Social media has led to consequences for many teachers, including one who allegedly owned a “crunk” Twitter account, one who was outed as a Nazi, and another who was accused of masturbating during a Google Meet call.
Now, a teacher on TikTok said that he’s been put under investigation for joking that he “crop dusts” students when they annoy him.
Crop dusting is a slang term used to describe intentionally passing gas as you walk in front of a group of people.
In the video, Stephen Taylor (@formerlyfatstephen) explains that he’s been put on administrative leave at the school he works at.
“Today was my first meeting with HR since they’ve started the investigation into my social media actions,” he says.
@formerlyfatstephen so about last week… #goodteacher #badstudent #teachersoftiktok ♬ original sound – Stephen Taylor
The firm measures were taken after the school board saw his TikTok videos where he jokes about “crop dusting” students who annoy him. In another video, he shares how he knows when students speak in code about drugs to him.
The Daily Dot reached out to Taylor via TikTok comment.
@formerlyfatstephen call me enigma the way im cracking codes #goodteacher #badstudent #teachersoftiktok ♬ original sound – Stephen Taylor
Although his TikTok bio says “comedian,” Taylor’s claims in the video were no laughing matter to the school.
“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 at this district,’ and I had to say, ‘none,’” Taylor explains.
Taylor found the situation absurd.
“Do you think you would have learned about this from a video and not a student being like, ‘Yo, Mr. Taylor keeps farting on us’?” he says.
Regardless, Taylor says the controversy has taught him a lot about social media and being careful about what he posts.
“I learned that I should be a little bit more careful about where I post from and I also learned that it should be illegal to print out a transcript from TikTok,” he claims.
Taylor’s video had been viewed more than 559,300 times by Thursday afternoon. Commenters were surprised that something as insignificant as joking about farting could jeopardize a teacher’s job.
“Could someone really get in trouble for farting anyway?” a user asked.
“I would think that crop dusting was protected action in your union contract,” a second joked.
A third imagined how the conversation before the disciplinary meeting played out. “Imagine the HR pre-meeting. ‘You want me to ask him about WHAT?’” they quipped.
Many felt bad that Taylor’s jokes were taken seriously enough to impact his job.
“That’s sad because you are funny and obviously it’s all a joke,” one commenter wrote.
“Really sad to hear this is the fight the admin is picking when there’s a huge teacher shortage and you’re obviously a great teacher,” another shared.
One user suggested how Taylor could have handled being penalized.
“You should have crop dusted the meeting with HR and just rolled out,” they wrote.
Others joked that teachers should be allotted a certain number of crop dusting per year.
“I feel like (as a mom of kids in school) that you should be allowed a certain number of crop dustings,” a woman commented. “It only seems fair, really. They stank.”
“Dude my Mom just retired after 34 years teaching elementary school & she always joked about crop dusting them,” another user shared.
With more teachers using TikTok as an outlet for job stress, a user shared that educators have to be extremely careful about what they post.
“You have to be extremely careful as teacher,” they shared. “Some parents that are Karens do not play. Sorry about your job man.”
This isn’t the first time a teacher has been in hot water for their actions on TikTok.
In the past, a teacher was put on leave for posting thirst traps on TikTok. Another was fired for doing a viral TikTok dance with her students.
Since Taylor’s video went viral, he has since posted another one. In it, he shares that he did, in fact, laugh when the school board confronted him about crop dusting students.
@formerlyfatstephen Replying to @Brittany Tilander how to lose a job in 10 days #goodteacher #badstudent #teachersoftiktok ♬ original sound – Stephen Taylor
“It was one of the most surreal experiences I’ve ever had,” he shares. “I didn’t keep a straight face. I laughed at him a few times, which might have hurt me more than it helped me.”
