Principal's Son Accidentally Posts Video of Him on TikTok — and the Draft He Never Planned to Share Goes Viral (Exclusive)

Spending time as a coach, a teacher and an administrator, Tony Wishard forged deep bonds with the students he encountered

• Tony Wishard reluctantly followed his parents' path of becoming an educator and quickly found the upside to his career

• During a tough time, Wishard created a video of special moments he shared with students past and present

• The reminder of the importance and reward of the job went viral after his 4-year-old accidentally posted the TikTok draft

A teacher-turned-administrator and coach who goes above and beyond for his students is grateful for a blunder that led the world to knowing how he feels about his job.

Tony Wishard tells PEOPLE that he was a "career switcher" from a "family of educators" who never dreamed he'd follow the same path.

"My mom taught special education for 42 years. My father, whose footsteps I've unintentionally followed, was a P.E. teacher and football coach. Then he became the assistant principal at the elementary school I actually attended as a student, and then moved on through administration and into the central office," Wishard says.

"Dinnertime conversations were always about the education of our students growing up. I wanted no part of that for myself when I got older."

As a college student, he played sports and eventually returned back to his hometown. Unhappy with his career, he "switched into teaching health and P.E."

Wishard spent seven years teaching in classrooms, splitting his day between teaching health to elementary school students and both teaching and coaching at the high school.

"I taught or I coached baseball for seven years, which was neat because we're a small school division. Every kid goes through the same schools — K-2, 3-5 and then traditional middle school and high school. So toward the end of my career coaching, I actually got to coach kids that I taught in the beginning, which is really neat."

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Throughout that career, Wishard came to realize how much kids need outside of the classroom setting.

"There was one time where there were two students. It was roughly January or February and two students came in the gym arguing. Long story short, one student was making fun of the other one and I got to the bottom of it."

Wishard wanted to take an approach that both disciplined the students and addressed the root of the problem.

"I said, 'First off, you're being mean. You sit over there.' I asked the other kid, 'What did he say to you?' He said, 'Well, he's making fun of me because my Christmas tree is still up.' "

When Wishard took note of how long it had been since Christmas had passed, he thought, "We're dealing with needs that are not academic."

"I went home and it really bothered me. I didn't know what to do. I went to Target and bought the kid granola bars, race cars, bubble gum, just stuff I could afford as a teacher. I called him out of class and asked them to send him down to me," he recalls.

"I put him on the stage and he was so happy when he saw everything. He asked, 'Can I keep this stuff?' There was no way I ever thought I'd shed a tear in this profession, but that got me. I hadn't known other teachers found out what I was doing and were lined up behind the stage watching."

"It was a great reminder to me to not just discipline students in the moment, but to get to the bottom of the story. Behind every behavior, there's a story. Kids don't come to school wanting to be bad. They come here to tell us something and I'm so glad I took the time," he says.

"I thought, man, I always have to take the time to get to the bottom of things with both students before I discipline them. So now as an administrator, I do the same thing. Have a seat. Let's get a snack. Let's unwind. Take your shoes off. If you need to wash your face, go for it, but I need to know the why of why we're acting like this so I can fix it."

During a tough run when Wishard felt defeated, he began looking back at moments like this in his career. He put together a TikTok draft that he would revisit occasionally.

"In all honesty, I had no intention of posting this video. I was just using that pattern on TikTok to put together a video. I would watch it for almost two months straight in my drafts and it was a good reminder at night," he says.

"We just closed out a school year here in Virginia and we're trying to open up a new one. It is kind of tough to transition to another school year and build new relationships with students, teachers and the community. The winds also look different as a P.E. teacher than they do now, as an administrator. Kids don't love coming to my office. I mean, they do, but it's different. So I made the video as a reminder of why I need to keep coming in."

Some of the photos in the slideshow are now 10 years old, he notes. "There's a mix from almost 10 years ago, some kids I coached about five years ago, and some students from this current school year. I needed to remember that I do have something good here and to keep that momentum going."

The video ended up on TikTok when the "overwhelmed" educator, who is also a dad, was getting ready for a Father's Day outing with family.

"My son was sitting on the bed and I gave him my phone. He likes to watch the TikToks that him and I made together. So I gave him the phone to keep him busy while I packed the car to go to our neighborhood pool. I grabbed his drink and his snack went everywhere. I said, 'Okay, let's just get in the car.' During all that, I didn't know he hit submit draft, which is a really red button that apparently is super intriguing to 4-year-olds," he says with a laugh.

The two continued with their plans from the day when Wishard's girlfriend showed him the video on her own FYP.

"I was like, 'How are you able to see that?' I was a little embarrassed. She said, 'You posted it five hours ago. I said, 'No, I didn't. We were at the pool.' When I came back to the house, I saw the mess and realized that must have been when he submitted that thing."

Wishard admits his parents and girlfriend teased him about not meaning to post the video.

"Next thing, my family was saying, 'This thing has taken off.' The views kept growing even though I didn't hashtag it or do anything. It was totally unintentional. I don't know if I would have actually posted it, but the way it took off and the support I've gotten from the community. I already felt that support, but now it's just showing where some of the resources I've asked for before went to and what we do behind the scenes."

"We invest in students. We give them those snacks. We tie those shoes. We watch the baseball games. We show up when parents get married. Those are all small investments. It's neat that now people see what those kinds of investments can do. I don't think some parents know what we do with their own children, and I mean that in a good way. One young man washes his face, every day, in my office. I don't think anything of it. I just have washcloths. I have spare clothes in my room for kids if they need to change."

Wishard adds, "A new teacher that we hired saw the video on social media and we'd never met since I was out when she was hired. She goes, 'Oh my gosh, I just got hired at this school. This is my new assistant principal. I can't wait to see him.' I wrote back, 'I'm glad you're a part of our family. Let's rock this school year.' "

"I tried to respond to as many comments as I could, but it's been neat to see. You don't have to be in education to appreciate this. The coolest was my former students saying, 'Hey, we love you Mr. Wishard," he says. "That's not a term I grew up saying a lot. We felt love but we didn't say it. Now, I say it to all my students and to hear them say it back, it's just great."

Says Wishard, "I think the reason I made the video, my conclusion about it, is that I needed a reason to keep going."

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