 Tina and two of her friends gather with about half the high school in front of the principal's home after he issued a rule that any student caught taking part in Halloween mischief would be suspended. This is their first real protest gathering, and it is exciting to get together outside of school. They're just milling around when someone, she can't see who, throws a rock through Mr. Tribble's picture window. Others are stooping to pick up stones. This isn't what she wanted to be part of. This is wrong. But still, she doesn't just want to leave her friends there. In terms of performance, this is a gathering not arranged to accomplish anything specific. It is a gathering to express togetherness and opposing something. It is an anti-purpose assembly, rejecting what the school administration put forth. Put it in terms of performance. It takes the time and effort of students who take part. It has nothing to accomplish that has value. For performance, the rest is to go into the black box and out of sight. This gathering is a cost for a social purpose, and it is without a performance. That social value is being denied by the violence, which is anti-social behavior. There is no reason for Tina to remain, but there is potential for damaging results when the police are called to handle the violence. So what is Tina to do? How does she get the best outcome from this adventure? The answer is that there is no value, social or otherwise, and remaining. The message she can give her friends, it's time to go. Then she turns and walks purposefully away. She touches her friend Janie on the shoulder as she rises up with a rock in her hand and repeats it before continuing to walk away. This is the only message she has. There is nothing to be gained by remaining, and only further damage is expected for all involved in the situation. She has done what she can for her best friends, getting them out of the negative situation as quickly as circumstances allow. Sociologists address this sort of situation as mob behavior. It can easily result from any gathering based on negative feelings, where there is no agreed focus on any specific purpose or valued outcome that will keep people working together. Orientation to performance can help protect the teenager who applies it. In this case, it was conscious realization of why Tina was there. Her purpose was not one of getting the principal to change his unfair rule. She was not threatened by it, and she didn't engage in Halloween mischief. She was there supporting her fellow students. Only if the police were already called and she and her friends are stopped on their way out, she has the perfect answer. This is not why I came here. She is a teenager. Her social task is to learn, and she is demonstrating that she, at least, is properly guided. In heading away, she is demonstrating that she is learning, is acting properly. Every adult has to learn the same sort of lesson. If she is arrested as part of the mob, she and her friends will have the witness of the police that she was on her way out immediately after the violence began. She will not face the negative consequences of those who remain and took part. Could this be socially damaging? If half the class find themselves in a pickle while she gets to walk away, will they resent her? Are there going to be us and them consequences in dealing with their classmates? For the most part, the only ones who are unforgiving of such things are other teenagers, those who lack experience. Tolerance for errors comes with having made many errors, which is why adults expect some level of damage from teens. The change from being children who are responsible to parents into adults who are responsible for themselves is a major shift, and there will always be challenges. Tina should have no concern over this. She took care of her friends. That is all anyone can do in such a situation. If she is challenged, performance thinking gives her a way to answer. If she is challenged, you were there. Why weren't you arrested? You got some friends on the force? She can answer by making it personal. Did you go there to throw stones through his window? Well, I didn't, and as soon as you idiots started throwing stones, Jamie Marie and I left. By the time the police got there, we were already gone. So what will her classmates have to say in response that she should have had a bad experience just like they did? There really is value in learning things, and there is nothing that a mob has to teach, except that people are easily misled when they gather without a purpose.