Have you ever had to rat out your friends?

I'm not sure about elsewhere in the world, but here in America, we call "giving incriminating information out to an authority" "ratting out." Have you ever had to be "the Rat"?

For instance..

Back in high school...a good friend of mine, B (I called him 'B', anyway, hehe..), and another good friend of mine, (we'll call him Bry), had ..gotten into some trouble.. Now, we were really really close in that classroom, because we were all Electrical Trades peeps--a close-knit family, really. We'd been through nearly 4 years together in a lot of situations.

Anyway, here was the trouble. They had apparently gone onto a new car lot, gotten the keys to a new ($25,000) car...drove it THROUGH the chain-link fence of the dealership...and drove away at blazing speeds, only to, in the end, allow the car to sink to a murky death by rolling it off of a pier into a local pond...

Apparently, B was the one driving, and the one "mostly responsible" for the act...

So then...we were talking about this secretively (it hadn't been pinned on them, yet!!)...when the school Detective (Detective R.)...called Mr. L.--our "father" in the classroom...our Electrical instructor.. Mr. L. loved B--not only because we were all part of his classroom children (like I said, we were close), but because he had seen him grow up from a baby and had served in the Navy with his father (I believe).

Anyway...to make a long story short, Mr.L. told me to go down to Detective R.'s office.. He said that I was the most honest person in the classroom...and he knew I would tell the truth. It was ...a hard duty, folks..let me tell you.. At that time I very nearly hated being who I was. It is not always a blessing to be known as the guy who never lies. . .

So..I mozy on down to Det. R's office...knock...sit down.. I'm quiet as a bug in a rug. I was NOT going to offer any information until I knew exactly how much he knew. I wonder what my face must have looked like to him at that moment. The conflict within probably wasn't masked by my faked "tough-guy who knows nothing" look.

He asked me about if I had heard anything about a car being stolen, and, as vaguely as I possibly could, I concurred. "Yeah, I've heard something like that..." Every time he would ask me a question, I would answer with just a degree higher information answer, and avoid anything that I thought would give new information that would incriminate my friends.. B especially, as I knew he was who they were aiming at the most in this situation.

He didn't even get anything out of my about the pier until he asked about it, specifically. I couldn't lie, or twist the truth, but I did not feel that omitting information under interrogation was lying (afterall, it wasn't a debriefing--thank you Mr. Clinton).

The thing is...in the end, most or all of the thing was pinned on B, anyway... He had a lot of money saved up for himself (by his dad, and all, I think, mostly) for university, but it was all used up to pay his tens-of-thousands of dollars fine.. His future as he and we had conceived it was wiped out. I have no idea what he is doing right now.. I pray he is well.

So..how about you guys? Have you ever been forced (or overjoyed...buttheads) to play "the Rat"?

Yup, and it was over one of my closest friends too, so I didn't feel to fabulous afterwards.
What he had done was graffiti all over the German teacher's walls and desk in spraypaint, with Nazi symbols and other such vulgar things.
I hate racism - and even though he was my friend, I was totaly disgusted with him, so when I was asked privately by the Deputy Head who was responsible, I simply told him.
Obviously, we're not so close anymore, but I would rather that, than befriends with a disgusting racist.
I felt that what I did was justice, so I didn't get to upset over loosing that friend.

I have never been in a position where ratting out anyone was even a possibility, and I am extremely grateful for that.

There were times when I well should have ratted out my friends for certain reasons. It's a tough decision to make. They're you friends, and although ratting would probably get them pissed off at you, you would really be helping them. At least that's how I see it.

Basically drug problems are something you should definitely tell someone about. Same with anything that endangers your friends health.

I've never done it. Some of mt friends "rat" on you for little reason such as if you hurt them accidently. Other friends say absouloutly nothing. I think you should only do it if it is a very serious issue.

Oh yes I have been in that kind of situation. In middle school I was a loner and hung out with all the other loners...so I guess we weren't really loners were we Anyway, one of my friends didn't like this teacher so he took a piece of metal and jammed it into the key hole of that teachers trailer. The teacher couldn't get into her room and looked at us for the blame (we were the only group that were around there). We were all questioned by the principle and I didn't tell them anything...I was one of those who you would never expect to lie. In the end the person was caught and the guy we least expected to tell told. He appeared to be a tough guy but he broke down and told...I think that is hilarious.

There was one occasion last year, but I generally keep my mouth shut. Anyways, one kid liked to mess around with deodorient in the boy's locker room. And since I'm such a suck up, one day he decided to spray it over my ...nipple area and it really did look like that kind of image. Anyway, I didn't say anything regardless of the humilation and stuff(most people were cool about it after a couple days though). It kept on going for maybe a week and then suddenly a teacher noticed it. I don't really have the heart to rat it out on the dorks that everybody hates or integrity that I did it myself, so I told him that said kid did it. And then, he hated for me for about a day, since it netted him a suspension from gym glass for a day. He got over it though. But man, I felt bad.

I had to rat out a friend once. Well, actually, I don't consider it to be ratting out. I helped her out. What she was doing to herself was serious damage. I won't go into detail about (I'm not sure how many people would feel comfortable about the stuff she did), but she was doing horrible things to herself, and had to be stopped. I knew that if I told someone what she was doing, she would hate me, but I knew that I needed to tell someone. So first I told her parents. Well...let's just say that didn't turn out like I planned. So I went to the guidance councilor and told him what my friends was doing to herself. He tried to help out as best he could, but my friend's parents didn't want her to see the guidance councilor or go to therapy or anything like that. So, not only does she hate me now, but all that did to try to help her didn't work at all.

Originally Posted by rising light

I had to rat out a friend once. Well, actually, I don't consider it to be ratting out. I helped her out. What she was doing to herself was serious damage. I won't go into detail about (I'm not sure how many people would feel comfortable about the stuff she did), but she was doing horrible things to herself, and had to be stopped. I knew that if I told someone what she was doing, she would hate me, but I knew that I needed to tell someone. So first I told her parents. Well...let's just say that didn't turn out like I planned. So I went to the guidance councilor and told him what my friends was doing to herself. He tried to help out as best he could, but my friend's parents didn't want her to see the guidance councilor or go to therapy or anything like that. So, not only does she hate me now, but all that did to try to help her didn't work at all.

You did the right thing, though, you do know that. Hopefully, in the future, she will recognize who, out of all those people in her life at the time, really truly cared for her. I think she will.

I wouldn't call telling the truth "Ratting". If people arn't brought to "justice", even people you count as you friends, then they may never learn to live by the laws of your country. telling the truth is realy doing them a service, even if it doest't feel like it, but I do beleive there are times to lie like if someone is going to kill someone and they ask if you know were they are, I wouldn't call that a lie though.

I've been in far too many situations that deal with ratting people out, and I'm happy to say that I've never ratted out a good friend.

Yeah when my friend planted drugs in some kids locker to get back at them for somthing, I forgot. Well anyways, the locker was right next to mine. The kid opened his lcoker and bags of weed fell on him. He looked at me and said, "You did this!" as normal the kid would go tell. I dragged (exaturatin) to the office. I had one of those talks with the dean. You' know, I didn't do it types of talks. I couldn't risk getting in trouble so I ratted out my friend...

In Australia the term for 'ratting out' is 'dobbing'. I haven't had any memorable experiences of dobbing on someone. There's one I could think of, though, it's not really that serious. It was grade 8 and I was in the computer room in lunch time because they were having this pen pal thing. I was a novice at e-mail so I had one of my friends there talking me through it. Then it came to the title of my first e-mail. This e-mail was ust one to my friend to test my e-mail skills. I happily put in a simple 'hello'. My friend though hijacked the keyboard and typed in 'How to root Amanda', Amanda being the girl he liked at the time. At this point I should mention that 'root' is an Australian synonym for, errm, well, fornication. My friend hit 'send'. A summary of the e-mail I had sent was on screen with the title and what not and the supervising teacher caught sight of it. She was quite furious with me. I immediately said 'He did it', 'cause I don't believe people should let you take the blame for something you didn't do and feel that they can get away with it simply because they're friends with you. The teacher told me to 'get out', she didn't believe me for one second.

I was quite angry at my friend but I got over it and we're still friends today.

Unfortunatly, I was in a situation where I was asked to rat out a friend. On our bus, there is a girl, a friend of the busdriver's daughter, who was constantly looking at my friend and her friend, a guy named Jordan, through the mirror at the front of the bus. I suppose they got annoyed by this, and pointed their middle finger up at the girl. I didn't actually see this happen, but my friend confirmed that it did. They meant it to be harmless fun.

Apparently, the busdriver's daughter mistook the gesture as directed at her, and cried after the bus let out. The busdriver checked the videotape (they tape us on the bus), and saw the middle finger get pointed up, though I believe they only saw Jordan do it. The busdriver confronted my friend and Jordan, and they got in trouble. My friend warned me I'd be called to the office during school, and surely enough, I was taken out of class by a very annoying man. He asked me what I had seen my friend do, and I told the truth and said I saw nothing. He tried to get more out of me, but I wouldn't budge. I was sent back to class, and that was that. My friend got off easy, but Jordan was suspended from the bus.

I'm just lucky it wasn't anything truly serious.

If it's ANYTHING AT ALL to do with school.....I'm not rattin'. I don't have any respect for the people at school, or any of the teachers, so why would I give them information that would hurt my friend, but help them? If it's something with "da law", I don't think I would do it unless it was a murder. Since my friends would never murder I guess I have nothing to worry about. I have two friends that I would glady not rat out and live a life of poverty and hiding just to keep them safe.

Yes I regret this but I have rated out a friend before but I didnt really think we were friends at the time but the person I told was a complete b*tch and now I hate that girl but the person I rated out we are really good friends now so thats all that matters to me!

In a normal situation (i.e. when I was in High School, no). The few times we've gotten out of control, and the POLICE became involved.. you bet your ass.