What to Know
A school administrator is going viral on TikTok after she made a video telling parents to chill when using airtags on kids. Parents have a lot of reasons for wanting to track their children’s location throughout the day. Maybe they take the school bus, or maybe they get to and from school on their own or with friends. We have all heard stories about children who end up in tragic situations at school, and for many parents, tracking them puts minds at ease. So, should educators really be telling parents to stop?
The teacher knew that she was taking a controversial stance.
@kylanhe Replying to @rainingtrees system🌲🌲🌲 ♬ original sound – Kylan Heiner | Space to Thrive
In the clip, which has been deleted but lives on in other people’s response videos, the teacher asks parents to “please stop tracking your children with airtags.” She then acknowledged that she “might get a lot of hate” for what she was saying, but that didn’t stop her from continuing on with her reasoning.
“If you are a parent of especially an elementary child, and you are dropping them off at school, and you have an airtag on them or their backpack…please don’t,” she said.
She then went on to call parents who use airtags on kids “excessive” before saying that the school doesn’t want to lose your child and if they did, parents would be alerted. The teacher doesn’t go into detail about why she feels that way, but her tone made it clear that she likely finds parents to be too clingy.
People immediately called her out.
@shayyymarsh Don’t tell me how to be a parent and I won’t tell you how to be a teacher.
♬ original sound – Shay 🦥
Of course, the video quickly made its way around TikTok, and a lot of people had strong feelings about the suggestion.
Kylan Heiner, a dad with a TikTok account devoted to helping parents of kids with autism, shared the video, suggesting that parents get their kids an AngelSense or a smartwatch, both of which have more capabilities for tracking and communicating than an Airtag does.
“You think I’m not going to be excessive?” mom Shay asked in her own response video. “I carried those babies in my stomach for eight months — I wanted to die, okay? And then whenever I push them out, we spend almost a month in the NICU,” she explained. “I didn’t go through all of that for nothing, so I don’t care how excessive anyone thinks it is, I’m still going to keep the airtag on their book bag because it doesn’t hurt anyone.”
Parents told horror stories across the app.
@graeson.mcgaha.comedy Dear school system… let’s not confuse education with authority. Parents aren’t optional. #ParentLife #BlueCollarParenting #FeralDad #RealTalk #ParentingTruth ♬ original sound – Graeson Mcgaha Comedy
There are dozens of videos that reference the original video making their way around TikTok. It’s almost a guarantee that in the comment section, there will be a story shared by a parent that makes it clear why they use airtags on kids.
“My child as a kindergartner got off the bus at the wrong stop and went with another child to their home – a child I didn’t know and a location I didn’t know – without my knowledge,” one parent commented on Shay’s video.
“My daughters school released my 11 yr old to a complete stranger it took me an hr to find her on my own. Thankfully she had a phone I could track my friend was able to get to her quicker school had no idea where she was. I snapped,” another parent commented on a different video.
“I’m not worried that I will lose my children. I’m worried that the SCHOOL will lose my kid because frankly its happened before,” another parent wrote.
“In kindergarten, my 2nd got mixed in with the wrong line during dismissal and instead of coming to the car rider line she walked off campus with another kindergartner…both 5 yr old kids walking alone through a neighborhood. The school didn’t know she was lost until I was the only car in the line and she wasn’t there,” someone else shared.
What is an AngelSense?
@kylanhe @Dear_ParentsPlease ♬ original sound – Kylan Heiner | Space to Thrive
In Heiner’s video, he mentions using an AngelSense to track your child, and several parents echoed that sentiment in their comments. But what is it?
According to their website, AngelSense is a tracking device that is specifically made for people who are neurodivergent, including those with autism or other special needs that make communicating difficult.
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