Mary is an eighth grader and, until recently, pretty popular at school. Lately, she started finding notes in her locker and in her backpack that were really upsetting. The notes were unsigned and mean. They said things like: “ We don’t like how you’re treading on our territory.” “ You act like a slut.” And even, “ You better watch out because we’re watching you…”
Mary had no idea who might be sending the notes but she had an idea why. In the last few months she had started accepting invitations to high school parties. She had also fooled around with a couple of sophomore guys. She had a feeling that the notes were from some of the high school girls. She knew how gossip got around and how mean other people said the sophomore girls were.
What was she supposed to do? Almost every day this week she received a note. She felt angry, scared, and hurt. She showed the notes to two of her friends. One of them said that whoever is sending them was probably just jealous and she should just ignore them. The other friend said she should show them to a teacher.
Mary felt like there was no good choice. If she tried to ignore the notes she was afraid they would just continue, and she was not only scared, she was mad. She wanted them to stop. But if she turned in the notes, she was sure the whole school would find out and she would probably have to name names as to who she thought was sending them. If the gossip was bad now, wouldn’t’ it be worse then?
What should Mary do?
- What do you think Mary should do?
- Would you do the same thing?
- What do you think would happen to someone in your school who was in Mary’s situation? (I.e. would she get backlash for hooking up with older guys? Would people gossip about her?)
- How does gossip play a role in your school, in your community?
- Have you ever been in a situation similar to Mary’s? How was it resolved?
- Why do you think people gossip? Have you ever gossiped about someone? Why do you think you did?