Dad Says School Tried Strongarming him to Pay for Daughter's Pictures

A dad and TikToker who goes by Chris (@noveltyseeker) on the popular social media platform often populates his page with politically-themed content. However, he recently went viral for the way his daughter's school tried to get him to pay $15 for a magnet with her face on it as part of picture day.

There's only one issue: He didn't authorize the purchase beforehand or express interest in getting the magnet.

He explains why he won't be honoring the school's $15 request in his clip, which accrued over 1.4 million views on TikTok.

Chris, who is wearing a blue hoodie in the video, begins his video by speaking directly to the camera and explaining his stance on the situation.

"If my child comes home from school with a magnet with her face on it with a note that says, 'You have to pay $15 or send the magnets with my child's face on it back to school,' I will never be paying the $15 and I will be keeping the magnets with my child's face on it thank you."

Personally, I don't think it's all that difficult to see his point. I remember the days of having to buy before you try when it came to school pictures, but it seems that the times have changed in some educational institutions.

Several commenters who replied to Chris's video also sympathized with his point of view.

One wrote, "My jr high did this with spring photos. We all dressed up, took the pics, and they sent home ENTIRE PHOTO PACKAGES instead of proofs and were like, ‘Pay for this please!’ lol uhhhh… no??"

Another had a theory, “Isn't this like a common grift technique like in tourist places?”

Anyone who has visited Times Square in Manhattan, for instance, is probably familiar with this scam. There, amidst the chaos, a photographer says, "Let me take your picture" and proceeds with a full-blown photoshoot — and then afterward, they begin to demand you shell out cash for the work they just did.

Another TikTok user spoke about the good ol' days when the scams were better (and watermarked), "My schools growing up would send PRINTED-OUT school photos with watermarks over them with forms to pay for printed-out photos?? Like y’all already printed them."

Another commenter stood by Chris, taking an “over-my-dead-body” stance, writing, “Take me to court.”

This whole situation makes you miss the simplicity of school picture day back in the day. Remember Olan Mills or Lifetouch? Everyone got to pick their backdrop, and you’d either end up with a standard brown textured background (that’s called Mottled Autumn, by the way) or the coveted fireworks or laser-light background if you were one of the "cool kids."

Sure. the process wasn’t perfect, and it could feel a bit cheesy and formulaic, but at least parents never felt like they were being tricked into paying for something they didn’t want.

But parents dealing with similar situations as Chris's may be yearning for the Picture Days of yesteryear.

Now, we've got magnets and photo packages showing up like unsolicited spam mail.

Combine that with the rising cost of education, and you’ve got a recipe for fed up parents. For context, private K-8 school tuition averaged $5,000 in 2000. Now? It’s over $12,000 — and that’s not factoring in any sports and extracurricular activities your kids may be engaging in.

And it isn't like private educational facilities are the only operations fleecing parents under the implication that purchasing certain items, or making particular contributions are directly correlated to the level of care and love they may have for their offspring.

Public schools, which are funded by taxpayers, are increasingly asking families to cover the costs of supplies, extracurricular activities, and in some instance even basic things like textbooks. A 2023 study by the National Retail Federation found that parents are spending an average of $890 per child each year on back-to-school costs, a sharp increase from just a decade ago.

The New York Post reported on a supplies deal one school made with a retailer. Parents were expected to dish out cash for kids' school supplies, and some of that money ended up going to the "PTA or school."

With school funding often lagging behind inflation, these hidden expenses leave many families feeling financial pangs, even in systems claiming to be "free and accessible."

What do you think? If the school decided to make the magnets without Chris's approval, does that mean they just gave him a free gift? Or would you fork over the money even if meant contributing to the normalization of this practice?