Teacher Says 'TeacherTok' Is a Scheme Set up by Donald Trump to "End Public Education"

In recent years, the behavior of students in classrooms has sparked debate. Part of the reason for this discussion has been the advent of TeacherTok. Teachers have been taking to the popular social media platform TikTok and venting their frustration over problematic behavior from their students.

Many of these talking points do seem to line up with the data. A study published in May by the American Psychological Association (APA) found that while pandemic restrictions led to a temporary lull in incidents of aggression against teachers, such acts were now “equal to or exceeding” levels present prior to the shutdowns.

APA concluded that 80% of teachers reported at least one incident of verbal harassment of threatening behavior, up from 65%. More than half of teachers—56%—reported physical violence from students, up from 42%.

These startling statistics may be one of the reasons why teacher Samantha Jo recently took to TikTok to slam “restorative practice” in the classroom. Clarifying that they “love the act of teaching," Samantha said that the job is now "miserable" despite wanting to be a teacher since the fourth grade.

Samantha claimed that they no longer get to teach and help kids develop into "smart individuals." Instead, Samantha says that most of the day is spent "managing behavior" and "teaching students how to regulate their emotions."

The teacher goes on to claim that, while not a counselor, most of the job is reaching out to school administration and parents to address these issues.

"That's why so many teachers are leaving the profession," Samantha goes on to suggest. "I always thought public education would be a good option... I didn't think you had to have money to get a good education," adding that in public schools, kids are "running the classroom and teachers have no authority."

Samantha points to an example where a teacher was allegedly pepper-sprayed by a student for taking away their phone, which they were using to cheat on a test. "There were people defending it," Samantha said. "That's crazy. That's really crazy."

Many commenters seemed to agree with Samantha, with Lindsey Gralheer writing: "Teaching isn’t easy anymore due to parents not being involved or even parenting." While Lexi Jean added, "People are not concerned enough about this."

One person who doesn't seem to agree with Samantha's assessment, however, is a fellow teacher and TikToker who goes by 'Mrs. Harris' online and presumably in the classroom. In a response video, Harris said they are starting to believe that "TeacherTok is a scheme set up by ... Donald Trump."

"In her video, she proceeds to talk about all of the reasons education is horrible," Harris states. "And then she goes on to say, 'I think this might be the end of public education.'"

Harris then asks the viewer: "Do ya'll not realize that's the point? They want to dismantle public education. They want to segregate out most marginalized students."

Harris remarks that those who post to TeacherTok are starting to remind them of the police every day. "You only love education if the students are complying. You only love teaching if the students do everything that you ask them to do. That's the only reason you love teaching."

The teacher then prompts her colleagues to post something they are grateful for in education. "Where are the teachers that are like me that are experiencing joy... who are seeing their children meet their expectations and begin to thrive?"

Mrs. Harris adds, "Where are those folks at? How come they don't have hundreds of thousands of follows on TikTok? I'll tell you why, because it's a scheme set up by Trump to dismantle public education through 'well-meaning' educators."

Unsurprisingly, the accusation sparked quite a debate in the comments section.

One commenter remarked: "When she said she didn’t expect to or want to have to manage behaviors as a teacher, and that that wasn’t her job… I don’t know how you get into K-12 thinking you’re not going to have to manage behaviors."

While another retorted: "I think it’s really messed up to insinuate that teachers who are struggling (like this teacher is) are struggling [because] they expect complete compliance. There has to be a middle ground. I don’t expect complete compliance, but I also don’t know how to continue this job when I have 10 huge behaviors out of 27 that are not properly dealt with by admin or their parents. I simply can’t teach a student how to be a kind person when everyone around them is reinforcing their harmful behavior."