New Teacher Challenge: Parents mock people with disabilities

Lizzie Velasquez became a victim to an ongoing TikTok trend called the ‘New Teacher Challenge’, when she came across a hateful video featuring her.

Velasquez became viral on TikTok after the motivational speaker became a victim of the trend that harnessed over 2 million views. She went on TikTok earlier this month after she found users on the app were sharing photos of her as part of the challenge.

The challenge has parents or adults pretend to FaceTime a child new ‘Teacher’ while the pictures used are generally mugshots or someone making a silly face. However, the trend went too far when people with disabilities or physical deformities became a target of the trend.

The child’s reaction is usually one of shock or fear. And when the parent laughs, the child learns it’s OK to laugh at others, too, Velasquez explained.

“If you are an adult who has a young human in your life, please do not teach them that being scared of someone who doesn’t look like them is OK, please. This is a trend that needs to stop. Because we are humans. We have feelings.” added Lizzie.

It happened again…#newteacherchallenge @tiktok_us pic.twitter.com/eWEP7UoPGJ

— Lizzie Velasquez (@littlelizziev) August 28, 2020

Some of the users who have posted such images and videos have refused to take them down. Velasquez however is more concerned about people who don’t have the same social media influence she has as they might not be able to effectively get their message across.