They say that the influence of a good teacher can never be erased, but what happens if the pupil that you’re teaching doesn’t want to be taught in the first place? That’s seemingly the issue one Miami influencer faced when they stepped into the classroom for the first time as a substitute teacher. Outlining his first day on the job, Joshua Cureton aka juztjosh, who boasts over 3.8m followers on TikTok and 348k followers on Instagram, went into detail about his teaching experience in an Elementary school, and it didn’t quite go as smoothly as expected.
The 3-minute video clip takes place in a school classroom, and sees Cureton giving a personal monologue about his first day. “Y’all, look, it’s my first day of being a substitute teacher. When I tell y’all, these kids the truth? These kids crazy. I’m in Elementary school right now. It’s my first day.”
After “about 20 minutes, 30 minutes into class,” the Miami influencer hears big bangs on the classroom door. “BOOM, BOOM, BOOM! Like somebody kicking the door. I said ‘What?’ They said, ‘Oh, no.’ Everybody starts running to the corner of the classroom, hiding. At this point, I said ‘Whats going on?’ Do I need to call the office. Won’t somebody tell me what’s going on?“
Cureton then approaches the students who are hiding and asks them, “What are we all over here hiding for?” One of the kids explains to the substitute teacher with trepidation in his voice, “It’s Sean.” Puzzled by the response, Cureton wonders, “Who is Sean? Let me know if I need to call somebody?” Nervously holding up a blue folder, the influencer continues, “I got my little binder. I got my little safety protocols. I’m over here flipping through the protocols. What’s the protocol for Sean? What we do about Sean?”
In an ominous turn, one of the kids warns the teacher, “Don’t open the door whatever you do.” To this, Cureton responds incredulously, “What? Don’t open the door? I had to pick up the phone for the office and say ‘Code Red, Code Red’! They say Sean is at the door.” With a more serious tone, the influencer explains the situation with Sean, which many teachers who are reading this will instantly relate to. “Sean is just a regular kid in the class. He’s kinda got some anger issues so all the kids [are] scared of him.” Nevertheless, the substitute teacher then concludes, “I’m in Elementary school. How bad can a kid be?” Oh, the innocence of a new teacher, eh?
Indeed, Cureton’s story continues to escalate in drama, as Sean enters the classroom, demanding who the substitute teacher is supposed to be. A friendly pupil called Matthew tries to help and explains that Cureton is their new substitute teacher, and that Sean should “stop being mean to him.” In a shocking twist, Sean turns to the helpful student with a cutting remark, saying, “Matthew, when your mamma gonna get a job?” Cureton is absolutely dumbfounded by this rude response, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
The next incident between the troubled student and the influencer saw him attempting to give Sean a piece of work that was left by the teacher. To this, Sean asks, “What if I don’t?” which again utterly astonishes the fresh-faced educator. To be fair, Cureton’s response is on point as he explains the situation, “Sean, I’m the sub. I don’t know, do you know what I mean? That’s up for you and your teacher to decide. I’m just telling you what your teacher got planned for you.” With a shrug, Sean fires back, “I don’t feel like doing it.”
After 10 minutes, Sean still hasn’t done any work so Cureton approaches him. “Sean, I’m gonna have to tell your teacher.” The pupil then exclaims, “You better not.” The drama continues to intensify when Sean abruptly decides to leave the classroom. Reasoning with the challenging student, the sub then warns him that he’s “gonna have to call the office.” Shockingly, the kid turns to the teacher with a concealed threat, “Call the office, see what happens.”
Ending the video on a more serious note, Cureton concludes, “Long story short, I don’t know where Sean is. I don’t know. I didn’t call the office because I didn’t know what he meant by that. So, hopefully he’s safe. Hopefully, he’ll come back by the end of the day and get some work done. As of right now, Sean is on the run. Sean is on the loose.”
In a follow-up video, however, Cureton does address Sean’s whereabout and explains that shortly after Sean went AWOL, he received a phone call from the office telling him that Sean “is in the hallways running rampant” and that “all the teachers have been calling the office all day.” Getting candid about the incident, Cureton opened up, saying, “I’m a sub. This is beyond my pay grade. Realistically, the teachers don’t get paid enough to deal with this.”
With the clips making the rounds online, the internet was quick to jump into the comments section and air their views on the matter. The majority of the reactions that came in were sympathetic to Cureton and teachers as a whole. One TikToker wrote, “As a veteran teacher, welcome to my world๐๐ Sean is why we take Mental Heath Days๐”
Another commenter, who blamed the teacher for not leaving any message for the sub, chimed in writing, “nah that teacher messy for not leaving u a note ab sean ๐ญ”
A third remark, meanwhile, simply added, “Them kids literally told you not to open that door ๐ญ๐ญ๐ญ๐ญ”
On a final note, and as a former educator myself, I can totally relate to Cureton’s story here. Not only are teachers’ workloads often untenable at times, but the amount of disrespect that they have to deal with on a day-to day-basis is incredibly noble. I’m pretty sure that any teacher hearing this story will be getting flashbacks to experiences they’ve had with troublesome pupils in the past. I know I did.
