High School Teacher Asked To Resign After Writing Students Up For Cheating, Stealing & Sleeping In Class
A teacher was asked to resign for doing his job: teaching.
A high school teacher who was recently asked to resign spoke loudly and proudly on his TikTok account after he believes he was being treated unjustly by the school administration and the children he was teaching.
Jeff Yalden (@jeff_yalden) made a two-part video series and uploaded them to TikTok where he explained the reasons he was asked to resign, as well as his actions that led up to pushback from the administration.
The teacher claims he was asked to resign because he was writing students up.
According to Yalden, the school asked him to resign because he was reprimanding students but he doesn't go into too much detail. “With six weeks left to go in the school year, I was invited to be a World History and U.S. Government teacher and help these kids finish with their final exam,” but as we know, that didn’t end well.
He claims that two days ago, on May 9th now, things had gotten so out of hand that a parent threatened him over email, and eventually boiled over into the administration asking him to resign. “I guess I was writing kids up and I was emailing all the parents,” he explains, proving that he was simply doing his job.
Yalden claims he was treated unfairly in his job, explaining that he doesn’t “regret” the teacher that he was. “We need to stop making the excuses for our children and start holding them accountable for their words, their actions, their behaviors, the choices they make and stop minimizing these things.”
“I will not compromise my character and my integrity and who I am to just give kids free grades to let them sleep in class, to have no discipline to respect…” he explains. “You will not lie to me, you will not cheat, steal, you will not sleep in my class.” He expects kids to be prepared, to stay in class and not walk out whenever they want, all normal things that a teacher would do, but it didn’t matter.
This is where things get a little complicated — its possible Yalden was let go unfairly but it's also possible that kids who are sleeping in class need assistance beyond "writing them up."
Yalden touches on an important subject regarding teacher burnout.
These days, teachers are feeling more and more burnt out about their careers and jobs as teachers, and a lot of it has to do with how the kids treat them.
According to education research non-profit Chalkbeat, teacher resignations at the end of the 2021-2022 school year were at an all-time high in many parts of the country. Morale to continue working has also been at an all-time low, with just 12% of teachers being satisfied with their job, and a staggering 55% considering leaving the field, according to a 2022 study by the Education Weekly Research Center.
One veteran teacher on TikTok explained that it’s because of the kids, but that it’s also not entirely the kids’ fault either. "This is not a money problem. It's not an admin problem. It's not a parent problem," Teresa Kaye Newman said. "It is an emotional dysregulation problem."
Yalden says as much as well. In a separate video, he claims that he specializes in “teen mental health” and “teen suicide crisis intervention” and explains that these days, it’s hard growing up as a teenager.
He also says being a teacher is harder than it’s ever been, and that this resignation has now given him even more motivation to advocate for others.
Isaac Serna-Diez is an Assistant Editor who focuses on entertainment and news, social justice, and politics.