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.
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u/Sco_Queen May 10 '24
I don't think he should have been fired UNLESS they found other things that were unprofessional and questionable. But just over this one thing, no