A British teacher who lost touch with her Bronx kindergarten class after moving back to the UK has found them again on TikTok – and they still call her Ms Weston.
Julie Weston taught at Public School 44 in the Bronx during the 1989-1990 school year. Her class, K-3, was a room full of five- and six-year-olds. When she moved back to England, she lost contact with the children and their families. That was more than 35 years ago.
Recently, Weston posted the old class photo on TikTok. It’s the kind of picture anyone who went to school in the late ’80s would recognise instantly – three neat rows of kids on wooden chairs, American flags in the background, a chalkboard sign at the front reading “Public School 44 / 1989 – 1990 / Class – K-3”. Weston is at the back left in a brown sweater, the only adult in the frame.
Over a series of slides, she explained that her former pupils would now be in their 40s, that she’d never stopped thinking about them, and that she’d love to know how life had treated them. “TikTok, I need your help…” she wrote.
TikTok came through.
The post racked up 3,825 comments, and buried among the well-wishers and shares were the actual kids from that photograph – now adults in their early 40s – pointing themselves out row by row.
“Hi Ms. Weston,” wrote one user. “I remember this day. I’m one of the kids in this picture. I’m in the bottom row 3rd person from the right. My sister came across the post and sent it to me. I hope you have been well.”
Other classmates soon follower: “I definitely remember you. You wanted to take me to London for the summer. Heyyy Ms Weston.” More than 22,000 people liked that one.
Another wrote that she was the girl in the white gown in the front row, and said she missed her teacher.
Even people who weren’t in the photo showed up. Micael S.C. said his brother was the child in front of the American flag – and that his brother says hi. Beazer, who also went to CS44, said they could spot most of their childhood friends in the picture and that some of them are still close to this day.
The whole thread is worth a scroll, but the thing people in the comments kept coming back to was every single one of Weston’s former pupils, now well into adulthood, addressed her the same way. Not Julie, but Ms Weston. As if they were still five years old and she was still standing at the front of the classroom.
“The students still calling her Ms Weston even though they know her name is Julie speaks respect to me!” wrote one TikTok user. “You go Mrs Weston! what a class.”
Weston signed off her original post with a message as warm and straightforward as the woman in the brown sweater looks in that old photo: “I would love to hear from you and hope you are doing well. Mrs Weston.” It seems they definitely are all doing well, thanks in no small part to Ms. Weston’s teaching.
