«She was offended that I got together with her ex»

"The start at the new school wasn't as bad as I had feared. My family had only recently moved to Lausanne, where my father started a new job. My new classmates were really nice to me. Denise* quickly became my new best friend, she was so cool and funny. Her father is from Zurich. Swiss German quickly became our little secret language, which brought us even closer together. Everything was going great. The big bang happened when I got together with her ex-boyfriend. He trained at the same basketball club as me. Today I think it was a mistake not to tell her about it straight away. But I thought it was a bit strange myself that he was with Denise before. Even though it had been over a year ago. So I kept everything to myself for the time being. But someone had obviously seen us and told Denise. She immediately confronted me - it ended in a huge argument. From then on, there was radio silence.

Online agitation: Somehow I thought: I'm to blame

The atmosphere in the class also changed. My classmates suddenly ignored me. No matter what I asked, there was no answer. Instead, they laughed and whispered when they saw me. At first I thought it would pass. My mum noticed that I was withdrawing and spoke to me about it. But I kept quiet. Somehow, I thought, I was also to blame for the situation. Fortunately, my friend stood by me. I found out what had been going on behind my back for a few weeks from a girl in the same class: Denise had started a WhatsApp group together with other schoolgirls from the class. It was called «Fuck bitch Chiara».

««Cunt» and «hooker» were among the more harmless things they wrote about me».

She started a rumour that I knew she was still in love with her ex and had deliberately snatched him away from her. «Cunt» and «hooker» were among the more harmless things they wrote about me. My «friend» also claimed that I'd had sex with other boys from the basketball club - including «from behind».

«When porn images appeared, I broke down»

When porn pictures appeared on Facebook with sex scenes showing a woman's body with my head mounted on it, I broke down. I couldn't stop crying. It was all so disgusting. My emotions and thoughts were a huge mess. I was angry and desperate. And slowly I started to think that I was a «slut» myself. My parents were shocked when I finally told them what was going on. They immediately contacted the school management. There was a class discussion in the presence of a school psychologist. After that, things calmed down a bit and the online harassment thankfully stopped. But I remained the outsider. Things only got better when I was able to transfer to a public school a few weeks later. That was all over two years ago now. I never spoke to Denise again. The only good thing from that time is that my boyfriend and I are still together."
* Names and places have been changed by the editors