Teacher goes viral for ‘Keep Them Kids’ TikTok anthem

The school year has come to an end, and no one is celebrating more than the teachers of TikTok.

TikTok creator Yazzmin Johnson, a teacher from Missouri, celebrated by creating her own song to the tune of iCandy’s “Keep Dat.” Now, “Keep Them Kids” has gone viral.

“The song is basically about every single thing that we have to do all year that’s become, like, almost an ‘ick’ in a sense,” Johnson told Good Morning America. “We deserve to pat ourselves on the back and have fun. Because everyone knows, teaching after the pandemic is totally different than before. So, I love seeing teachers just so happy and celebrating with each other.”

While Johnson’s video now has more than 30,000 views, the song took a while to catch on. But just after confiding to her husband that she felt the song was a “flop,” Johnson saw her video trending on the platform.

“A young lady, she made a video using my version of the song, and then someone else made a video, and then someone else made a video, and before long, their videos had thousands of views,” she said.

Her original video has now inspired more than 2,000 tribute videos featuring individual teachers and even an entire school staff performing the song together.

“Whether you’re a social worker or I think there were some officers that did it or principals, administrative assistants, it’s just interesting seeing everyone’s point of view,” Johnson said. “And the parents, oh my goodness, there’s so many parents that have done it. And their perspective is, you’re realizing, ‘Oh, man, my kids are going to be home every day, all day.’ And I just think that’s hilarious.”