KC area teacher’s English students declareth Shakespeare’s Romeo a stalker, ‘cringe’
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Metro KC freshmen call Romeo "hella stalker" and "hella cringe."
- Molly Dugan shared the video on social media; it drew thousands of responses.
- Educators praised students' engagement and modern takes on Shakespeare.
“But soft, what light through yonder window breaks? It is the East, and Juliet is the sun,” Shakespeare’s smitten Romeo gushed about his beloved.
Cringe? Ay? Nay?
It hits that way to some of Molly Dugan’s freshman English students in metro Kansas City as they read “Romeo and Juliet.”
Dugan is the popular “Miss Dugan” on social media who regularly shares comedic takes from her classroom. The Star profiled her in July 2024 when she started scooping up millions of views on TikTok as she finished up her fifth year of teaching. She currently has nearly 1 million followers between Instagram and TikTok.
This week she shared her students’ conflicted reactions to the Shakespearean tragedy of doomed love between 13-year-old Juliet and Romeo — her young admirer of no specified age.
Gen Z thinks Romeo was, no cap, kind of a stalker.
O, Dugan doth teach the students to burn bright!
“Despite AI takeovers, teaching Shakespeare is still alive and well in schools and kids STILL think it’s a foreign language,” Dugan told The Star.
Perfect timing, considering Shakespeare took center stage at the Academy Awards on Sunday with eight nominations. Best Picture nominee “Hamnet” dramatizes the Bard’s life and sorrowful aftermath of his young son’s death from the plague.
In a video recorded in Dugan’s car in her signature deadpan delivery, she said: “I teach high school English, specifically freshmen, and we are in the middle of reading Romeo and Juliet. These are a few of the things my students have said about the story thus far.”
“Was there time back then? Like, did it exist when Romeo and Juliet were alive?”
“Is Shakespeare a real person, because I thought he was maybe one of those Greek gods so I’ve been confused.”
And then, about Romeo.
“Bro’s a hella stalker.”
“Romeo is hella cringe.”
“Bro also has bad rizz.” (Translation: He’s got no flirt game.)
Who knew until Miss Dugan opened the floodgates that Romeo gives so many adults the icks, too?
Thousands have sounded off on the video.
“The hella stalker take is valid.”
“Came to say that.”
“This is what my 13 year old daughter thinks too!”
“At least the Romeo slander is valid.”
“So what I’m hearing is: they get it.”
“The best one was ‘bro a hella stalker,; which in their vernacular is accurate. I always found the balcony scene something a parent would resent!”
“This is amazing. My oldest son is currently a freshman and actually just finished Romeo and Juliet. He has been referring to Romeo as a super senior pedo for the last month.”
“They should do a play of Romeo and Juliette millennial style ... would be something to watch.”
“Let them know that Shakespeare himself will stop by the classroom on Friday.”
And what about Juliet, someone wondered? “No ‘Juliet is giving pick-me vibes?’” they asked.
Fellow English teachers chimed in, too.
“One year I got ‘What’s Shakespeare’s last name?’”
“Comma William?”
“One of my students asked me if Shakespeare died in the 1990s, ‘because that is a really, really long time ago.’”
“We did scenes from Hamlet in our English class and my group turned it into an Italian mobster scene.”
“At the beginning of teaching the Anne Frank unit I asked my 8th graders what they knew about her ... ‘Isn’t she a rap star?’”
“I also teach English. Not surprised by these comments (Romeo is hella cringe but I would argue if he pulled Juliet in less than 24 hours, he is the Rizzmaster. I said what I said. — This is my 31st year teaching.)”
“That is a remarkable level of comprehension and astute interpretation of motives translated into modern slang.”
“Lit teacher for 40 years … I thought their comments insightful and honest. The time thing was a bit cringy, but I’m impressed that they connected with the plot and characters.”
“Agree. Looks to me like most of these comments indicate they actually read the book and interpreted major themes to their own lives. Love it.”
“Have them read Macbeth,” another teacher wrote. “That’ll be entertaining.”
For the record, Dugan agreed with her students about Romeo’s cringe quotient.
Never was a story of more woe.
This story was originally published March 14, 2026 at 7:00 AM.
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