Teacher with over 900k YouTube subscribers accused of bribing students for comments and views
The line between education and entertainment has somewhat blurred over the past decade. Many teachers have turned to online platforms to supplement their income or reach wider audiences with their educational content.
However, as we've seen by UNILAD, a former teacher was sacked from her teaching role after it was discovered that she uploaded adult content to OnlyFans while still working in the classroom.
Now, another educator is facing scrutiny for allegedly crossing professional boundaries in a different way.
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A popular YouTuber has been accused of bribing his students with better grades in exchange for views and comments on his videos.
Vincenzo Schettini is a high school physics teacher, but outside of the classroom, he has built a massive following of nearly one million subscribers on his YouTube channel La Fisica Che Ci Piace. The Italian teacher also has amassed another 3.4 million followers on his Instagram page.
As shared by Dexerto, Schettini openly admitted that he 'forced' students to watch and interact with his videos during his channel's early days.
“In the afternoon, I started the livestream, but I had only 4 subscribers at the time, so I would force my students to watch it. It was exciting seeing all the comments of those 24 unfortunate guys,” he told the BSMT podcast (via Dexerto).
The teacher has faced major backlash from former students, claiming Schettini offered them better grades for commenting.
“Were we students happy with Schettini’s methods in class? I, for one, wasn’t. I felt like I was wasting time and not learning much,” an anonymous former student told MowMag (via Dextero).
“Others, however, were happy because with the gimmick of the (half) extra grade guaranteed for commenting on the Professor’s live streams, they had to study less while still achieving good results.”
Meanwhile, journalist Selvaggia Lucarelli spoke to other students who shed more details about their experience (as per Dexerto).
“The professor asked to see his videos, and asked you to comment on them. Then you had to give him reports (i.e., take a screenshot of your comment under the video with the video URL) and he would raise your grade by two points,” said one.
“The grade was a maximum of 8 if you didn’t comment, but if you did, you could get two higher grades,” another added.
Schettini has reportedly not yet addressed the controversy around offering higher marks in exchange for video interactions.
In a previous interview with Lost and Found Italy back in 2024, the teacher revealed: "If a student wants to find information, they go on the web. They go on social media. And that’s when they find me. I was there. I was there with them.
"And they appreciated that because I presented physics in a way they could understand.