A teacher in Warrensburg, Illinois, saw that one of her students had left his phone on her desk. Not knowing whose it was at first, she decided to inspect it, only to find old photos of herself on the device’s home screen. Thankfully, the reason behind the photos was not a creepy one, but funny.
The teacher is Tricia Campbell, who took to TikTok to share her bizarre story. After finding the phone on her desk, she picked it up and inspected it, hoping to find out who its owner was. The phone had some pictures on the back, but she was unable to identify who was in them. Apparently, whoever owned the phone wasn’t in Tricia’s class.
So, she decided to look at the phone’s home screen. That’s when the shock hit, as she realized the student had multiple photos of her.
“Some student has downloaded pictures of me and then put them on the phone to freak me out,” the Illinois teacher said. “And mission accomplished because I’m freaked out.”
Her 48-second clip ended right there, but the internet, just like her, freaked out. Her TikTok was viewed by more than 2 million people, and nearly 300,000 users liked it.
“That’s either really funny or really concerning,” one user said. Another one commented, “Kids are weird…my daughter is obsessed with her teachers…I don’t get it.” A third one suggested, “Use Siri to set a bunch of alarms between 3 and 4 am.”
The Truth Unfolds
And while some theorized many creepy outcomes, the truth was that it was all a ruse. The student who owned the phone had left it on purpose. The reason? The student’s father was one of Tricia’s students back in the day.
In a follow-up clip, Tricia introduced the culprit, a boy named Keani. The boy showed the many photos on his home screen, saying they were “Miss Campbell back in the day.” He revealed he had gotten the pictures from his father’s 2004 yearbook.
“I taught his dad because I started teaching in 1998. I’m almost 50,” Tricia said. She had actually taught both his parents, and Keani’s mother works at the same high school as her.
After freaking his teacher out, the Illinois boy invited Tricia’s followers to vote for her as America’s Favorite Teacher. Currently, she is first in her group, and if she wins, she’ll be rewarded with $25,000 and a trip to Hawaii, and Bill Nye will visit her school district.
