‘We love you, Ms. Pow’: Video of students giving gift to Wichita teacher goes viral

A video of Wichita students giving their teacher a thoughtful gift received millions of views on social media and has been reshared by ESPN and the Pittsburgh Steelers football team.

To LaShay Powell or Ms. Pow, as her students call her, the best part, even better then the special gift, has been seeing her students’ reaction to the video going viral and what it means — that’s she doing something right.

“I didn’t care what was in the bag, I didn’t have any idea what was in the bag,” said Powell, who has taught history and law at Northeast Magnet High School since 2000. “It was just one of those times where, I’m getting emotional now just thinking about it, like I’m doing something right.

“I’ve given my whole life to this, this is what I do, this is who I am. It didn’t matter what they were giving me, it was just the fact that they were giving me anything said that it’s OK to be a hard teacher, it’s OK to have those high standards and they appreciate me.”

Students in her sophomore U.S. history class gave her the gifts. They agreed she is a strict teacher, but also caring and supportive.

“There is just something special about how she taught us and how she treated us, which made us want to go above and beyond for her,” said Salene Tran, who posted the video on her TikTok.

For the gifts, Jordan Moody chipped in $20 that she saved from working at Dairy Queen and babysitting.

“Especially for Ms Pow, it was worth it,” she said. “She’s just a great teacher … She gives all her effort into everything and she encourages us to put all of our effort into our schoolwork and our life. She just encourages us to be better versions of ourselves.”

Sydney Albers added: “She just a really fun spirited teacher.”

So in the bag, as you might have guessed — since they shared the video — was something Steelers-related.

But why the Steelers for the Wichita native?

“Why the Steelers?” she said when asked. “Because they are the best team in the NFL.”

The main reason is that Powell, as a teen, met former Steelers quarterback Kordell Stewart when she visited an aunt in Colorado. Her aunt worked for the University of Colorado, where Stewart played.

Young Ms. Pow was smitten with Stewart. When he was drafted by the Steelers, that affection turned into a fandom for the team.

Just before class started on Wednesday, she noticed students huddling up. She now knows they were finishing the last signatures on a card for her.

“I remember seeing kind of like a huddle of kids,” she said. “And I was like, ‘quit being weird, go sit down, get in your seat’ ... I’m like getting on them as they are trying to get signatures on a card for me. That was even more great . . . you’re just like in teacher mode.”

In a video of the students giving the gifts, Powell is wearing a Steelers lanyard. A Steelers flag can be seen behind her desk as well. As students approach her with a bag, Powell turns her back and starts to cry.

She grabs tissues as a girl says: “Ms. Powpow, don’t cry” and a boy says: “You know we love you, Ms. Pow.”

Then, one of the students gives her a hug and hands her the bag. The first thing in the bag is a Bengals jersey. Leonel Sweet, the student who came up with the idea for the actual gift, included the jersey as a gag, since he is a Bengals fan and the two banter about the divisional rivalry.

At the suggestion of a student, Powell goes to the front of the class to open the gift. One student says they are shaking, probably because of the excitement of the moment.

The real gifts start with a card telling her how much she is appreciated. Then, a coffee mug.

Then, she starts to unwrap the main gift, which is covered in white tissue paper.

“What did ya’ll do,” she says as she glimpses part of the gift before stepping back and putting a balled up fist to her mouth.

“Open it Ms. Pow,” students start to say excitedly. Students in the background were also holding their hands to their mouths in excitement.

She turns back the paper more and lets out a loud scream as she squats down and balls up both of her fists. She pulls out a black Steelers jersey and starts jumping up and down and screaming, and the class starts going crazy, too.

Powell then turns it around and sees the custom jersey with the name POWPOW. It also has a No. 25 for their graduating class.

“Oh my god,” she says, “You guys.”

“Nooooo,” she screams. “Oh, I can’t take it.”

The heartfelt gift was given to Powell on Wednesday, the first day students were back from winter break. And since then, the video has blown up.

Tran, who described Powell as a strict grader but willing to help her students make the grades, shared it on her TikTok. It’s been viewed more than 5.5 million times and has more than 1.3 million likes.

“We didn’t really think it would blow up for something like that,” Sweet said, adding “it came from our heart.”

The Pittsburgh Steelers commented: “POW POW FOR THE WIN” with the loudly crying face emoji. They also shared the video on their TikTok with the caption “We appreciate you Ms. Pow Pow.”

ESPN also reshared the video with the caption: “Students of the year” and a championship trophy.

Additionally, the NFL commented on Tran’s post: “This is amazing! You guys are the best!!”

Tran said the several million views are by far the most she’s ever gotten in a TikTok video. The second most views she’s ever had are the roughly 300,000 and the 60,000-plus likes in a video of students running up to tell Powell how viral the first video went.

The Steelers commented on that video: “Officially a Ms. Pow Pow fan.”

Powell is usually a stickler about phones in the classroom. But as students ran up to her between each period, excited to show her the new comments and reshares, she relented.

“Seeing how happy they are and how proud they are is even better” than the gift, she said.

One thing she won’t be doing is wearing her new jersey.

“I’m not wearing that bad boy,” she said. “It’s too nice. I don’t want to mess it up in any way and I want to have it forever.”

She plans to frame it with a picture of her class and hang it up in her classroom.