They are word vomit that spread  contagious bile throughout a building, they can break even the strongest friendships, they corner people into the toughest of binds and they personally make my stomach turn at the very thought of them. No, they are not vulgar words (those are a pain but that is a different topic,) no I am talking about rumors.  Everyone in this building should know or probably are very familiar with the term. Rumors are scary things that can destroy reputations of the most notable people. They start in the mind or from a text of one person and seem to creep out of every mouth and media source imaginable.

For example, at CM Russell high school, last year, there was the infamous chemical spill that happened in one of the teacher’s rooms. After the incident occurred, rumors flew out of students mouths across the school spreading filth about the incident in question.  There were rumors that kids had chemical burns that took off chunks of flesh, that two kids had to be ambulanced to the hospital, the entire third floor had to be evacuated and my personal favorite, one of the student’s had part of their face melted off. A bit extreme I know, but I think that the kids that came up with that stuff had probably watched a horror film the night before.

Now rumors seem to be natural things that come about especially if the student body doesn’t have all the facts right away and are left in the dark, then stories (rumors) seem to be the remedy when it comes to having a lack of information. That’s the problem, the facts are missing or the story is incomplete. Instead of waiting for the announcements or the teacher to provide the information, students feed the unknown with the only thing they can, rumors.

Yet, rumors become a problem, they may seem harmless at first or something “just the doctor ordered,” but they can dissuade people from the truth or make not the biggest deal into the worst case scenario. Not only is the story misconstrued but the people that are involved become the victims or the problem itself all because of people being misinformed. It is like the butterfly effect but instead of a butterfly causing World War three, a student starts it by whispering or more likely texting it to their friend.

So what do we do? How do we stop the pain that rumors cause? How do we separate the facts from the fantasy? We could all take a vow of silence but a silent school would just be weird. We could just not care but then people we know could be hurt and that could be dangerous. To tell you the truth, I don’t think that the rumor mill will ever cease sadly. It has been, is and probably always will be a problem. Just because they won’t stop, doesn’t mean we can’t out the outrageous lies or stories from decreasing. We can just wait for the correct information to be announced, don’t believe the first thing we hear, try to keep the information to ourselves or if in extreme situations, tell the counselors what is happening.

What is more effective? Waiting for the information to come in or believing the first story we hear?

Think about it.