Anyone with a phone can download a dating app like Tinder. That means, you have users of all ages mixed together and looking for love. And it's very easy and common to lie about your age, appearance, and basically who you truly are. This can be dangerous for teachers who have relationship seeking students in their area.
Redditor u/Dracula_in_Auschwitz asked for stories from teachers who matched with one of their students on Tinder and teachers shared all of the awkward stories.
10. A date is not worth a job
"I unmatched with them as soon as I realized who it was . We still had a month left in the semester , and she never brought it up . I teach in higher ed ., so it's 'legal', but definitely not worth the headaches and professional fallout it could potentially cause."
9. No drama please
Giphy"I matched with one of my online professors last semester. He has a unique name and once I realized who he was I unmatched. Even if it's legal... and at our ages, it would be. It's still a small town and I didn't want to bring the drama on us."
8. That intern has nerve
"I once drunk splurged on Tinder Gold (or whatever it's called) and noticed my CURRENT intern had swiped right on me.
Yeah, I had to ignore that one for a while. All the while keeping that secret for the rest of semester."
7. Anything could go back in the day
We had a HS teacher, an older, way older male who taught math, have an affair with a female student. She was a senior that turned 18 at the end of the school year but they had been together over a year. He and his wife divorced, and he married the 18 year old. He was allowed to keep teaching and when she graduated college she was hired as a teacher in the same school in his department. Of course this was in the late 1970's and I graduated in 1982, but I had them both as teachers."
6. The match turned into a lesson
"Not me, but one of the teachers at the high school I work at matched with one of his students on Grindr. The kid was 16. Teacher came and told us (the school counselors), and we had to sit the kid down and have a conversation about the dangers of lying about his age to have random hookups with older men. He said he had been doing it a while and appreciated that we were concerned about him. He said he did not plan on stopping, but he was obviously not trying to hook up with anyone from the school."
5. This might work out
"I went on a date a couple weeks ago with a former student. I was an adjunct prof and she was in my class. I thought she was cute and I had a suspicion she was queer too but obviously wasn't going to do anything while I was teaching. When she came Up on tinder (I'm no longer teaching university) I swiped right and we matched.
She is only a couple years younger than me though and the class was a couple years ago. We're hopefully going out again soon and we'll see what happens?"
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Every teacher has that one student, or two, that leaves an everlasting impact. While a good impression is one thing, there are some lasting impressions that...4. That could end very badly
"Not in Tinder, but I downloaded Grindr and setup an account. When I first activated it, I didn't have any age restrictions set up. All of a sudden, I see one of my students.
I teach middle school. He was in 8th grade.
I called the principal and counselor and made them deal with it. I'm all for keeping kids safe but he was lying about his age (probably could pass for an 18 year old twink) and some moron would have (or probably had) slept with him. Don't want to come out to your parents? TOO BAD. Don't advertise your 14 year old body on a dating app."
3. They matched at the right time
"I teach University. A year or so after the end of the class she took under me she pops up and laughed. I thought there'd be no way she yes'd me so I swiped right for giggles. Instant match. I couldn't believe it. Turns out she wanted to hook up the whole time but didn't want to open that can of worms. So we went on a date."
2. Maybe someday it can work out
Giphy"As a grad student, I work as a TA at my university and because I teach for upper-level courses my students are pretty close in age (2-4 years typically). I usually try to just swipe left by default on all current and past students, but one made it through. She was an old student of mine, probably by about one year. I got the notification, thought about it for a bit, and unmatched.
I felt bad about just unmatching without saying anything, so I messaged her on Instagram and just said that I couldn't because she was my old student and we ended up talking for a bit... I looked it up in the university policy, and there was nothing I could find to stop us. So if she does ever ask me out I will instantly say yes, but I highly doubt it will ever happen."
1. This might be a teacher's worst nightmare
"In my district, one of the teachers revealed to his students that he was on tinder. The students made up a profile, cat-fished him, and made him believe he was talking to another adult. Then he sent them pics which they showed to everyone. Technically, the teacher did nothing wrong because he thought he was communicating with another adult. He is still teaching but I'm not sure how that works when all of your students have seen your manhood."
Reddit user karmabandido posted a photo of a Tinder exchange that may not have been the most pleasant she'd ever had, but was certainly nicer than ghosting her.
And in case you were wondering why they were eating breakfast together, karmabindo clarified:
"First meeting :) can't go wrong with a Waffle House date. If she's too good for Waffle House, you're too good for her."
Other Reddit commenters agreed with her sentiment. steppenfloyd wished his dates had been this honest with him:
"The last 4 or 5 girls that have given me their number ghosted me almost immediately. I don't get it, why give me your number if you're not even gonna respond to the first text?"
"Exactly. They go from heavy flirting to straight ghosting in a matter of a few seconds."
ChampionOfTheSunAhhh, however, thought ghosting wasn't as bad as people made it out to be:
"It's all a game dude, you have to have zero expectations and not get too invested. Getting ghosted isn't always a knock against you, they might've just found what they wanted a little faster"
"Correct. Zero expectations, take it all with a grain of salt, stop giving a shit, let it happen or not happen."
On the other hand, however, Gualdrapo thought honesty is the best policy:
"Still I think ghosting is rude and childish. You can just tell'em you don't want to talk anymore. After all, we're all people."
And the majority of people, like Waht3rB0y, were also in the anti-ghosting camp:
"Agree 100%. A person invested time and energy in getting to know you and then you just completely ignore them? Not cool."
CourageousGizmo summed up everyone's feelings—no matter where you stand on ghosting, a nice, honest text is still a great thing.
"Lovely to see some real adults."
