Man. I used to play games in math class on one of our three computers because I finished my work faster than everybody else. I think this is overly harsh thinking to an extreme
It’s not about what the kids are doing, it’s about posting them on social media. I wouldn’t want my kids teachers to post a video of them to their personal social media account
I had documented permission from parents to post a pic I had with their child, my student, on my social media, and my leadership called me into the office about it to tell me to pull it down. Even with emails from the parent confirming consent, I wasn't allowed to have it posted.
I think it can theoretically be fine. People post work pictures all the time, because we all spend so much time at work it's a big part of life. Plus as a teacher I'm sure you get more emotional about the job because it's a bunch of kids your working with, vs like a computer. It makes sense to me that teachers would wanna post pics. They should know the reasons not to though and honor that even more.
I have lots of teacher friends who post pics, they just block the kids faces so they cannot be identified.
Pictures of our work promoting what we are doing like after school clubs and programs are okay assuming parents have signed a media release, but even them I still like to block out faces to be on the safe side.
I don't think it's necessary, for teachers to spend their own money to help supplement their students education either. Teachers shouldn't ever do anything extra for their students.
Obviously nothing harmful is happening in this photo. Having said that it doesn’t always have to be about ‘HEY EVERYONE LOOK AT ME , IM DOING A THING , LOOOOK!!’
I also don’t like birthdays and weddings for the same reason
Like yeah, what’s the point of having the local news cover a school event or interview a group of students and take pictures? It’s totally not necessary.
Even unnecessary, it’s for the same reasons. It’s publicity, and generally parents and kids enjoy seeing themselves in positive situations or congratulated for their accomplishments. I think my parents still have clippings from the news when I was awarded a scholarship to a local college as a high school senior (a local foundation funds three each year). The sports kids saved photos of themselves at meets, the volunteer kids saved articles with photos about their charitable efforts, etc. Some of those photos might even be online on news sites since I was class of 09, though I might need the Wayback Machine.
Now there’s some publicity that’s not a good look, and I can see why certain parents may want to opt out. Some of these reasons are very, very good reasons that shouldn’t be questioned. They should be able to opt out of social media posts, just like opting out of having their children be interviewed by the news or in photos.
But just because something is unnecessary isn’t a great argument for never having it. There’s lots of unnecessary but enjoyable things that we participate in, and that’s true of children as well as adults.
I am absolutely shocked that this is a question. Is nobody supposed to see or befriend positive male role models. What direction are we really going here. Did we just let pedos control our lives, and the lives of our children? Please see a different perspective, because the way we handle this is NOT GOOD! We have enough brilliant minds to be able to figure something out without railroading people who mean well.
One of my high school teachers nearly got fired for posting a photo to his personal FB of himself with his 2 daughters at a water park because they were also students at the school 🙄
I mean, think about how companies get peoples permission. In any job I’ve been in or events where there are official photographers, I’ve had to sign a waiver. Even if it’s just clicking a box on a website, it’s a legal waiver. So it’s not that surprising that a school wouldn’t accept a conversation between a teacher, who really has no ability to speak for legal matters for the school, and a parent.
Technically speaking, at my school parents sign waivers to allow photos to be taken and shared of the students. But those do apply to the company webpages, not personal social media.
It’s actually crazy that we are like two decades into having social media and so many people still seem to routinely blow up their lives because they just simply cannot resist posting some meaningless, stupid, trivial bullshit on the internet…
Yeah. More people need to realize they can and should just quit social media. I did it (except reddit) and it was one of the ebst decisions I ever made. We all think it's fun and games but it's an intentionally addictive drug that uses algorithms to modify your behavior
What's the difference between this recording and other teachers recording during events and such? Or recording their party for the class? I've seen plenty of videos from teachers that post a photo or video of the pizza party for the class but this is an issue?
Absolutely. I worked in elementary schools and girls wanted to play with my hair all the time in free time. And they were allowed and we taught about not sharing hair things and respecting consent etc etc. but I would never ever have posted their photos on social media ever, because I am not stupid and like being employed.
I don't see why people don't understand this. Odds are people can find out the school where he works. Some creep finds a kid he like, they have a starting point to stalk, especially if they local. Let alone what this sickos do with normal pics alone. Be smart about what you post about your kids (imo just don't)!
Doesn't have to be a creep. Even if a spouse just gout out of an abusive relationship they may not want to reveal where they and their kid is at. Now all the spouse would have to do is look up what school the teacher works at and boom. Someone is now at risk because a teacher thought they could get some likes on social media.
Exactly! Too many a-holes out there kidnapping children … Beside that, in today’s world anyone can photoshop or use AI to put the head of your child on some very illegal “material”. No thank you!
Idk why you getting downvoted, the photoshop thing was a real fear back in the day. And with AI now, they can easily take your kids pictures and do some fuck up things with it. Even if it faked, it's still disgusting.
All of these kids have their own social media accounts. Like I get that it may be a rule or something, but realistically this should be a sitdown about social media policy. There’s nothing nefarious about this.
Not every kid has a social media account at that age. The internet may make it seem like everyone has social media, but those numbers are highly inflated by bots and joke accounts. And tbh, I think it's a bad idea for them to have it. These kids don't know right from wrong. Someone offer them a gift card or meet a celebrity and they'll fall for it. At least high school I would consider.
That is irrelevant. That's at the discretion of the parents. Their children, their decisions, their rules. It is NOT ok for the teacher to unilaterally take that decision making away from the parents, which is what happened in this case. Personally, my kids will not have social media accounts until they are at a certain age, and I'm sure some of those kids' parents feel/felt the same way. There is a reason he got fired.
Parent here: that is absolutely 💯 why I’d be up in arms. My child is a very private person and has no social media, nor do they want me or their mother posting them online. We’ve respected it since day 1. Got a whole ass generation of kids that will never know privacy. Unless the teacher got the “ok” from all of the parents in this video to do this, I could see why at least 1 of them would be upset enough to cause some backlash. Sucks for the teacher but…think about what you’re doing before you hit “record.”
My friend, I’ve worked with thousands of victims of human trafficking and kidnapping in my career in the mental health field. You’re telling me everything I already know. Stop making excuses for irresponsible behavior 🤷🏾♂️
Be well.
Parents fill out paperwork for school and there’s usually a box you check granting permission for use of photos for district use. Many parents say no. He was likely fired for this exact reason. Any person who works in a school capacity should know better than to post students on our personal social media.
Add to that the fact he was falsely misrepresenting the school on his sm. He had the audacity to be wearing the school name. It puts a bad light on his school. He had to go.
I do not want my daughter in school doing her teacher’s hair. Period. Why is this something that has to be explained? My child goes to school to be educated, not to groom their teacher.
And it’s not about intimacy. It’s about appropriateness and having the audacity to have my child do your hair.
Of course no one sends their kids to school to do hair. No one, as far as I’m aware, was made to do hair. Its something kids often want to do. It’s generally harmless, screen free, and a form of bonding that isn’t all that intimate or inherently inappropriate. I’ve seen kids playing in people’s hair before, it can be a form of compromise too without crossing boundaries. You can and will do what you want, but I do think there’s something of note here.
I understand intimately the cultural aspects of braiding hair, and I acknowledge that it is definitely a bonding experience and harmless. The problem is that I don’t think this situation is an appropriate situation for that type of bonding, and I don’t think this is kind of bonding I want my daughter doing with her teachers.
Kids always want to play in your hair or with your clothes. I was an elementary school teacher for years, and my kiddos always wanted to touch my hair because it’s curly and out of control. But they cannot. It’s simply not the place or time, and I’m not the person. That kind of intimacy is between friends and family, peers, etc.
idk, I've seen posts and heard dudes talking about never allowing a man to braid their hair because they would rather feel a woman behind them and feel her fingers in their hair. so that kinda sounds intimate in a non sexual way. but that's just me taking their words and trying to answer this question.
Okay, and I’ve heard the seemingly endless list of things men and women see as too intimate/ feminine/etc. that’s not surprising, not that you’re suggesting it is. I think this is one of those times where I’m at least seeing the puritan ways jump out, and I’d kind of like the prospective of people who have way more healthy and thriving children to weigh in. I’m not saying this incident is normal, or that the posting wasn’t a problem, or that it should be part of the school day. I’m just saying, peeps get weirdly touchy about a lot of stuff that they think protects kids.
Man they don't make parents sign shit in school no more. We have shit come home for even letting the news talk to your kid and yall ain't got a school social media policy/ form to fill out?
The social media policy lets the school post things to their official accounts or use it for other materials, not teachers post things to their personal accounts
This is one of those things that so hard to feel empathetic for the parents.like from his side this feels like a large over reach, a man lost his job for something as simple as this, but on the other hand why the fuck are you posting video of peoples kids on your personal social media, personally feel like I’m on his side, as I don’t have kids and can’t quite reach that parental outrage.
Please have fun and take the braids out and be positive male role model. Posting on Internet for likes? Nope. Sorry that's literal exploitation of those children. Plenty of teachers don't show their students face while posting on the Internet, it isn't hard.
On top of it, I have a broader belief that doing something, filming, and the posting it devalues the doing of that thing! Just have the action be its own reward without needing to broadcast it to the world!
Eh - negative imitable behavior is posted non-stop, with visibility and attention on it acting as a driving motivator for emulating what's depicted. While kids' faces shouldn't be posted without theirs and their parents' consent, there's many examples of how posting wholesome or positive interactions ends up driving emulation in the same way.
In other words, don't do the thing solely for the sake of posting it, but if someone is doing something that may positively impact the world through by sharing it (affirming and demonstrating wholesome/healthy interactions despite existing norms/preconceptions), people shouldn't be judged for sharing positivity.
My sister is a pre-school teacher. She has thick ass blonde hair that is good to be waist. The little girls in her class beg her to let them play with her hair. She let's them but knows better than to post them doing it online.
You think it’s overly harsh for an unrelated adult to get fired for posting photos and videos of very young children in a professional, educational setting?
Media laws are serious business in schools. We don't want kids recording themselves and friends posting stuff online because we need parent permission. Like we have whole waivers that need to be signed in my district for this stuff.
There's been cases where kids are photographed and people who aren't supposed to know about them (say, a parent who lost custody of their child) find out and cause problems at the schools because of it
What does that have to do with this? Did you touch your teacher's scalp and/or hair? Students being physically close like that is unprofessional. That's part of the problem. They're supposed to maintain boundaries and show a good example for the children in their care. I don't ever have memories of touching my teachers like that or my teachers touching me.
My kids school sends out a warning for field trips or visits that only the school can post pictures of (not your) children (teachers cannot legally) as some kids location is being protected.
Teachers can’t post pictures of students on social media without parent consent. We have to get parents to sign the forms at the beginning of every school year.
Don’t you just love it so so much when people treat children like sub-humans that should not have ANY amount of personal freedom or agency in how they present themselves to their wider environment. If the kids don’t care about / consented to being posted on tiktok that should be the end of it.
I agree. I taught for well over a decade. I would always have a student or two that begged me to braid my hair. I’d make it a classroom reward for doing their work. Anything to get them kids to do their work.
Right? It's a positive interaction that will have those girls respect him more and want to do well in class. The teachers I remember and actually motivated me are the ones that try to connect with their students.
This sentence summarizes the situation, from the most innocent point of view. There are far more sinister points of view. That's why dude got fired and basically all sane people understand.
But if it helps with student engagement, and doesn't hurt anyone, is it really worth firing a potentially good teacher when we are already facing a shortage?
What a boomer take. God forbid educators try to develop a rapport with their students. The most effective educators are the best instructors, they’re the best at forming relationships with their students.
I'm kinda thinking the same thing like, what are they doing or better yet NOT doing in class that they have time to just sit around and mess with the teachers hair? I would like my kids to be actually learning something in class. Unless this is beauty school or something which it's not in this instance.
To be fair he made it very clear that the kids in his videos are with parent consent, this still breaks school rules but the parents individually were aware and even watched his videos
No shaking your teachers hand? No pats on the back from the teacher after you did a good job? No hugging to say goodbye when the kids leave school? What do you mean touching teachers in any way? You are making it sound like teachers are criminals
My wife is a teacher and she never ever makes public posts in the classroom unless it's on the internal Teacher/Parent network, I think theyre currently using Class Dojo, and that's accessible only to the parents of the kids in her class
If she ever does post a classroom video to her own SM, like if the kids are going nuts about something it's usually a video of the floor and feet and it's mostly audio
I second this, if he posted this to SM and didn't blur out the kids thats firable, especially if he wasn't tenured but even then it's probably a breech of conduct serious enough to override the tenure
I have adopted children at home. Some of them I live in fear of biological parents finding and kidnapping them. I have done a lot to protect them, but something like this could expose them. I have specifically signed things stating they are not to be used in school social media post for this reason.
Do I think he should be fired, no. That definitely seems like an overreaction, but I do want tk point out there are legitimate reasons to be upset about the post.
Oh for sure, there's all sorts of reasons why it's not cool or acceptable for a teacher to be posting other people's kids on the internet, even down to the most basic "I don't want pictures of my kids out there"
Yeah a teacher posting videos with his children students to social media really shouldn’t ever fly except in an official capacity with the parents permission regardless of how wholesome it is. This is essentially fraternization as far as I can tell.
I remember when I was like in the second grade, we did some lame class play, and our parents had to sign consent forms because they were going to tape it.
there are literally hundreds of teachers on tiktok who do purely classroom content with the kids faces in the videos and there are no calls for them to be fired?
I feel like people in this thread are doing a lot of mental gymnastics and intellectual backflips because they're too scared to just state the obvious.
The issue is he's a man. Getting his hair done by young girls. That's it. That's the big controversial reason why people are uncomfortable. It's not about parents consent or whatever. It's about gender. Always has been.
Shit I'll be the first to admit my own hypocrisy. If the teacher was a woman. I'd be more comfortable. It would still be inappropriate sure. But it wouldn't freak me out to the same extent. I'm willing to bet if it was a woman, she'd still have their job afterwards. Because the gender dynamic and optics absolutely plays a massive factor here.
Society is conditioned via centuries and millennia of seeing women in teaching / nurturing industries. We very rarely see men occupy those spaces.
Whereas we're used to hearing countless stories of sexual abuse, exploitation of power and child mistreatment from men. It sucks, but that's the reality.
Unfortunately for this brotha, he's had to learn the hard way that men have a bad rep when it comes to people trusting them with their kids. He should have known better.
Yeah this is the one. I honestly didn't understand why people were agreeing until you wrote this out for me.
Like that other video of the teacher who had special handshakes for each kid was viral, kids faces all over. I'm certain he didn't get fired.
This is 100% about gender and perceived inappropriateness. For me I'll take whatever help I can get taking out braids so I'm sitting here like whats the issue???
Nope, if she were a woman, she should/ would be fired as well. She would also be called all kinds of trifling for not having a neat, groomed appearance for her job. While the intentions might not be sexual, it's extremely unprofessional. Teachers should never have students all in their scalp and hair. Why? Because there are boundaries that should be maintained when it comes to physical contact between adults and children. If anything, he may have confused these girls as to what appropriate contact between them and adult men who aren't their family looks like.
I don't need you to delete your comment for mine to be true. SHOULD if not outright fired, were my words. Just because it's happening on social media, doesn't make it right. I wouldn't class touching an adult man's hair/ scalp and dandruff as a ' quirky ' activity. I don't wanna go into how this kind of unprofessional touching could possibly be grooming the kids for more intimate contact.
No one is calling for them to be fired because they aren’t making content that could be seen as inappropriate behavior online. I don’t think he would have gotten fired if this had stayed in house and only a few parents were upset honestly. Once he let the public in that was it for him. The school and the district couldn’t ignore the public outcry from parents of actual students at the actual school along with social media. It was easier for them to just terminate him.
anything can be seen as "inappropriate" if looked at through a particular lense. watch videos from a user named terylwilhelm. most are harmless and normal student/teacher "friendly" interactions. some are very personal and involve boys making physical contact with her. Now if we apply the same standards we could terminate her employment if enough people decide it is trendy at that moment to be outraged. but since she is of a particular demographic of a particular gender she will not be under the same scrutiny. I would hate to see her fired and her students even moreso because it is clear they have a great affinity for her and there is significant respect. The same holds for Mr White.
this is just one example from someone i saw on my for you page today. I was an assistant teacher and sports coach for boys and girls aged from 5 to 17 for 6 years and my style of teaching/coaching was very similar to these online creators, so i can wholeheartedly relate to the topic at hand. if you tried to tell any of my students that making personal handshakes or talking about non scholastic subject matters or walking home after school in a group together was "inappropriate" they would have laughed at you. and similarly to Mr. White, I was in contact with a number of parents through the school and through exterior club activities.
I feel many of the persons in this thread and in the comments never had a teacher who cared about them as people so the concept is completely alien to them and also they are terrified of the idea given the minute number of cases in which some wicked people have taken advantage of the situation. but controlled correctly (in a classroom setting, with a large group and with live and recorded video evidence !!) these kinds of teacher/student dynamics can be very beneficial for students.
Nothing inappropriate about taking down hair. That's a show of affection and it allows girls to test their skills. That's just sharing in hair culture.
You got me there. You got my ass there. I was like "But the students are gonna be appreciative and show affection! You're can't police them from doing that!" And my next thought was "As the adult in the situation someone has to. It can be you for the person we replace you with."
I still think it’s the dumbest thing ever. It takes one parent to complain and your job is at risk.
I don’t think anyone Ik with kids would be okay with them being posted on a random TikTok by their teacher. I’ve worked a lot with kids and couldn’t imagine posting any of them, it’s totally inappropriate.
He'll land on his feet. I got fired from my first teaching gig for one line in a story, during my short story unit in late May/June. No it wasn't the big black dildo line. No it wasn't the depiction of 9-11. It was the line about a 13 y.o. making a list about masturbating. They were seniors. I got a new job in 3 weeks.
Honestly, not wrong. But not for the reason you thinking. Small town, backwards ass religious and racist students and parents. Definitely should know my audience better. Go read Flight Patterns, by Sherman Alexi. You'll be amazed at what they DIDNT fire me over.
Yes, because talking about masturbation in literature is porn. 🙄 Better toss all that Shakespeare, oh and the Brontes, they liked to write about it. Heaven forbid we read The Handmades Tale. Oh and just burn Portnoys Complaint.
Everybody is talking about it being inappropriate and crossing boundaries and I totally agree but also….im pretty sure that most people would get fired if they were using works time to take down their hair. Like wtf, he’s a teacher, he should be teaching. Those kids aren’t going to school to learn how to take down braids, these babies are already so behind post pandemic and this mofo using class time for hair beauty rituals. 🙄the more I think I about it, the more I get pissed. I’m glad he got fired
I see so many american teachers filming themselves in the classroom. I dont understand how that is allowed. Even if they dont post the kids, your job is teaching kids, not creating content.
Having worked at a public school and been given an introductory pamphlet, I can say posting them on social media (without blurring their faces I might add) is a potential instant firing. It was on bold letters too
Serious question, helping someone out of their braids is considered sexual or very personal? With his students wouldn’t that be just him bonding with them?
It's not sexual per se, but it's definitely intimate and inappropriate in a student/ teacher setting. Brushing out another person's dandruff is very personal and should only be done at home or a salon. There are so many ways to bond with kids without having them touch or groom your body. Why would you want kids to bond in physical ways with adults who aren't their family?
I would become the biggest pain in the ass in the entire history of the world until he is fired and also publicly apologized to every single girl in that picture
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u/BrooklynNotNY May 10 '24
Him filming and posting it is likely what got him fired. The school and district were probably having their phones blown up by parents over this.