He’s A Teacher Who Got Fired For Posting Funny Videos Online About “Teacher Life,” Which He Created Outside Of Contract Hours
It’s no secret that our social media presence can come back to bite us, and we’re living in a time where what we post online can prevent us from having successful futures and getting or keeping our jobs.
The internet is reeling over one teacher’s story after he got fired for posting funny videos about teaching on his TikTok page.
Despite the United States continuing to deal with a teacher shortage, Stephen Taylor (@formerlyfatstephen) was fired from his teaching job in Kansas after posting some comedic TikTok videos from his classroom outside of contract hours.
Stephen is a comedian and former history teacher at an alternative school in Olathe, Kansas. Over the summer, he had posted a video on TikTok from his classroom “outside of contract hours,” making jokes about teacher life.
One of the jokes he made was about “crop dusting” students who annoyed him. If you didn’t know, crop dusting is a term used to describe when someone passes gas while walking past somebody or a group of people.
“I crop dust them all the time,” says Stephen in his TikTok video.
“I save up big milky lactose intolerant farts, and I drop bombs silently because I’m an adult and I know my body. And then I just let it stew.”
This video was one in a series of videos Stephen had made with teacher jokes, as he has been a comedian longer than a teacher. Stephen has mentioned that one of the reasons why he makes comedy videos on TikTok is to generate some extra income, as he felt he didn’t earn enough money as a teacher.
Although there are a lot of online content creators who are teachers who film videos from their classrooms, Stephen’s school board was very unhappy with the videos when they came across them.
LIGHTFIELD STUDIOS – stock.adobe.com – illustrative purposes only, not the actual person
In late August, Stephen was informed by his school’s human resources department that he would be put on administrative leave with pay while they “investigated” his TikTok videos.
“I had a grown man ask me today, ‘Mister Taylor, how many times do you think you’ve crop dusted a student since you’ve been in this district?’ and I had to say none,” recalled Stephen in one of his videos about the incident.
Stephen tried explaining to his bosses and the school board that the videos were not meant to be taken seriously and that he would never do such a thing to his students. He felt the investigation was especially silly given his excellent track records with his students and no reports of crop dusting in his classroom from any of them.
Eventually, Stephen’s former school board gave him the option to either delete his TikTok videos and resign from his teaching position or get fired. He chose the latter.
At a board of education meeting following the incident, Stephen made a public statement about why he believed his firing was wrongful.
“You are going to vote at the end of this to fire a teacher who has incredible evaluations, great relationships with students, and cares deeply about their success,” he told his school board.
“I am that teacher, and this is all because of TikTok.”
Stephen has had a lot of support since getting fired from his teaching job, as his supporters have donated to a GoFundMe page created to keep him afloat. He also announced a stand-up comedy tour, which had people flocking from different cities to hear him joke about the situation in person.
Good luck with all your new endeavors, Stephen!
@formerlyfatstephen so about last week… #goodteacher #badstudent #teachersoftiktok
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