Teacher Records “Hostile” Students to Show Realities of Today's Classroom Life

Throngs of teachers are leaving the profession en masse, and it seems like the shortage in America is only getting worse. ABC News writes: "Despite some states missing vacancy tallies for the 2022-2023 school year, the federal government reported public schools have been experiencing difficulties filling teaching vacancies for more than two full school cycles, according to the National Center for Education Statistics."

There are some states feeling the sting of these shortages more than others, like Alaska, where the state is purportedly encountering "significant challenges" along with "a pressing need for special education teachers, speech pathologists, occupational therapists, and more."

And there have been a number of educators who've hopped on social media to share their decisions in leaving the profession for good, like this one educator who said that she elected to work at Costco in lieu of spending her days in a classroom.

The instructor doesn't seem to have any regrets about her decision and says she's much happier working for the retailer, and when one sees posts like the following one uploaded to TikTok by a user named Sam (@reverseheartbeats), it's not hard to see why.

In a caption for the viral video which has accrued over 640,000 likes on the popular social media platform, she explains that her time teaching "fourteen-year-olds" has made her want to return to grad school before she even considers stepping back into a teaching role again.

"This is why I’m going back to grad school. I need to spend a couple years out of such an actively hostile environment before I give teaching another go," she writes.

Sam continued in her caption that the abuse she's subjected to at the hands of teenagers on a daily basis is what made her want to leave teaching: "It sucks to feel like I’m complaining, but this is what my job is 90% of the day, every day. I’m tired of being treated so poorly by fourteen-year-olds."

She records herself in the video attempting to talk to students. A text overlay reads: "A relevant note: students at this school are prone to fighting each other and any teachers that get in the way."

Sam adds in the video that the reason she decided to record in the first place was to compare how loud one class was compared to another that she taught, before writing that there was "about a minute left in class."

"I was tired from trying to redirect a class that wouldn't listen to me for an entire class period," the TikToker pens, before asking a student off camera to "please sit down."

"My mom said I had the right to beat yo a--," a student can be heard saying in the video. "Nobody should hurt anybody else," Sam tells the student. "Yes I should!" the student yells in response.

"No," Sam says.

"Yes!" the student yells again.

"No, it is not, fighting is never the answer," Sam tells the student.

"Did I say I was gonna fight?" the student says before another chimes in, "I don't promote violence."

"Kay, you should never hurt anybody else," the teacher says before one of the students replies again, "But did I say I was gonna fight?"

"We don't promote violence," another student remarked. "See that's how I know you're putting stuff in my mouth," the student says, before asking other teens in the class: "Did I say that though? I didn't say that though."

The teacher calmly responds, "Okay, I'm just telling you that violence—"

"Okay, and I'm telling you don't put stuff in my mouth."

"Okay," Sam tells the student, appearing visibly frustrated, before writing in a text overlay, "I'm so tired of this."

A number of TikTokers accused the students of "gaslighting" the teacher while calling out the blatant "disrespect" they have for her and the classroom.

One user wrote: "The gaslighting is insane and they know exactly what they are doing. Take your peace and run, it’s not your fault that these kids have zero respect"