MALVERN, Pa. — Neil Young, the Pennsylvania middle school teacher turned Republican congressional candidate, has been at the forefront of a social media scandal that has engulfed a Chester County middle school and made national headlines this month.
In the suburb of Malvern, Pennsylvania, about an hour outside Philadelphia at the end of the city’s affluent Main Line, students at Great Valley Middle School used TikTok to launch an online harassment campaign against their teacher.
The New York Times beginning report On July 6, it was revealed that a quarter of the school’s faculty had been victims of this abuse, and that “fake faculty accounts filled with pedophilic innuendo, racist memes, homophobia and fictitious sexual relationships between faculty” had been spreading the fraudulent content on TikTok pages followed by hundreds of students.
Young, a veteran social studies teacher who is currently on leave while running for Congress, is one of the victims.
“I’m a guy who was in bed with another teacher,” Young told The Washington Post, explaining that students had circulated fake photos of him on TikTok. “What they did to me is unacceptable.”
Young, who is challenging incumbent Democratic Rep. Chrissy Houlahan in Pennsylvania’s 6th Congressional District, which includes parts of Chester and Berks counties, wants to shine a spotlight on colleagues who have spoken out about their experiences.
“What has been said about other teachers is an incredible lack of empathy for kids,” Young said, referring to stories of fellow teachers being defamed with paedophile insinuations and portrayed in “cheap fake” images in sexual situations.
Houlahan, who briefly taught high school chemistry early in his career, spoke about the scandal. In the House of Representatives Last Thursday, he said the students’ behavior was “inappropriate” regardless of the circumstances.
“This is not a prank, it is a blatant abuse of social media and a violation of basic human decency,” Houlahan said. “It is inappropriate regardless of the age of the child or whether the school is public, charter or private.”
Houlahan did not acknowledge that his Republican opponent was one of the teachers who was victimized by fraudulent TikTok posts, but Young was quick to seize on this.
“She doesn’t acknowledge that her opponent was one of the victims,” Young said.
“Instead, she starts by writing, ‘As a former chemistry teacher,'” Young added. “She left after a year and did not complete her entire Teach for America contract.”
Young’s complaints are directed not only at the Houlahan scandal but also at the Great Valley School District.
“Despite the opportunity to bring in parents and supportive teachers, they chose to hide,” he said. “They refused to communicate with the entire school district, which is what they tried to do. [in] It’s just an isolated group.”
And Young isn’t alone in feeling this way, just ask the more than 200 people who attended the Great Valley School District’s Board of Education meeting Monday night and demanded an explanation.
Nikki Salvatico, president of the teachers union, was also in attendance and made clear her position that the students’ actions were speech protected by the First Amendment and should not be ignored.
Young said the district may have acted on advice from lawyers that taking tough action against student perpetrators for social media posts could lead to lawsuits over conduct outside the classroom, but he still feels the district missed the mark.
“This was an opportunity to set a strong precedent that we will not tolerate this kind of behavior, that it does not fall under the umbrella of free speech, and they missed it,” he said.
Courts have traditionally upheld students’ protected speech rights after school, such as in the Supreme Court’s 2021 decision in “Cheerleader Swearing,” another case involving a Pennsylvania teen and social media. In that case, however, the student in question was posting for his own benefit and not attempting to impersonate anyone else.
Young believes a small number of students were briefly suspended because teachers were stubbornly resisting both the school district and the union, both of which wanted to avoid escalating the situation.
This may be too late, according to Young, who said the lack of communication has caused the district to strain relationships with faculty, staff and families.
“The community feels like they’ve been in the dark. Parents feel like they’ve been in the dark,” Young said. “Teachers feel like they’re not supported.”
Young said that any measures to prevent similar abuse in the future need to involve teachers and parents. He expressed concern about government-mandated social media restrictions for children, such as those called for by Pennsylvania Republican Senate candidate Dave McCormick to ban all social media users under the age of 16, which he argued would be difficult to enforce.
But what this teacher values most is getting educators involved in the process, rather than leaving it to politicians.
“If we’re going to have legislation, we need to make sure teachers have input,” Young said.
