Like most sixth grade girls, I was surrounded by friends that talked about each other behind their backs. One of my friends, Cathy (names have been changed to protect the guilty...), talked really bad about one of my other friends, Jalina (who were also friends with each other). I guess one day the back biting (or my friend Cathy...) really got on my nerves so I told Jalina that Cathy said not very nice things about her behind her back.
Did you get all that? Phew!
Well, Jalina didn't believe me! I decided I was going to prove it to her, because I was not a liar!
So, I knew my dad had a mini tape player/recorder at home, and I prepped it with a clean tape and took it to school the next day.
During Mrs. Bradley's class the next day, I carefully put the recorder under my shirt, hit record, sat down next to Cathy, and proceeded to catch on tape some great material of her talking about our friend Jalina. It was that easy.
I later played the tape for Jalina, who was obviously upset and confronted Cathy.
End of day.
The order of what happened next is all a blur. Cathy went home and told her mom, and this is not a mom to mess with. Her mom called the principal, the teacher, probably their lawyer (her husband...). I remember talking to Mrs. Bradley (I was most embarrassed about because she went to church with us and was friends with my parents), I was written up with a blue slip (I got detention), and I had to talk to the principal who threatened me with suspension. That's a lot of stuff to go down for someone like me who never really got in trouble like that! I wasn't really upset about the whole thing, because I thought I was pretty smart, but I was bummed I got caught.
Cathy's mom demanded the tape. Hello?? I'm not that stupid, once I realized I was busted I destroyed that thing.
I don't remember my parents saying anything. Years after high school I remember talking about it with my dad, and he said that when it happened he thought I was pretty clever, but of course he didn't tell me that when it happened.
If this were to happen to one of my kids, my kid being the Cathy of the story, I would write a thank you note to the clever student who caught my child back biting. Maybe that would teach him/her a lesson!! Seriously!! Why in the world would you call the principal because your child was caught talking about someone else on tape? Too funny.
Just think how easy this would be to pull off in today's world with an iPhone that records??? :)
2 comments:
this is the best story ever! hopefully cathy learned a very valuable lesson, though that could have been undone by her mother saying you were in the wrong for recording her. crazy mom. I would have probably said to my kid "well, that's what you get for gossiping!" i would never want to be a teenager these days with the prevalence of cellphones and their capabilities to then post everything embarrassing onto Facebook, etc.
love it! something similar happen at Forsythe HS. The coach took one of the students aside and went off on the kid and he caught it all on his Iphone. you can read about it here
http://www.wxii12.com/Parents-Accuse-East-Forsyth-Coach-Of-Bullying/-/9678472/11883874/-/gsspc3z/-/index.html
like you said it's a lot easier now a days
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