Teacher Says a Tech Worker Hid in a Dark Classroom to Hear Her Talk About Him

A teacher says she spent years trying to ignore a tech worker’s unwanted attention at school. But after he allegedly hid in a dark connecting room while she and her coworkers talked about his behavior, the whole situation became much harder to dismiss.

The teacher, who said she is in her 30s, explained in a Reddit post that the behavior started more than two years ago. A tech worker in the district began awkwardly hanging around the classrooms and hallways where she was. He lingered in areas near her, even though she said she barely spoke to him beyond polite workplace comments like “have a good day.”

At first, it was uncomfortable but vague. He was not openly asking her out. He was not saying anything threatening. He was just around too much, watching too much, and making her feel like she could not move through the building normally.

Around that same time, the teacher started dating her now-boyfriend, whom she had known since high school. Their relationship became serious, and she said they were planning to get engaged and married once he sold his house in the spring.

Shortly after she began dating her boyfriend, the tech worker reached out to one of her teacher friends. He asked if the poster was single and whether she might be interested in going on a date with him.

Her friend told him she was dating someone.

Instead of leaving it there, he tried to add the teacher on Facebook.

She declined.

For a while, the situation seemed to calm down because the tech worker had been moved to another part of the district after starting to date someone else in the school system. The teacher was relieved. She thought maybe the strange attention was over.

Then his relationship apparently ended, and he came back.

That was when the pattern started again.

He began showing up during the teachers’ lunch time, picking up or doing work-related tasks while hovering near the poster. She said he would stand in front of her while she ate, but she would not speak to him. She had no interest in encouraging the interaction, and by then, she was trying hard not to give him any opening.

He also tried again to add her on Facebook. She declined again. Then he tried to follow her on Facebook, and she blocked him.

At one point, he briefly tried to add her boyfriend too, then removed the request.

That detail made the situation feel even more intrusive. It was strange enough that he kept trying to access her online after being told she was in a relationship. Trying to reach her boyfriend, even briefly, added another layer of discomfort.

Still, she described it as behavior that was off-putting without ever crossing a single obvious line.

Then lunch one day changed that.

Her teacher friend had already become frustrated because the tech worker kept interrupting their short lunch break. He was not really completing the tech work she needed done, and instead seemed to pop in during the limited time they had to eat.

On the day things escalated, he came in during lunch, lingered in front of the poster for a long time while she ate silently, then told everyone goodbye and walked out.

Another coworker commented that the whole thing was weird. The poster and her teacher friend started explaining the situation, saying his behavior had been making them uncomfortable.

Then they realized he had not actually left.

According to the teacher, the tech worker had quietly snuck into a connecting room where they ate and kept the lights off. He was listening to them talk about him. Then he bumped into something, knocked items over, and ran out into the hallway.

The other coworker was shocked and said he was literally running down the hallway.

After that, the teacher friend reported the situation to the principal. The poster was pulled in to explain her side. She said her position was simple: she felt uncomfortable, and the behavior was starting to disrupt the workplace.

The principal contacted the tech worker’s supervisor and asked that he be put on a specific work schedule so he would not be snooping around during their lunch.

But according to the teacher, he kept coming during lunch anyway.

The principal even tried to catch him one day, but he apparently left right before she could get there.

The teacher later learned this was not the first time he had made someone uncomfortable. She said she was told that at another school, he had liked a teacher who had never talked to him and gave her flowers. That teacher was not pleasantly surprised and reportedly complained about his behavior too.

By the time the poster wrote, she was tired. She wanted to be able to eat lunch, walk through the halls, and do her job without feeling watched or gawked at.

She considered saying something directly to him, but she worried about overreacting or getting herself in trouble. For the moment, she was letting the principal handle it, though she said she wanted to escalate to central office if he kept showing up during lunch.

The part that seemed to bother her most was the intentional feeling of it all. The hovering, the social media attempts, the timing around lunch, the dark room, the running away when caught — it felt less like awkwardness and more like intimidation.

And after several years, she was done trying to convince herself it was nothing.

Commenters overwhelmingly told her she was not overreacting. Many said the moment he hid in the dark connecting room to listen to coworkers talk about him crossed a serious line.

Several people told her not to wait for the principal alone to handle it. They advised her to involve HR, central office, and her union representative so the situation would be properly documented.

Others warned her not to confront him alone. Commenters said someone who keeps pushing after repeated rejection, tries to reach her boyfriend online, and hides nearby to listen may not respond calmly to direct confrontation.

A lot of people said the school setting made the behavior even more concerning. If he had district tech access, commenters pointed out, he might have access to employee information or systems, which made formal reporting even more important.

Some commenters suggested a direct boundary, but only with witnesses present and preferably in a professional setting. Others said she should not be responsible for managing him at all because it is the employer’s job to provide a safe workplace.

The strongest advice was clear: document every incident, escalate through official channels, and stop treating years of unwanted attention like something she has to quietly endure.