How rumours bring people down?

Suddenly, I feel extremely scared of rumours,
I've never actually encountered one in my life before,
As in experienced it myself,
But I've seen it happened to my neighbour before.

She was Auntie N who works in a school,
A very kind lady of 50 plus,
She often cooks nice food and pass me some,
Well, I seriously can't believe what they said about her.

The people around our area started talking about her keeping young guys at home,
Basically the aunties around my area,
And amazingly the matter reached the school,
Causing the principal to confront her to ask about the matter,
Though she denied it,
But in the end she had to resign and leave the school,
And also shifted away from our place.

Rumours are normally hot topics which hang around people's mouth,
It is gossip topics which spread like wildfire with untiring source of flame,
These topics can destroy others' lives,
Defame others,
Ruining their image,
Tarnishing their reputation.

But worst of all,
When rumours spread,
More often people are not given a chance to defend themselves,
Or clarifying anything,
People will just spread the rumours,
Speculating the matter,
Whether for the sake of passing time,
Or entertainment,
The person of the topic will just be a victim of discussion and speculation...