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In Feb, Patrice Motz, a veteran Spanish teacher at Great Valley Middle School in Malvern, Pennsylvania, was warned by another teacher that trouble was brewing. Some eighth graders at her public school had set up fake TikTok accounts impersonating teachers.
Motz, who had never used TikTok, created an account. She found a fake profile for @patrice.motz, which had posted a real photo of her at the beach with her husband and their young children.”Do you like to touch kids?” a text in Spanish over the family vacation photo asked. “Answer: Si.” In the days that followed, some 20 educators – about one quarter of the school’s faculty – discovered they were victims of fake teacher accounts rife with paedophilia innuendo, racist memes, homophobia and made-up sexual hookups among teachers.
Hundreds of students soon viewed, followed or commented on the fraudulent accounts. In the aftermath, the school district briefly suspended several students. The principal during a lunch period chastised the 8th-grade class for its behaviour. The biggest fallout has been for teachers like Motz, who said she felt “kicked in the stomach” that students would so casually savage teachers’ families.
The online harassment has left some teachers worried that social media platforms are helping to stunt the growth of empathy in students. The Great Valley incident is the first known group TikTok attack of its kind by middle schoolers on their teachers in the US. It’s a significant escalation in how middle and high school students impersonate, troll and harass educators on social media.
The attack also reflects broader concerns in schools about how students’ use, and abuse, of popular online tools is intruding on the classroom. Some states and districts have recently restricted or banned student cellphone use in schools, in part to limit peer harassment and cyberbullying on Instagram, Snap, TikTok and other apps.
Now social media has helped normalise anonymous aggressive posts and memes, leading some children to weaponize them against adults. “We didn’t have to deal with teacher-targeting at this scale before,” said Becky Pringle, president of the National Education Association, the largest US teachers’ union. “It could push educators to question, ‘Why would I continue in this profession if students are doing this?'”
The Great Valley school district said it had taken steps to address “22 fictitious TikTok accounts” impersonating teachers. But it said it had limited options to respond. Courts generally protect students’ rights to off-campus free speech, including parodying or disparaging educators online – unless the students’ posts threaten others or disrupt school.
Motz, who had never used TikTok, created an account. She found a fake profile for @patrice.motz, which had posted a real photo of her at the beach with her husband and their young children.”Do you like to touch kids?” a text in Spanish over the family vacation photo asked. “Answer: Si.” In the days that followed, some 20 educators – about one quarter of the school’s faculty – discovered they were victims of fake teacher accounts rife with paedophilia innuendo, racist memes, homophobia and made-up sexual hookups among teachers.
Hundreds of students soon viewed, followed or commented on the fraudulent accounts. In the aftermath, the school district briefly suspended several students. The principal during a lunch period chastised the 8th-grade class for its behaviour. The biggest fallout has been for teachers like Motz, who said she felt “kicked in the stomach” that students would so casually savage teachers’ families.
The online harassment has left some teachers worried that social media platforms are helping to stunt the growth of empathy in students. The Great Valley incident is the first known group TikTok attack of its kind by middle schoolers on their teachers in the US. It’s a significant escalation in how middle and high school students impersonate, troll and harass educators on social media.
The attack also reflects broader concerns in schools about how students’ use, and abuse, of popular online tools is intruding on the classroom. Some states and districts have recently restricted or banned student cellphone use in schools, in part to limit peer harassment and cyberbullying on Instagram, Snap, TikTok and other apps.
Now social media has helped normalise anonymous aggressive posts and memes, leading some children to weaponize them against adults. “We didn’t have to deal with teacher-targeting at this scale before,” said Becky Pringle, president of the National Education Association, the largest US teachers’ union. “It could push educators to question, ‘Why would I continue in this profession if students are doing this?'”
The Great Valley school district said it had taken steps to address “22 fictitious TikTok accounts” impersonating teachers. But it said it had limited options to respond. Courts generally protect students’ rights to off-campus free speech, including parodying or disparaging educators online – unless the students’ posts threaten others or disrupt school.
