High school or middle school are both really weird times for kids.
They're going through EVERYTHING and hormones are crazy and it's all just a lot for them to take in. So people end up in situations that are less than ideal.
And then of course, to make everything worse, people talk behind each others' backs. And then teachers hear it?
Yikes.
u/TripleAReddit asked:
Teachers of Reddit, what's the weirdest rumour you've heard about a student?
Here were some of those weirdo rumors.
Oh Yikes When It's TRUE Though
GiphyThere was this rumor that this senior girl in my high school was dating one of the science teachers. She hung around his office and after class a lot, but it seemingly was nothing. Just kids making up dumb sh*t for whatever reasons they do. He was a beloved teacher, and she was pretty low key, but a cool girl none the less. Figured some douche got a bad grade or had it out for the guy somehow, nothing ever came of it.
Curve ball, a few months after she graduated he divorced his wife, left his family, and went public on facebook that he was dating this 18 year old girl. He was probably in his mid forties. Did NOT see that coming.
Totally Understandable Cravings
Heard a rumor kids were doing drugs in the bathroom. I worked at an inner city school and coke really wasn't a big problem- pot was their choice. I walked out of my class during planning period to find a girl walking out of the bathroom with white powder on her nose. I asked her about it and she responded with "its powdered donuts, Mrs. K! I swear! I'm pregnant and it's all I want to eat. But everyone thinks I'm doing drugs." She then pulled out two empty bags of powdered donuts. We got her connected to some pregnancy help.
Why Are Kids This Astute
Former band director here.
We had a color guard girl who COULD. NOT. catch any time she tossed her flag. The kids made up a rumor that she had a glass eye and that was why she couldn't catch anything.
Two years later, the girl was about to graduate and came into our office to talk to the staff. She had never told a soul, but her left eye had been glass for years. She lost it in a car accident before moving into our district. You couldn't tell by just looking at her.
Turns out, the made-up rumor was 100% spot-on.
God Help The Mister Who Comes Between Me And My Sister
Two students (fraternal twins) arrive at the school age 15. One looked older than the other, but that happens. Then the rumour comes out that they are not twins, but sisters. I tell the Behaviour Support workers, who look into it: turns out, one of the sisters is 22 years old. Parents lied about her age to get her into the school and therefore stay in the country. Whoops.
I Am The Rumor
Back in October, me and a similar-looking teacher kept getting mixed up by our kids (7th grade). We started a rumor by giving little hints that we were half-brothers. Nothing super obvious, but just enough to get them thinking.
We've been pouring it on a lot more recently though. Hopefully we can get a photo with "our" (my) dad over spring break right before... April Fools Day
The Gays Don't Deserve This
Okay A girl who lied on social media about having an affair with a teacher, she recanted later when it was revealed he was gay. First she claimed to have been hacked. Then she said it never happened to her but to another girl she was protecting. Full police investigation later and she admitted to doing it because she felt she needed support from her peers.
One student was rumored to be a Satanist witch who was scared to God's holy light, since she wore modest clothing and used an umbrella in full sun. She had vitiligo and was undergoing a steroid therapy that made her extremely sensitively sun light.
Colleague married a "much younger woman" who was rumored to be his student. She was neither, the woman they saw him with was his daughter.
Life Paths Amirite
My mom's a teacher and I went to high school where she taught. She had a student who I was also friends with. I ended up hanging out with him again after a few years and after some drinks he told me he was in a couple pornos right after he graduated. My mom couldn't f*cking believe it when I told her because he was, and still is, a really polite, quirky, socially awkward kid. He refuses to tell me his porn name tho, which I'm bummed about.
He Played On White People Not Knowing African Geography
A new transfer student enlisted the help of all of his existing friends in the school to spread the rumor that his REAL name was "Mbaku" and he was born in "Wakanda, Africa" to all the teachers, while speaking in a really shoddy Nigerian accent (we're in the American Northeast). I was hired halfway through the year and by then it was just assumed that it was true and no one had corrected it. He was brought up in a teacher's meeting and I was just like "Wait.... Mbaku? From... from the fictional continent of Wakanda?". And no one says anything. Dead room. I press on. "... Black Panther? The Movie? Guys?". And suddenly the Social Studies teacher stands up and slams his fist on the table, point at the Vice Principal, and just yells "I G*DDAMN TOLD YOU!".
Good times, good times.
Not Today, Satan
I had a really weird student who was asking all kinds of odd, personal questions, and texted me at odd hours (I never responded). Talked to another teacher who had the same student previously, and she told me that student had a really unnatural sleep cycle because, and I quote, the student was an "avid worshipper of satan". The student was on standby for spontaneous worship at all hours of the day.
The student actually told me about it later on. Nothing threatening, just very matter-of-factly. Confirmed the whole thing and hinted about being part of a large group, and hinted at there being "many ways" one must be ready to serve. Didn't get any clarification, so it might just have been to mess with me.
Not my worst student, but... odd.
So They Say It's Your "One Year Closer To Death" Day
GiphyHeard a rumor that a kid was crying because it was his birthday. Went to check it out, and guess what, the rumor was true. Asked him why he was crying it was his birthday and, I am now quoting, "I hate the attention. Like, who cares, you're another year older. WHAT AM I SUPPOSED TO DO WHILE THEY ARE SINGING?!" I sat there just nodding my head and said "You know what, I can't fault you for that one, dude. I feel ya."
"What’s the most amazing thing about the universe?"
Our Brains Are Like The Milky Way
"A single human brain has as many neurons as there are stars in the Milky Way galaxy."
"Around 100 billion."
"Source: a neuroscientist filled with useless facts about the brain."- Afferent_Input
Where Our Deep Uncertainty Comes From
"This is one I thought about recently."
"I believe that Carl Sagan said that we, sentient entities, are a way for the cosmos to know itself."
"With this in mind, when we think about the end of our universe, whether it be through a big shrink, big cooling, or what have you, we get apprehensive."
"We probably will never see this end, many of us will be dead."
"Yet, we still get a cold fear in our hearts."
"We are also a way for the cosmos to fear it's demise."- TheClassyEngineer
A Little Perspective
"If you were on a planet 65 million light years away from Earth and had a really good telescope, you could see the dinosaurs."- Swimmergent
lisa simpson space GIFGiphyWhat Got Us Where We Are
"That every single random event since the dawn of creation."
"The birth and death of stars, planets and galaxies, the very genesis of life has led to you being here right now to ask this question."- Jesus_marley
There's Another World Out There...
"Imagine being transported to a parallel universe that was almost identical to our own."
"Somewhere out in the vastness of that universe, there is a tiny planet."
"This much is true in both universes."
"On this planet, there is a beach, and on that beach, there is a small stone."
"Once again, both universes are alike in this regard."
"Beneath that stone, however, there are several million grains of sand, and while they are all are in precisely the same location in each universe, one of them, a tiny speck of particularly clear quartz, hewn from a larger whole millions of years before, has a single atom that is positioned a fraction of a femtometer differently than its twin in the mirror dimension."
"You may think that such an insignificant difference would label these two universes as being functionally identical, and you would be right."
"In fact, they are so similar that the multiverse has long since combined them into one reality."
"That single atom in that tiny speck of sand on that lonesome beach on a distant planet merely occupies two spaces at once, seeming to an outside observer to vibrate back and forth at a predictable rate."
"That every atom in existence seems to do the same is probably a coincidence."- RamsesThePigeon
Loop Space GIF by xponentialdesignGiphySpeaks For Itself
"That it exists."- phillipsd001
The Age Old Question...
"It must be true that either it didn't exist, then it did."
"Or it has always existed."- realFraaErasmas
What Makes Our Brain Work...
"That somehow all the particles accumulated in a specific way and in specific quantities to give you conscious thought."- Sphyrwa
Stars Glow GIF by Erica AndersonGiphyThe Inevitable End...
That whatever our problems are, big or small, it won’t matter in 1,000,000 years (worst being a nuclear war or something). - Reddit
There are countless things about the universe no one will ever know.
But mysterious and, sometimes, unsettling as it may be, there's something oddly wonderful about the unending exploration and study to learn what is out there.
And all the discoveries we have yet to make.
"What fictional character's death still hits you hard no matter how many times you watch it?"
Dear, Noble Artax
"I have to say the death of Artax, the boy's horse, in 'The Neverending Story'."
"Watching him sink into that swamp was pretty awful."- powderkegpitbull
Bubba of Forest Gump
"'Bubba was my best good friend'."
"'And even I know that ain't something you can find just around the corner'."
"'Bubba was going to be a shrimping boat captain, but instead, he died right there by that river in Vietnam'."- FlyingVI
Stoick The Vast
"Stoick the Vast, chief of Berk, Hiccup's father, from 'How to Train Your Dragon'."- Waldo_007
how to train your dragon animation GIF by Universal KidsGiphyThe Iron Giant
"The Iron Giant."- roo719
Noble Canine Companion
"Fry’s dog from Futurama."
"Another testimony to the fact that animators can be true storytellers, who don’t always need words to get their point across."
"The changing of seasons as the dog sits and waits in front of the pizza shop."
"Waits and waits for Fry, who never returns."
"No dialogue."
"Just the absence of the dog, eventually."
"Ugh."
"Gut wrenching."- iwokwuplikwthis
Animated GIFGiphySweet Ofelia
"The little girl from Pan's Labyrinth."
"In fact I just started crying even thinking about it"- choppcy088
Beloved Dr. Greene
"Mark Greene on ER."
"20 years later and I've never watched that episode without bawling like a baby."- LadyGreyIcedTea
A Hero's Death
"Wally West in 'Young Justice'."
"It’s been about a decade and I’m still mad about it."- Remarkable-Duck-2306
Video Game Laughing GIF by DCGiphyA Heartbreaking Escape
"When Brooks hangs himself in 'The Shawshank Redemption'."- Horror-School-6713
As the saying goes, those we love never truly leave us.
In the case of fictional characters in film and television, however, they are literally preserved for eternity.
Paving the way for new generations to be devastated and traumatized by their deaths.
If you or someone you know is struggling, you can contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255).
To find help outside the United States, the International Association for Suicide Prevention has resources available at https://www.iasp.info/resources/Crisis_Centres/