Teen gets in trouble for making girl cry after he makes joke about 'non-stop farting.'
Farting is natural, every human alive does it, but that doesn't stop it from being humiliating nonetheless.
In a popular post on the AITA subreddit, a teen asked if he was wrong for making fun of a girl's farts in class. He wrote:
"AITA for calling out a girl for farting in class and making her cry?"
Basically, two weeks ago, I (17m) was sitting in class. My friend was to my left, and a girl who sat behind me. Throughout the class, I kept getting whiffs of someone farting. Initially I put it off because I assumed it would stop. It then got to a point where it kept happening every 1-2 minutes.
We were towards the end of the lecture. I then whispered to my friend “who the f#$k keeps farting this is pissing me off, I can’t focus”, and he starts laughing. Unfortunately, the girl behind me heard it, and immediately the girl behind me starts crying. The entire class is now looking towards us because they saw us laughing, followed by her crying. The teacher looks, and she leaves the class.
The teacher goes outside to ask what happened, he comes back in two minutes later and says “(name of my friend) and (me), come talk to me before lunch”. He then calls both of us after class and asks the situation. I explain that I kept getting a bad smell so I whispered to (name of my friend). He then says that she got very embarrassed and should apologize to her the next time I see her.
The next day in class, both my friend and I told her we were not making fun of her and did not mean to offend her. She didn’t end up saying anything. This was a few days before break, and the situation got reported to the dean. The dean said he will speak to us after break. None of us know if there will be consequences or not.
Redditors had a lot to say.
TrueJacka*sWhisperer wrote:
NTA. That teacher is an idiot. You didn't identify her and weren't even talking to her. She outted herself. I would have stood in front of the class and apologized to her in front of everyone. Loudly.
ripmyringfinger wrote:
NTA. Honestly, she made herself cry. One time I farted in class and someone else smelt it. They yelled “AYO someone farted here.” I DIDN'T say anything. I was embarrassed that maybe I would’ve got caught but it’s okay because nobody noticed that it was me, haha.
AlchemyAngel85 wrote:
NTA. You had no idea where it was coming from, it was impeding your studies and all you did was ask your buddy if he knew who was doing it which made him laugh. To be honest, if I were next to you and you said that I would have laughed too...
Crazy-Adagio-563 wrote:
NTA but pls know I sneezed and farted in school 13 years ago and I'm still lowkey traumatized 😂 Honestly the nicest thing you could do is just pretend it didn't happen.
ectograsp wrote:
NAH. The comment wasn't meant to single out and embarrass her, though I bet if you're in the same situation again, you will probably consider the fact that someone might overhear and feel put on the spot.
This is an awkward situation for anyone but teenage girls are the most self-conscious people in the world and she was probably sitting there in dread that someone would notice or draw attention to her (particularly boys). By the time you actually mentioned it, her anxiety was likely through the roof and she couldn't help her tearful response.
I feel terrible for her, particularly given the drawn-out nature of his incident now that teachers are involved, but reportedly there was no cruelty or malice involved, and it's unfortunate both that she overheard you and that her involuntary reaction to your comment put her in the spotlight.
I can understand to a point why things have escalated simply because schools with robust anti-bullying policies need to keep a close eye on situations like this and make sure they get a complete picture before deciding if it should be let go (as it appears in this case) or deserves further discussion.
I don't think it's fair they're making you stress over the break, but perhaps the lack of immediacy indicates they're not going to be coming down on you very hard. I hope this gets wrapped up soon so everyone involved can put it behind them.
OP and his friend aren't TAs here, but neither is the girl, it's just an awkward moment that highlights just how nightmarish being a teen is.