Rumors run rampant in the halls of high schools everywhere and any teacher worth a darn knows that they can’t waste time and energy investigating every little thing they hear…

Unless they decide that some malicious compliance is in order!

Take a look at how the teacher who wrote this story on Reddit handled his situation.

You want me to tell you EVERY thing I hear as a HS teacher…okay…

“I’m a high school teacher of an elective subject that lots of kids take and enjoy. I build great relationships and generally have the same kids for multiple years, so I get all of the tea spilled to me.

They heard a scandalous rumor.

There was an incident during and after school event.

I was in one space doing my thing and some students who had been in another part of the building came in and said, “Mr. Taaronk, there are people having *** in this other room.”

But didn’t see anything…

I follow them to the scene of the crime and there is nobody there.

I do all of the appropriate follow-up to see if anything actually went down, but no body no crime.

No one actually saw anything, they just said they saw the couple come out of the room and it smelled like *** when they went in after.

Also, no cameras in the part of the building in question – a thing I had pointed out as a problem multiple times in the past.

Then the principal got involved.

Fast forward like four months and the principal calls me down to their office. They proceed to chew me out for not reporting the incident, it having finally made its way through the rumor mill up to the top.

I tell them all of the steps I took to follow up at the time and that it didn’t seem like there was anything to report — the room didn’t smell like *** to me, so it didn’t occur to me to tell anyone about it (to be fair it was early in my career, so maybe I was wrong).

I ask them (in what I assumed would be received rhetorically), “so where is the line on what unverified, evidence free rumors I should be reporting?” And they respond: all of them.

If you say so!

Cue malicious compliance!

I proceed to call and email them after. Every. Single. Conversation I have with a kid that could be even remotely construed as problematic.

We are talking a minimum of 3 times a day, usually more for THREE. WEEKS. STRAIGHT. Including weekends.

The most satisfying was on a Friday afternoon at about 4:45.

The principal picks up the phone and before I can say a word they say, “okay Mr. Taaronk…you’ve made your point.””

And here’s how people reacted.

One person talked about the high schools in their town.

Another individual said this principal should know better than this.

This reader shared a funny memory.

And this person’s wife had a similar story.

This one really made me laugh.

Nice work!

If you liked that story, check out this post about a group of employees who got together and why working from home was a good financial decision.