Pennsylvania school teachers impersonated on TikTok in 1st known group attack

Teachers at Great Valley Middle School in Malvern were targeted by students in a group TikTok attack, The New York Times reported.

The videos, which were posted by seventh and eighth graders, affected 20 educators — about one-quarter of Great Valley’s faculty, according to the Times. The school district is just outside Philadelphia.

“They were victims of fake teacher accounts rife with pedophilia innuendo, racist memes, homophobia and made-up sexual hookups among teachers,” the report said. “Hundreds of students soon viewed, followed or commented on the fraudulent accounts.”

Some of the posts used the teachers’ own photos, according to NPR, which were gathered from the school’s website and personal social media accounts.

Daniel Goffredo, superintendent at Great Valley, said in a statement that it “saddens us to know that the students to whom these teachers dedicate their time and talents every day would misuse technology in a way that causes teachers undeserved stress and emotional hardship,” NPR said.

TikTok was made aware of multiple fake accounts — some of which are no longer available — and the company removed other accounts for violating its policies, which prohibit a user from impersonating others without disclosing that it is a parody or fan account, according to NPR.

Great Valley briefly suspended several students following the incident, and Goffredo chastised the behavior of the eighth grade class one day during lunch, the Times said.

Two students at the school publicly posted an “apology” video last month on a TikTok account using the name of a seventh grade teacher as a handle, according to the Times, and said teachers had blown the situation out of proportion.

“We never meant for it to get this far, obviously,” one of the students said in the video, according to the Times. “I never wanted to get suspended.”

Patrice Motz, a Spanish teacher at Great Valley, was one of the teachers affected.

“It was so deflating,” Motz told the Times. “I can’t believe I still get up and do this every day.”

She said she felt “kicked in the stomach” that students would so casually savage teachers’ families, and teachers said it has been challenging to keep doing their jobs.

“The Great Valley incident is the first known group TikTok attack of its kind by middle schoolers on their teachers in the United States,” according to the Times report. “It’s a significant escalation in how middle and high school students impersonate, troll and harass educators on social media.”