Meghan Trainor is walking back her disparaging comment about teachers.
The Grammy winner infuriated fans last week by encouraging influencer Trisha Paytas, the guest on Thursday’s episode of “Workin’ On It with Meghan Trainor & Ryan Trainor,” to continue homeschooling her daughter with a simple remark: “F**k teachers.”
Trainor’s comment on the podcast spurred backlash on TikTok and other social media platforms. In a short video posted Monday, Trainor addressed her apologies to the “teachers of TikTok and teachers of the world.”
“I recently said ‘F teachers’ on the podcast and it’s not how I feel,” Trainor said. “I was fired up because we were talking about how sending your kid to school here in America is so horrific and what all of us have to go through, especially teachers, is not normal and is not OK.”
The mother of one said she was bullied by teachers in her youth, which inspired her vitriol in the first place.
While Trainor claimed to “love teachers” and “fight for teachers,” many beleaguered educators had no time for the apology.
“Something that I told my students when I was teaching is that if you’re making an apology, and that apology contains excuses surrounding why you did the original action, it devalues the apology itself,” a TikTok user said in one viral video. “It makes it less sincere.”
Teachers in the U.S. have committed themselves to educating the next generation only to endure low pay, potential school shootings and pandemic-related health concerns.
“I think we’ve all heard what Meghan Trainor said about teachers and, as a teacher who puts so much effort into my job, to be disrespected like that is just so frustrating,” another TikToker said. “I work so hard to make school a safe…experience.”