made stuff up and stirred shit between DD and 3 others and then proceeded to act like the victim, typical DARVO.

On their return to school (into Yr 11) DD had no idea if she would have any friends. DD was her usual cheerful self, didn’t gossip about the situation and was polite to exBestie when in her company and absolutely did not say anything bad about exBestie. The first few weeks were rough, exBestie ignored DD, spoke over her and “chatted shit” about DD endlessly and to anyone who would listen. By half term (7 weeks) the other girls were fed up of exBestie and she had shown them all who she really is. By the end of term exBestie had moved on to new friends.

I’m so proud of how my DD handled the whole situation: head held high, polite, friendly, unwilling to gossip and slander. During the holidays I kept DD busy and encouraged her to keep up contact with all of her friends.

Girls can be such bitches, overthink everything and put their own slant on situations.

I think she probably needs to start again and work on new friendships. Could she join some clubs etc over the summer? The bestie clearly has issues. This is really confusing for your daughter. But always watch others actions not just their words, real friends will show you.

And some people would be satisfied with that. Others wouldn't. I assume she's already explained her BF role anyway, so I don't think it needs hammering home. Her BF did wrong, but who knows if she had also been 'misled' by rumours about the girls? Its often a very tangled web of she said/she said and she's young, jealous and threatened.
My point, DD shouldn't encourage scapegoating of the friend and risk sparking a witch hunt. Its just more drama and nastiness. If she wants to apologise, do it unreservedly for her own error rather than 'she made me do it'
The facts are out there and everyone needs to make their own decisions on how to go forward and who they trust. Your DD should also not seem too desperate. Hopefully they are nice girls, but if not, that can be exploited. Just let it lie now.

What on earth is all this bestie nonsense 🙄

Think about how you would feel about someone who made an accusation against you, that you hardly knew. Would you feel like making up with them or would you feel wary enough to stay clear?

I think this is just going to have to be a learning experience for your DD about not believing things without evidence. The discomfort will pass for her as things settle down and it won't be long before these girls aren't in her life anymore.

We all make mistakes, especially when we're teenagers.

Being misled = believing bad things about them at the word of another. I'd think, "They believe that of me, so that says a lot about how they view me and about our friendship. No thanks."

She should have asked for proof before accusing. Granted lack of life experience might contribute and these can be hard lessons to learn, but the girls get to decide where to from here.

I would suggest your daughter forgets all about this situation, gets her head down, and concentrates on getting good grades in her exams. She can go to 6th form college for her A levels and will find a whole new set of friends there, and again if she goes to university. Very few people remain close friends with people they were at school with, and I think you and your daughter are blowing this out of all proportion. They are teenagers, teenagers, do daft things, she (and they) will look back on this episode with a wry smile in a year or so.

You’ve posted this before haven’t you? The phrase a pick me and the scenario is identical to an op months ago. How come you’re posting it again?

You need to work on your DDs confidence as she seems to be over relient on other people and a bit of a passenger in her own life, seeing herself as having little autonomy. What made her think these girls could trick her into a sex game, even if they wanted to, for example? Why did she trust her BF over the evidence of her own experience with the girls without proof?
She needs to develop trust in herself as a person who can make her own judgement about who to be friends with and what to do. Unfortunately her mistake in this case will likely have damaged that further, so I'd offer for her to talk these things through with you before deciding in future if that would help. You can then help her reach informed choices without telling her what to do.
As far as the girls are concerned, frankly I think she's lucky they are engaging with her at all. She believed lies about them without any evidence. If I were her I'd try and explain and apologise in person. Not to get back in with them, but because she was wrong and owes them that, and it's part of taking responsibility.

No, she can't, and trying to do so is not taking ownership of her role in it. If she tries to pass the blame, I think it will only hurt her case.

Other than explaining it to them no

She doesn’t need to make a performance out of it. Perhaps wait until there’s a moment when she’s with them and she can just quietly and relatively casually just say something like “Look I know we’ve already spoken about what happened with xxx and I don’t want to drag it all up again and make a big thing of it, but I just wanted you to know I am so sorry for hurting you. You are a great friend(s) and you mean a lot to me. I do really appreciate you agreeing to put it behind us and stay friends.”

Boys have drama too

Thank goodness I had boys! What a lot of drama.

That's up to them really. Your DD can't control their reaction to this

You're way too involved and bestie is something 15yos say. Not their adult parents.