A rumor is a story that circulates on the internet, or even in a school, that spreads speculation about some uncertain or doubtful truth. They can have a significant impact on people on a variety of levels.
As a result of spreading rumors, the person being rumored about may suffer negative effects on their mental health, reputation, or social well-being. Junior Jazlynn O’Roy feels that the person may feel down or even worse.
“When rumors happen the person may feel like people are painting a picture that isn’t true about them, they also may hear people talking about them a lot so constantly, it may make their mental health go down. They may feel like they are being judged and that their reputation is being tarnished,” said O’Roy.
Since rumors can last for long periods, when they occur in school, students will hear about them for a long time along with the person it’s about. Junior Kleigh Hammie feels that when a rumor happens about a person it will stick with them.
“When something happens in school, it may happen in like freshman year and it is your junior year when new people come to the school, they are going to hear about you so it will always affect you cause they last for some time, tarnishing your reputation,” says Hammie.
Whenever gossip occurs, it spreads quickly like a wildfire or a virus. As it spreads so quickly, Hammie feels that it becomes a problem when it spreads so fast.
“Whenever rumors are spreading around the school, they go around really fast because of the internet and other things like that. This can make it worse for the person they’re getting spread about,” says Hammie.
There are also consequences that come with spreading rumors and steps that school staff takes like AP Mr. Odelusi. Usually, when rumors happen he talks to the student and really tries to figure out the problem.
“the first thing I do is I let the student talk. I let them talk about everything that happened give me details, their concerns, I let them air their frustrations I just let them you know, vent and say everything that they want just because that’s like a very very sensitive thing for anybody to deal with only because nobody likes to feel like they’re getting attacked and nobody likes to feel alone like you do in a situation like that,” said Odelusi
Mr.Odelusi shares certain steps that are taken when it comes to the consequences and the different levels.
“Typically, you’re talking about like someone who spread the rumor the student that you know, I was like to spread the rumor. So, it depends sometimes a rumor is a conduct code violation. Sometimes a rumor can fall under the category of being a threat sometimes a rumor can be seen as harassment or bullying. So based on that is varying degrees of discipline to the point of the attention I assess all the way to out-of-school suspension DAP and in some instances, expulsion from the district,”
Counselors also are another staff that helps with rumors they can help the student, Mrs.Trewitt a counsler shares how she helps students when things like rumors happen.
“I definitely listen to the students because rumors that are being spread about them can be very harmful and hurtful. And so I start by listening to the students and validating how they feel. And then we talk about some different steps on can you stay away from the students or students? You know, depending on what the rumor was about, you know, steps on how to prevent future rumors. But at the end of the day you know, whether you’re in high school, or outside of high school, people are always going to talk about you. And it might not all be true. So I talk a lot about self-worth, and you know that what you’re worth and you know, that those rumors aren’t true and so you have to be confident in yourself knowing that the people that are spreading the rumors, probably have something going on, that they’re projecting on to you,” said Mrs Trewitt
Overall rumors can effect people but there’s also people that can help.