Did you ever hear a rumor about you in school, that was just completely false and blown out of proportion? Well, unfortunately, middle school and high school are the meccas for gossip and rumors and people have to defend themselves and their truth...
“OMG I Thought You Were Dead!”
“There was a rumor that I had died. Seriously, I was a sickly child in school.
At the start of my freshman year of high school, my parents decided to send me to private school on the other side of town. Two of my best friends moved out of the state that summer as well. And I didn’t keep in touch with anyone else at that school.
Two years go by, and around comes the financial collapse. My parents can’t afford to send me to private school, so back to the public high school with all my old classmates I go. I couldn’t figure out why so many people had this look on their face like they’d seen a ghost until an acquaintance tells me ‘OMG I thought you were dead!'”
Anti-Smoking Club Allegations?
“A rumor went around that I was going around the school, tearing down stuff for the anti-smoking club.
I was pretty well known for being a cigarette smoker at the time (I actually quit a couple years ago). The office got word that I was doing this and started angrily demanding my presence in the office for it.
Here’s the best part: I wasn’t even at school that day.
Somebody misidentified the culprit and the office didn’t even bother to check with the attendance office that I had been called out sick for Mono for the past week. I thought the whole thing was hilarious.”
Her Dad Told Everyone She Was Pregnant?
“My whole school and the previous school thought I was pregnant. Thanks, Dad.
See, I went to school in the town east of where we lived. My dad worked to the town west of us. I used to go to school in the same town but switched my freshman year.
Well, I have a sister 8 years older than me, who lives several states away. When my dad got the news at work that my older sister was pregnant, he was elated telling all of his co-workers about how he was gonna be a grandfather. Well most of them forgot my older sister existed and jumped to the conclusion that I must have been with child.
Parents at work promptly texted their kids at both schools.
Super hard to explain that one without looking the liar.
…dad…”
Nerdy Guy Gets All Of The Ladies
“In high school, I was the nerdiest kid but happened to be friends with a group of girls since freshman year. My relationship with all of those girls was purely platonic and I periodically dated outside of that group of friends, usually with the assistance of one or more of the girls.
I found out in junior year that, apparently, all of my male friends thought I was sleeping with some or even all of my female friends and would periodically ask me how I got to be so good with girls. The girls thought it was hilarious and a couple of them tried to convince me to dress like a pimp for Halloween so they could walk around on my arms.
To me, it was incredibly weird to think because when it came to actually being romantic/sexual, I was ridiculously awkward.”
Her Birthday Party On Her Yacht
“In middle school, this one girl had a birthday party on a boat and invited pretty much every girl. I wasn’t invited but I didn’t care since we didn’t know each other.
Some girls who didn’t like me decided to invent the rumor that I was having a birthday party on my yacht the same day as the other girl had hers.
I still don’t quite understand the reason for this rumor. My birthday wasn’t anytime soon, I certainly didn’t own a yacht…all they did was make me sound rich.”
Why Would His Teacher Say That About Him?
“The weirdest rumor was probably that I was Russian. Why? A friend of mine thought I looked like Dolph Lundgren. Yes, I know Dolph is not Russian, but he played one! I also did not speak with an East Texas accent – not with a Russian one, but the Northeastern Oklahoma accent is pretty midwestern and I do sound like a radio DJ…but not a Russian.
Anyway, he started telling people I was Russian, but I didn’t like to admit it, which is why I talked like a radio announcer – I learned English from the radio. I didn’t find out about the rumor until a girl asked me about it, probably at least two years since it started.
The second rumor is not that weird, except in the source. My art teacher did not like me, and when I missed school for a couple of days, she told the class I died of a drug overdose. She apparently was just joking, but it spread around the school and there was talk of a memorial going around when I returned to school…
Funny rumor, but not in high school – in my 20s, my friend told his wife that he and I went to a mixed martial arts amateur tryout they were having in Dallas, and we both placed highly and I won some money. His wife asked me about it years later, after their divorce. By the way, this friend is probably largely responsible for me being such a jerk for a long time – he was one of the most hard-core fighters I’ve ever known, I saw him jumped by 5 people and he had them all on the ground before I could get up to help him, and was always telling people I was the only person he was afraid of fighting and that I was the best fighter he had ever known – he had never seen me in a fight and knew I wasn’t a fighter. People believed him and I got away with being a rude jerk without learning that you shouldn’t say certain things or you’ll get punched in the face.”
The Book That Sprouted The Possibility Of A Satanist In School?
“A lot of people thought I was a devil-worshiper or some stuff like that. I used to be a reader (I still read, but I used to too) during lunch breaks, and one day a bully/jerk grabbed my book and read half of one line out loud to his group of friends. The line was something to the effect of, ‘If we don’t do this particular task, then the victory will belong to Satan.’ He only read the ‘victory will belong to Satan’ part, and accused me of being a Satanist. That stuck with me for a number of years.
The book was Wielding a Red Sword by Piers Anthony, and, if any of you have read it, then you know it is a series about the personification of incarnations of the supernatural, like Death (On a Pale Horse), Nature (Being a Green Mother), Time (Bearing an Hourglass), etc. This one was about a person being War, and he was fighting against the character of Satan and his fiendish shenanigans.”
Bob The Bus Driver And The Tragic Name Confusion
“In high school, I had appendicitis and a few complications resulting from that. I was out of school in the hospital for about a month.
My name is Bob, and there was a bus driver for the school district with the same name.
Unfortunately, Bob had a heart attack and died about a week into my hospital stay. The area where the buses were parked had a huge banner in memory of Bob. Because of this all of my classmates thought I had died.
On the upside, I got some flowers and candy and stuff sent to my house that I got to eat once I came back home. The stupid thing was, people were still saying I had died after I had returned.”
Petty Cheerleading Drama And Rumors
“I was a cheerleader when I started high school, but I wasn’t popular. Sophomore year when I made the squad again, the rumor was that a popular girl who didn’t make the squad would have if it hadn’t been for me. That I ‘kicked her off the squad.’
There was another girl who actually circulated a petition calling for a new try out. When she asked me to sign it she said ‘if you sign it you’re saying tryouts weren’t fair and we should have them again.’ But in reality, and according to the rumor, the petition was because the popular kids believed I had ‘kicked Angie FartFace off the squad.’ I didn’t sign it, and that crap got shut down.
Ah, high school.
I would also like to mention that I cheered for wrestling and we would decorate lockers and leave school spirit things for the wrestlers on days there were matches. I’m sure you know, wrestlers weigh in before matches. One time, some of the girls on my squad bought candy to give them, sugar-free, so it wouldn’t affect their weight. No of them would listen to me when I pointed out the sugar alcohol candy they wanted to give them had a warning on the package ‘MAY CAUSE LAXATIVE EFFECT.’ Idiots. Hey, I tried. That was the last year I chose to cheer.”
His Weekly Drug Schedule?
“Weirdest rumor? Hmm… Two come to mind.
The first was that I was a huge druggie. Like, as in I had a freaking weekly drug schedule that I followed.
Monday I smoked. Tuesday I did hard drugs. Wednesday I did more hard drugs. Thursday was lighter drugs. Friday was hard-core drugs. Saturday anything goes!
I heard this rumor about me in junior high school and high school, and I have no idea where it came from. I had smoked and consumed alcohol by then, but had never even once been near any of the other substances.
Even more screwed up thing about that was that my friend’s dad, who worked for the FBI thought I was some sort of dealer or something. So far from the truth.
The second one was that I had died. I moved away during high school, and came back one day to visit… there were a lot of very surprised looks that day. A bunch of people told me they heard I had died, but nobody knew how.
There were definitely more rumors about me, but those two, definitely win for weirdest for sure.”
He Was Actually Homeschooled…
“I went to public school until the last year of middle school. My buddy who did go to high school at the place I was supposed to go said there was a rumor that would pop up every once in a while that I was dead and that’s why I wasn’t there.
It kinda cracks me up tho. I mean that’s exactly what it looks like. My families’ decision to try homeschool was made like a week before school started. I had already been signed up for classes and my teachers weren’t notified at the beginning up the year so they’d take role, call my name a few times and mark me as absent.
I didn’t have many friends so I didn’t bother to tell any other kids that I didn’t see over the summer. I also have a terminal illness so I can see why they’d draw that conclusion.
In reality, the way the school administration had set up my schedule to accommodate my disability was just more trouble than it was worth and I’m an introvert so it didn’t bother me to leave the social aspect of public school behind.
Oops.”
“The Lollipop Vandal” That Went Into A Blind Rage
“There’s a few but I’ll stick with one for now.
There was a story going around of ‘The Lollipop Vandal.’ This was due to a school program/holiday event the teachers were handing out lollipops (the awesome sour blow pops) to their students. This mysterious criminal flew into a blind rage when he didn’t receive his lollipop and kicked in a glass window up at the base of the theater building. He then fled the scene and is still at large. It was all over the school bulletin.
In reality: I was sarcastically complaining and pretending to throw a mini tantrum, leaned back into the window with my foot out to lean against it, and it shattered. To be fair it was thick glass and I was a big boy, and it sounded like a gunshot right when everyone was getting out for lunch. I had a friend escort me away from the scene and then ran away until I realized I had glass in my foot and turned myself in to avoid further injury by walking home.”
Don’t Ghost Your School Friends!
“After I finished school, I dropped out of contact with all school friends (all my closest friends were from out of school) bumped into an old school friend 4 years later.
The friend looked at me like a ghost and told me about how they didn’t know what story to believe about me. That I moved to America (I’m British) That I became really heavily into drugs (don’t really do drugs) That I died. That I had cancer and have been living in a hospital for months
All this when they all could have easily reached out to me to find out the truth.”
Accidental Death Announcement At The School Assembly?
“I was on ‘The Corridor Committee’ at school drawing up a code of conduct at the end of my 4th Year (you can imagine how much tang I got at school) and the new rules were to be announced the following school year.
But then I had to change schools at very short notice over the summer holidays and only told my socially isolated circle of friends.
So the new school year starts and everyone gets the Start-of-Year assembly where they’re told ‘Welcome back!’ and to ‘Work hard…’ etc. Then they were introduced to the new Corridor CodeTM
The head teacher reads the code and says ‘Special thanks to the list of people involved and (then mentions me), who sadly is no longer with us.’
And that’s how my death was accidentally announced to the entire school.”
The Miracle Healer
“There was a rumor that I could perform miracle healings…
While at a fast food restaurant after school, I took my food from the counter and was following a girl from our group back to our table. She fainted right in front of me so I quickly caught her to avoid her harming herself.
Yes, I felt a surge of adrenaline, but certainly did not perform any prayer, incantation or other gesture.
Seems she had an existing condition that caused these random fainting spells but the condition was gone after the event where I caught her from falling. Rumors went all over the school how I had healed her.”
Her Rare Sickness Was Mistaken For Drugs?
“First Rumor: My freshman year, a lot of rumors were going around that I had sex with like a million guys and had at least 20 boyfriends at once. I had barely ever kissed a boy. But apparently the whole school thought I was a huge slut for whatever reason and that lasted for most of high school. Confused why that ever started but whatever lol
Second Rumor: One of my close friends OD’ed on drugs my junior year of high school and there was a huge rumor going around that I did drugs as well because I ‘looked’ sick. I had just been released from the hospital from almost dying for a rare case of pneumonia (I looked very sickly still) and was mourning the death of a close friend of mine. Like oh, I’m sorry, I didn’t have the energy to do my hair and makeup and had puffy eyes from crying all the time.
Side note: I never touched hard drugs and none of us knew our friend was doing drugs so it was a HUGE surprise. But apparently, since he was doing drugs, I must’ve been too since we were close.”
A Fake Threat Over Jamba Juice? Really….
“So we had a little competition going in first-period social studies that pitted table groups against each other. How it works isn’t important, but what is important is the $6 1/2 Jamba Juice gift card each member of the winning group would get at the end of the year. Unfortunately, in the second semester, we had a student teacher for basically the whole semester.
Que huge shouting matches that would take up half the period every day.
Long story short my group won and these two girls, in particular, got extraordinarily salty. So I come to school two days later and get called into the office. A police officer is there and they want to go through my bag. They don’t find anything but I’m told that apparently there’s been a rumor that that day I planned to shoot up the freaking school.
A friend later told me that over the last two days those two girls had been spreading that rumor nonstop.
THEY CALLED IN A FAKE SHOOTER THREAT OVER A SIX AND A HALF JAMBA JUICE GIFT CARD.”
Sounds Like Those Students Need To Be More Educated On Seizures…
“I had a convulsive seizure in the middle of English class in high school and so I leave the school via ambulance.
ER doctor wants me to take an EEG the next day and my mom has me take the rest of the day off.
I go back the next day – the rumors I heard circling were insane. Anything from I was high on drugs and/or drunk and passed out, that I was pregnant and fainted, that I had gotten some sort of head injury before class and blah blah had happened, etc – down to people figuring I had died.
Needless to say, people in my high school didn’t know what seizures or epilepsy was.
People who two days before wouldn’t have given me the time of day (even if I had begged) were suddenly coming up to me to say hi and ask for which rumor was true and then about half wouldn’t believe me.”
Apparently He Killed Someone In A Fight…But He Found It Funny
“Shortly after I quit playing high school sports in favor of taking Judo lessons, somebody started a rumor that I’d killed somebody in an underground fight club and was in prison.
I missed school for 3 days because of an injury sustained in a competition that weekend. I got to school on Thursday and people were so shocked and afraid of me. I was so confused and a little hurt that nobody wanted to be near me. Once I found out why I couldn’t stop laughing about it.”
Sounds Like A Psychotic And Manipulative ‘Friend’
“The Catholic good girl and I had a mutual crush thing going on. Then one day she changed into this two-faced creature. She was more unkind and dishonest and put on a face like she couldn’t give a care. Over time she became the mask (read: exactly like her mother). We were superficially friends at that point. I’d laugh at her jokes, she’d laugh at mine, it was assumed we’d work together on group projects…
Then she called her best friend of several years and good friend of mine, and basically ‘dumped’ her. Told her over the course of an hour-long phone conversation all the moves she made in their friendship that were clearly mean-spirited or otherwise awful moral/loyalty failures.
So this said friend’s mom called me and asked me to pick up the broken pieces. I reaffirmed that ‘Mutual Friend’ was actually pretty awesome, and just kind of cut contact with the post-crush brat. I’d laugh at her jokes and work in groups, but she noticed I never, ever initiated, and I gave polite answers in a way that curtailed further conversation.
She picked up on it. Cleverness was once an appealing trait but used for malice it’s pretty disturbingly off-putting. Knowing fully well that I was supposed to meet with ‘Mutual Friend’ for a project, ‘Raging Woman’ called and asked to meet up at a coffee shop (what are we, adults?).
She started giving me a different version of the same ‘You’re a bad friend’ speech. I cut her off at about 20 minutes and said that if she believed half that stuff she wouldn’t be trying to patch things up, and that she was being a brat, that I’m excellent as is and I don’t need to listen to her lies. I walked out, while she gave chase, screaming at the top of her lungs at me. She got between me and my car and screamed at me. I gently but firmly opened my door, and quickly but gingerly closed the door making sure not to snap her fingers. I reversed and got out of that place with her physically beating the car and shouting ‘don’t you care’ repeatedly.
At school the next week, she pretends we aren’t mad at one another, but now we’re cooperating to avoid contact. Then a mutual friend comes up and says ‘what the heck really happened last week between you and Suddenly-a-raging woman?’. I relayed the story. They said that makes sense, then told me ‘Raging Woman’ was telling everyone that I ‘threw her to the concrete, injuring her.’ I’m 6’4 but I’m a jolly gentle giant and a colossal nerd besides. No anger issues.
So this repeated a few times as people heard her insane story and asked for the truth from me because I’m trustworthy.”