Teacher Publicly Apologizes To Student After Making Her Answer Her Phone On Speaker After The Ringing Disturbed The Class
The teacher's immediate regret was obvious.
ESB Professional / Shutterstock A classroom rule enforced by a teacher has sparked ethical concerns following an incident where one student's privacy was breached in front of their peers. While the situation turned out to be a prank orchestrated by the students, it underscores the problematic nature of the rule and why it warrants reconsideration.
The teacher forced a student to answer a phone call on speaker after the ringing disrupted class.
A TikTok video that has been viewed over 26 million times captured the aftermath of a middle school teacher instructing one of his female students to answer her cell phone after the ringtone interrupted his teaching. The teacher required the student to put her phone on speaker so that the entire class could listen in.
“Hello, is this Ms. Nefay?” the caller asked. When the girl confirmed her identity, the caller informed her that his name was Kevin and he was calling from “The Pregnancy Resource Center.”
“Per your request, I am calling to inform you that the test results have come back positive, Congratulations!”
The teacher was visibly taken aback, but before he could encourage his student to hang up the phone, “Kevin” kept talking.
“There is no need to worry. I know you told us the father is no longer in the picture, but we will be in contact with you throughout this whole process, so don’t worry about anything," the phone call continued. "We provide counseling and other maternity services at no charge.”
The girl told Kevin that she would call back later and hung up the phone. Her teacher immediately apologized for forcing her to answer such a personal call in front of her classmates.
“I want to publicly apologize. I’m very sorry,” the teacher said.
“That’s okay. I’ve been expecting this,” the student assured him. She also told him that she had already decided on a name for the baby.
“The first name will be April, and the middle name Fools,” she said, thankfully revealing that the entire phone call was a staged prank.
While most commenters found the prank funny, it raised the question of how ethical it is to make students answer their phones in class as punishment.
While teachers can certainly enforce a rule against actively using phones in their classrooms, should students really face consequences if their phones happen to go off? The answer should be a hard no.
"I truly hope the rule changes after this," one user commented. "As a parent, I would be fuming if my child had to put their phone on speaker."
Even adults forget to turn off their ringers from time to time, and they are generally never punished for it. Mistakes happen, and if adults are given grace for it, then the same treatment should be offered to teenagers.
Middle school and high school are already difficult enough. They do not need to be made even more difficult by having their personal lives put on blast.
Adolescents are especially vulnerable to public embarrassment, especially in front of their peers, more so than adults.
According to Psychology Today, the emotional impact of embarrassment on teenagers can be intense.
Photo: CREATISTA / Shutterstock
While adults have more real-world experience and are aware that one embarrassing incident does not mark the end of their existence, teenagers, on the other hand, have more growing up to do. They may fear that they won't live down an incident where they were publicly teased or embarrassed.
Aside from being unnecessarily embarrassed, no one deserves to have their privacy violated for making the honest mistake of leaving their ringer on. As the prank demonstrated, some students could be dealing with very personal, life-altering issues behind closed doors that they do not want to share with the rest of the world (or the classroom).
While teachers have the right to ask students not to use their phones during class time, students also deserve the right to protect their privacy.
Megan Quinn is a writer at YourTango who covers entertainment and news, self, love, and relationships.