Sondra’s Party: A Story of Cyberbullying

Please read this story and respond to the questions at the end:

Sondra is planning a birthday party. Her parents have set a limit of 15 kids, so she can’t invite everyone she’d like. Two kids who were not invited — Jesse and Maya — overhear the plans. They decide to spread mean rumors about Sondra using an anonymous messaging app. They say things like:

“Sondra is so not cool not sure why anyone would go to her filthy house.”
“I heard Sondra is having fruit instead of cake. Yuk!”
“Sondra is totally boring and I don’t know why anyone would go to her party.”

They encourage the students who were invited to the party to add reasons to why Sondra “isn’t cool” and tell them not to go to her party. When Sondra logs onto the app and sees the messages, her stomach sinks. She feels hurt and embarrassed and doesn’t know who’s posting the messages. She tells her parents she’s sick so she won’t have to go to school the next day. She even thinks about canceling her party.


  1. If you were Sondra, what would you do to try to stop the cyberbullying?
  2. If you were one of Sondra’s friends, how could you be an upstander in the situation?