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‘Quite frankly, the district’s response to this atrocious behavior is embarrassing’
Parents and teachers from a suburban Pennsylvania school district are cheesed at administrators’ response to a widely publicized TikTok teacher impersonation scheme involving middle school students.
Earlier this school year, several students in the Great Valley School District created bogus accounts under real teachers’ names and posted “racist, homophobic, [and] sexually inappropriate content.”
The New York Times called the scandal the “first known group TikTok attack of its kind by middle schoolers on their teachers in the United States.”
Superintendent Daniel Goffredo had told the Times “we wish we could do more to hold students accountable,” but there were “legal limitations” in what the district could do given students created the accounts “off campus during nonschool hours on personal devices.”
This declaration didn’t sit well with many in the community, and at last Monday’s school board meeting district officials got an earful.
According to The Philadelphia Inquirer, district union head Nikki Salvatico told the board the ersatz student-created accounts are not “protected speech.”
One parent said “Quite frankly, the district’s response to this atrocious behavior is embarrassing,” while another said “It took becoming infamous, in local, national and international media, for people to now understand what’s going on.”
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The former also noted the U.S. Supreme Court has long held that schools can regulate students’ “out-of-school speech” if it causes a “substantial disruption” in school.
Thomas Richards, a school board member, told the teachers in the room that he imagined the incident had prompted some to question their commitment to teaching. “I acknowledge your pain and uncertainty,” he said, pledging that the district would work to restore trust.
As for the students, “they screwed up, big time. What they did was reprehensible,” Richards said. “But I hope we can treat them with some grace. Let’s not forget they’re still kids.”
In an interview after the meeting, teachers who had been impersonated by the fake accounts said they hoped the attention to the district would bring changes. But they said the problem wasn’t just students’ use of technology, but an apparent lack of empathy.
Indeed, the lack of empathy and remorse is a big deal for at least one Great Valley teacher. “We’ve received no apologies from students, or parents,” the teacher said. “And I think that would have been worth quite a million to me.”
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IMAGE: Olivia/X
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