How Rumors Get Started
This story is fictional.
It is typical of a cynical student body to have the idea that no one in the administration of my school gave a rat's tail what the students thought of the place. The administration was well aware of the feelings of the students in this particular school, so they commissioned me to conduct a survey which they would use to prove the contrary. I agreed and printed several hundred copies of their survey on beige-colored paper on a Friday afternoon. Unfortunately, I stored the forms near a leaky window in the school's office. Of course, the incredible luck of David Ancell took it's vengance, and the rain fell that weekend as though someone up in Heaven were attempting to extinguish the fires of Gehenna.
When I returned to school the following morning, the first 200 forms looked like I had spilled chocolate syrup on a sheet of paper. I found a nice, blue circular file to dispose of them in. Then I began to set up my survey table. It just so happened that there was another little blue circular file that I decided to use to keep the surveys after they were filled out.
About noon, I had about 20 students show up to fill out the little beige sheets of paper. Unknown to them, I could hear them all placing friendly wagers on what would be done with the survey. They were all standing just outside the building. It was then that I saw good ole Jack, the school custodian, doing his daily duty of garbage removal. He took the blue circular file from the school's office that contained the 200 spoiled forms and dumped it into the nearby dumpster. All 20 students watched as 200 beige sheets of paper fell from the blue, upside-down circular file into the big, green dumpster. The rest of the story is self-explanatory.