And, getting mad when said post goes viral and you get negative comments. There's a teacher who posted a video of her students on tiktok that went viral (if you know which video I'm talking about, you can take a wild guess why) and posted a follow up video basically complaining that we ruined the fun moment being negative and that it wasn't supposed to go viral. Your districts social media policy does NOT include your socials. If you get secondary permission from parents, great. Go for it. It's still weird and you should expect to get millions of views and for people to save the video and continue to circulate it after you delete it. If you didn't want it to happen, don't post it, or private your account to only coworkers and parents. This is the internet. People will find anything to pick on. Something some of these teachers need to keep in mind if they choose to do stupid trends online. I'm a gen z teacher and it's not that hard to not post my work life. Didn't know what to tag this, sorry if it's the wrong one. Just sick of seeing people shocked that the internet will be the internet, and at the end of the day it's always these young kids who are the victims of it
You shouldn't be posting your students on your personal social media for any reason
Just Smile and Nod Y'all.I agree with you. Just because the parents agree doesn’t mean the kids agree to have their faces splashed on social media. A minor can’t really conceptualize what a video going viral means and how it can affect them long term. Heck, most adults don’t really get how a viral video can screw you over.
As teachers we should be focused on keep our students safe, not getting likes or shares.
I’m curious why you post the photos in the first place?
Personally, it’s because I’m proud of the kids and we work hard to give back to the community in the club I sponsor. It’s a way of celebrating my joy with extended family and friends. I don’t have a family of my own.
A few weeks ago someone on this sub commented about a celebrity kid --naming the kid! I questioned it in a comment, the commenter argued with me about why it waa perfectly fine 🙄 to tell a story that she witnessed but had not participated in.
I just searched by celebrity name and came up empty, so THANK YOU MODs!
Just so you know, some districts even tell you not to use the emojis. They can be removed. It's better to erase the kid's face in a photo editor or something and then cover the erased part with an emoji. That's what I've been told at least :)
Are you talking about that candy video? Because all the remakes just scream pedo alert… and if I was a parent I’d be suing
Yup. Parents signed a second form so they probably can't sue, but personally it's not something I would've ever signed off on for my kid
Patents give permission for school related media. Not personal accounts.
Sure they can sue.
Those forms are like liability waivers, they're not even worth the paper and ink it took to make them.
Especially dealing with children, this would be a slam dunk in open court.
That being said, original advice is the Best advice.
Just don't post that shit.
Just because you sign a legal document doesn’t mean you can’t press charges for child endangerment at any time. I find a lot of adults clearly don’t know how child safety laws work as well as they think they do.
Good to know. It's probably not even a legal document, just something she typed up and had signed. She just went heavy on the "I had permission" train because I'm assuming a lot of people pointed out her districts policy didn't give her initial permission to do it
Exactly, always double check. When I was a kid my dad signed some sort of agreement restraining order thing at my school to avoid the school “pressing charges” as if they could have for what had happened but alas he didn’t know better, turns out years later I found out all it was was some typed up document the principal made up herself. It had no legal standing at all, and if the cops had ever been called on him they would’ve just laughed and left. The only legal documents are those permission waivers and that doesn’t give anyone permission to post or keep your child’s photo for personal use
Unrelated to teacher but not the liability stuff. Does that mean that if a fan got injured at a sporting event ( HS, College or Professional) they could still sue? Even though the stadium ticket say you assume all risk and responsibility?
More or less yes. If the fan got injured because the stadium owner was grossly negligent, the fan could sue (and win) no matter what they signed. However if the stadium did everything right, and the fan was doing something stupid, then no.
Yes, there’s many cases of fans suing teams for stuff that seems outrageous but really isn’t.
I think that’s actually why a lot of teams try and get hurt fans like a signed stick or ball or whatever for the sport their attending.
But have any won? Wants the point of liability waivers if people can just sue anyway.
Nobody but a prosecutor can "press charges".
Well at first I didn't care but now... wtf is this video?
Some kids bringing candy and putting it into a bowl but now people are screenshotting their faves and making their own videos about the kids it’s super super creepy and if that was my kid I’d be getting law enforcement and lawyer involved and that teacher fired for sure.
If the parent's didn't sign off on it, I'd agree. If they signed a permission slip, well, that's not the teacher's fault that there's creeps. It sounds like the sort of thing of "its impossible to post somethign without it beign taken sexually by someone somewhere". It sounds like they made something innocent. And that's not the teacher's fault. BUT if there was no persmission slip then like... yeah, don't film and post kids without permission.
Permission slips for media releases are only supposed to cover official school social media, NOT teacher personal social media. I really doubt that every single parent would have agreed to their kids being on a candy salad video on TikTok.
Also she just shouldn't have posted the video altogether for exactly this reason. You can't control other people on the Internet but you can control the content you give them. Teachers shouldn't be making tiktoks with their students and it's weird to even ask parents for permission for that
I agree it shouldn't be posted. I don't think teacher influences or parent influencers should be allowed to post videos of kids on the internet.
I’m starting to think you’re part of this weird group…
Nah, I'm not in favor of recording kids. But i'm in favor of people being given a chance to recitify and apologize over a mistake made without ill intent.
I don’t think posting a video of a strangers child and saying “bro I feel bad for him going last” can really be done without ill intent.
Huh? what the heck is this about?
WHAT CANDY video? I ain't see that on tink tonk and i don't know how to search it there
Sorry I laughed at "tink tonk" 😂
It really really triggers the kids to call it that.
Also instant gram (because you can share pictures instantly)
Mindcraft (because you choose what to build with your mind)
And "tablet" instead of iPad
This is so fucking funny, my students are too young to care but I'm adding this into my vocabulary 😂
I personally say "Das ist mein kraft"in my most cartoonishly dumb German accent. It drives my 6th graders nuts.
There was a series of Commodore 64/Atari games called Tink Tonk.
I've seen multiple videos of the kids reposted with the sound "I could be a good mother". The comments were full of people being like "I cried over how cute he was" or wanting to adopt them. Creepy as fuck to speak like that about a child you've never met.
If I was a parent of one of those kids I would be LIVID. This is out there forever, toothpaste can't go back in the tube once it's all squeezed out
Okay, I’ve been informed TikTok is a cesspool, so I haven’t dipped toe, but what the actual fuck is the Candy Video!?
So there's a trend on TikTok rn about candy salads. Basically you get a giant bowl and have teammates or students or coworkers or whatever group bring different large bags of small, unwrapped candy like sour patch kids, nerd gummy clusters, peach rings, etc. In the videos they take turns introducing themselves, saying what they brought, and dump the candy into the bowl. Obviously at the end it's mixed up and everyone gets a scoop that has a lot of different candies in it. I think it started as something that sports teams would do on game days or something to do for a party but some teachers are doing them now with their students
This particular video was of a kindergarten teacher having her students do the trend for the last day of school. She's since deleted the video but it went viral because of the little-kid pronunciation of some of their names, like one kid who said he was named Anderdingus
This explains why I had middle schoolers bringing giant bags of candy to school last week. I freaking hate TikTok.
This is both better and weirder than what I was picturing. Thank you for educating me.
Glad this stupid app is going to be banned
Also commenting here in case any of y’all find it 😔 I am so curious!
It's a bunch of kids doing the candy trend where they say their name and what candy they brought then pour it in a bowl. The clip going more "viral" is one kid who is saying his first and last name which are a bit more unique and his delivery is very endearing (think the vibes of the apparently kid, just very silly cute)
This trend isn't a thing outside of tik tok, so people not on there have no idea what this means. What does it mean to say your name and what you brought? For school? Why are kids bringing candy to school, and why are they saying their name and naming the candy? What's the significance of this activity and why is it being filmed and shared?
Oh it definitely does not belong in a school setting and it wasn't started in a school setting. People started posting videos of them hanging out with friends or having parties where each person brings a bag of some type of candy (sour patch kids, Skittles, nerd clusters, etc.) and then combined the candy into a giant bowl to share for the night. Because they're filming they introduce themselves and the candy they brought before dumping it in the bowl. It is a Tiktok trend, they are all stupid, do not ask me to explain why ppl are doing this or why a teacher decided it was smart to film and post her students, I couldn't fuckin tell you.
That makes sense thanks. Though I seriously question the professionalism of any teacher jumping on a tiktok bandwagon by filming their students for content. Doing something self-deprecating or silly to humanize yourself. Maybe. But your students aren't grist for your tiktok content mill.
I would imagine untangling the specific meaning and origin of it would probably take a lot of time to figure out and present the context, and probably wouldn’t add much to the conversation. It seems like enough to say “it’s something that someone came up with, posted online and now people are repeating it. The significance is that it’s something that other people have done. And the reason it is being filmed and shared is to join in on the trend”. Maybe there’s more to it, but it seems like it’s just another social media trend that seems impenetrable to people outside the ecosystem and the primary purpose is just to participate in it.
I went and looked it up on YouTube. It's baffling. Though it's not for me, I can totally understand repeating a dance trend, a physical challenge, or adding to a clever joke as a viral trend. But this is just dumping candy in a bowl. And why even say your name? It's utterly meaningless and completely uninteresting. So a teacher went through all the trouble of bringing a bowl, getting kids to bring candy, filiming them one by one for half a class period, editing it and posting it for the final product to be this boring nothingness? I'm really not a luddite, but it looks like Tiktok brain rot is real.
TikTok has a lot of trends, where one kind of video will get popular so a bunch of people will do their own version. This trend is making a candy salad, where everyone brings different small unwrapped candy like sour patch kids or nerd gummy clusters and someone brings a giant bowl. Each person introduces themselves, says what they brought, and dumps it in. Then it gets mixed up and everyone gets a scoop, so they get lots of different types of candies.
There isn't really much particular "significance" other than it being a fun little activity and it's really only being filmed because it's a trend right now. I think the kindergarten teacher wanted to do something fun for the last day of school and wanted to make her own video for the trend but it obviously didn't go well
They put the candy into a bowl and you get a mix of candy they all share. Kind of a cool idea, I let my kids do it after AP testing and they had a fruity candy bowl.
Sue for what? On what grounds? What happened?
What is the candy video?
Link?
I’m not one of the creeps who saved them, they just pop up in your “for you” page. I just comment stating how people who are trying to make these innocent kids into some sort of characters for some TikTok video plot are huge pedo/creeps, usually I get my comment taken down and a warning from TikTok, and move on
Wait, what video is this? Is that where the teacher was on the news saving a girl from choking on a piece of candy?
Heck. My social media accounts do not have my real name on them. No need for students or parents to know what they are. Definitely NOT gonna post my students
Exactly.
Private account, unsearchable, not using real name, AND not posting anything with my students in it
Yep. Totally private with my anonymous accounts. Don’t even follow anyone from school.
This needs to be told to all the gymnastic coaches live streaming their students on Tiktok. They create a very obvious demographic, and I doubt they lack the awareness to notice.
Considering what has gone on in the sport of gymnastics in recent years, you’d think they would know better.
Amen. It is very evident that we can't expect parents to have any digital literacy or manners. Best we can do is not make it worse.
I’m currently reading The Anxious Generation by Jonathan Haidt and would highly recommend it if you’re interested in how social media is affecting the youth!
Thank you. I'll read.
Yup. As a teacher I find it profoundly unprofessional. As a parent (one who never posts their kids btw) if a teacher posted a pic of my kid I would be livid. Not everyone is living for likes.
Thank you! This post needs to be shared everywhere. It is definitely dangerous territory posting your students on tik tok in any capacity-- funny or otherwise.
If I think something in my classroom is cool enough to post, I send it to my school social media person. The school will usually post it (parents have signed releases). Then I can share it. Problem solved.
Is a different teacher being dragged this week? They didn't learn from the guy who got dragged last week?
People, just don't do it. You're at school to teach kids, not use them for content.
I learned that lesson hard the last two years. Had a “Teacher TikTok” last year because I wanted to be trendy after a coworker had one the year before. I coached a sport, and some of my athletes and students who were watching practice convinced me to let them film me doing a viral dance. I said yes as long as I could post it to my teacher account. Big mistake. I eventually took down the teacher TikTok because I wasn’t posting much and didn’t want to mod the comments. Turns out at least one student saved the video and reposted it with music. I didn’t realize it until my current students started watching it and making it go viral across the grade. By then there was no way for me to contain it. Thankfully I don’t think it’s gone beyond my school since there are millions of teachers doing the same thing, and it’s badly done anyway.
As a teacher and a parent:
Teacher is a dumbass and should get some type of consequence for it.
BUT….that kid fucking rocks
The teacher just made a video complaining about how she had to delete the video because there's so much negativity on TikTok... It took you making other people's children go viral to figure that out???
I would NEVER share my students on my personal accounts. I can’t believe how many people do! That being said, I’ll reshare posts that the school account makes about my class.
Agreed. It’s a safety issue. A lot of my kids are also foster kids or no contact by court order with a certain parent, so posting them would open up the door for potentially harmful adults in their lives to find them. Even for the ones where that isn’t the case, no one needs to see my kids on my social media. You don’t know what type of people will come across their pictures.
I don’t think people should even post their own children, let alone someone else’s! Damn!
My son's private school has an open FB page and they post 100 pics a day. It's infuriating and exhausting, but without signing the okay, you don't attend. Ugh. At least he can't be "tagged" or named, as neither my husband nor I are on FB. They never type names or captions.
So happy about GDPR, because of it schools have to ask permission and giving permission or not cannot be a coerced decision like what you're describing.
I'd be pretty upset if my kid was in a tiktok video posted by her teacher...
It’s WILD to me what some of these TikTok teachers get away with. On the other hand, I did see a high school teacher make a silly video with her kids wearing mask and helmets to cover their faces, and to protect their privacy. It was both funny and law abiding. 🤟🏻
I had a head of school that would follow all the 7th grade girls social media and report to us the "Drama" at department meetings. It was stupid. She also wanted to talk about "Homeland" the tv show all the time in department meetings. She didn't do a lot regarding the school.
My teacher would post us on early social media without any consent (individual and parental consent) and frequently asked students to leave the school to grab things. But these students would take little detours and buy food or go into places they shouldn’t be, etc. Nightmare.
I don’t like that I may have old photos floating around somewhere on the internet, but can’t really do much about it.
I don't even post students on my teaching-specific social media account I created so former students can keep in touch if they want to. It's just memes, stuff about my subject in the wild (real world), school events, and my dog.
I heard a pro sport coach say, "nothing good ever happens at the club after 2am."
As a teacher, "Nothing good ever happens because you posted to social media."
Oh man I’m old. I can’t imagine even thinking this was close to okay. I don’t post pictures of my kids or grandkids and don’t understand when teachers think it’s okay to do so. It’s a whole new world I guess.
One of my co-workers posted a TikTok with her students in 2021 and I told her I wouldn’t do that. She was so rude and basically scoffed at me. Got pulled out of a staff meeting (in front of everyone) and was forced to delete it by admin.
Kevin Silberman It’s why social media accounts like these make me uncomfortable. There can’t be any way these students have a normal relationship with him as a teacher or coach.
Never once have I considered posting or referencing anything with students' faces in it that isn't already plastered all over my school, or my districts website- and even still, I just haven't because I don't like the feeling. I wouldn't want that from my own (hypothetical) children's teachers, and so I don't do it.
What’s the go with cross posting something from the school’s socials? Ie. Sharing a post of my basketball boys winning a comp.
I’ve never done but am curious as to what’s widely considered acceptable or not.
That would be okay imo because it's coming from the schools social media posts, with photos from their photographer or admin. Those kinds of posts are acceptable under the social media release form, and it's related to school/academics instead of just random internet trends
Gotcha! That sits well with me.
Teachers who are desperate for approval from strangers on the internet get no sympathy from me when it bites them in the ass.
That's exactly what it is, desperate for approval
I just don't understand why people want to post their students on social media at all. I have never been the slightest bit tempted, but I see other teachers do it all the time.
That's a great way to get fired in my old district.
Sad that this needs even needs to be said.
I hate the videos of teachers who record themselves having conversations with their students.
The children aren’t on camera, only the teacher is, but it’s so cringe to see that they’re comfortable putting their students out to be judged by the internet.
Do they think it’s professional to be doing that in the middle of class?
I do not allow any students to access any of my social media including gamer tags. There should be a clear boundary
When did teachers forget the basics? These are kids. And not your kids. No matter how much you like them, they are not your kids and they are not there to boost your views.
with the introduction of video AI, there should be absolutely no question whether or not to post photos of minors on social media in ANY context.
For real. At my high school we had a special education teacher who would regularly post her students doing activities. Cool, whatever.
When I graduated, she made a special Instagram post for only two of her students. One of the students not included (we’ll call him Gavin) also walked. Gavin was in a stroller-like wheelchair all of highschool, at least when I saw him with his aide. He walked with a walker across the stage and our stadium roared with praise.
My mind just hopes Gavin’s parents didn’t sign a consent form for him to be featured on her class Instagram, but damn. Not posting all your students graduating, especially when it includes a kid like him, is super rude.
I agree 👍💯
I teach art and post my high school students art to my teacher instagram. Other than that, nothing else.
We have a private platform, only accessible with passwords, for everyone in the school community. It has a blog optIons. And you need to be a bit tech savy to save the pictures and vidéo from it.
I use that to share pictures and vidéo with parents.
Now, it doesn't prevent some people to download them and put them on social media. But so far no one did it. And I feel like I wouldn't be responsible for that.
As a teacher, it is best not to have any social media accounts. Nothing good comes out of them.
Teachers are allowed to have lives outside of work.
I'm all for "social media isn't good for mental health so it should be limited" but why should a teacher not have any social media compared to literally every other person in a different career? It's about being smart and safe. Keep them private and don't post about work/the kids
Many can’t control themselves. The bar is higher for us, and better safe than sorry. It’s not fair, but it is what it is. Same reason I generally don’t allow students to be alone in the room with me. If they really need help, table next to the door, prop it wide open with a chair and pop out for the cameras every couple of minutes.
"The Internet will be the Internet."
This is why I actually don't have a big problem with teachers sharing videos of their students, actually. The fact is, so long as the kids are old enough to already be on social media (which in most jurisdictions is 13), they consent to it, and it isn't depicting illegal activities, it should be fair game.
The kids have a totally different view of social media than what we grew up with and parents going "Well I never!" and clutching those pearls while simultaneously insisting they have zero control over their 13 year old watching shock porn every day and getting sucked into TikTok challenges are completely full of shit. You can't have your cake and eat it, too.
At the same time, it's a good time to show kids Internet usage has natural consequences. Posting something that is going to upset people and having them get upset are natural consequences.
Then again: I think problems in schools will continue so long as parents don't really see what goes on in the classroom except through a carefully curated lens crafted by the kids themselves.
Publicly sharing identifiable student information is illegal under FERPA, just so we’re clear.
Yes, it is -- and that law was passed before there are 30 cameras in every classroom.
Everyone is ignoring what made that law effective and as a result the kids who benefited the most from it are mercilessly fucked with in ways yesterday's bullies could only dream of.
I get the logic of your point but I honestly think that if anything all those cameras make it more important to be vigilant about student privacy. I also wonder what the teachers are doing this are thinking. What’s the win other than self validation? You can tell a kid’s guardian that they’re doing great by simply telling them.
I think it's just a shift in culture.
How old are the newest incoming teachers now? Many of them grew up drowning in social media and it's probably hard to tell where the line is when that's how you interact with everyone.
Age is not relevant when an adult violates federal law. A lesson a teacher might teach.
I agree.
But I expect this behavior to increase all the same.
Disclaimer: non-US.
In my school it is quite the other way around, older teachers don't think twice about uploading photos like group pictures from field trips (that they're on themselves) but I would probably never do that. I think it's because older people aren't as exposed to social media and therefore American culture where these things are more frowned upon.
True. But I fell like there are exceptions. When I was going to elementary/MS school the district sent home a directory, with almost every student information.
Anytime I post a photo of my students in my community focused club, I ALWAYS put an emoji on their face, even though my account is private. It doesn’t matter if the parent OK’s it for me. Not only is it for job security but minors should have the freedom to not have their faces randomly posted for any troll or loser to see. I’m always so baffled when teachers do this.