‘Today’ show coming to Wichita to honor teacher whose students made her a viral video star

A Wichita high school teacher who back in January was the star of a TikTok video that went viral will be on national television on Tuesday morning when the “Today” show stages a live shot from her school.

And word is, producers plan to present her with some type of special surprise that could send her into the same fit of gleeful jumping, screaming and general freaking out that made her a viral sensation in the first place.

LaShay Powell, who teaches history and law classes at Northeast Magnet High School, is scheduled to appear in the 7 a.m. segment of the show, which airs on NBC, Cable Channel 3.

Sometime between 7 a.m. and 7:35 a.m., when the show will go live from the school’s gymnasium, Powell will also be featured in a special segment. Producers were at the school Thursday and again on Monday interviewing people — including the student who posted the video that went viral — and gathering B-roll footage. “Today” show anchor and Wichita native Sheinelle Jones will be in town for the Tuesday live shot.

The video that attracted the “Today” show’s attention was filmed in January by sophomore Salene Tran, who then posted it to TikTok. Within 24 hours, the video had been shared one million times. After that, it caught fire and was shared and shared across other social media platforms. The latest estimate, Powell said, is that the video has now been shared around nine million times.

The video shows a group of sophomore students in Powell’s third-hour honors U.S. history class presenting her with a gift bag. They call her “Ms. Pow Pow,” the nickname they’ve come up with for Powell, a gregarious, loud and personable teacher who’s also known as strict and demanding.

The moment Powell sees the gift bag, she begins to cry and turns away from the students. Some of the students get emotional, too, saying, “Ms. Pow Pow, don’t cry. Ms. Pow Pow, it’s okay.”

The students finally persuade her to open the gift, and she insists on reading the card first, which starts, “We just wanted to let you know how much you are appreciated.” That line causes Powell to double over.

“You guys are ruining me,” she says. “Teachers never get thanked. Like ever.”

Powell then opens the bag and finds a custom-printed Pittsburgh Steelers jersey. The gift was sophomore Leonel Sweet’s idea, and each student in Powell’s third-hour honors U.S. history class chipped in to pay for it.

“What did ya’ll do?” she says in the video, then unfolds the jersey, which has the name “Pow Pow” printed on the back. (Powell is a lifelong Steelers fanatic, a fact that is no secret to her students.) The number the students had printed on the jersey, 25, signified the year they will graduate from high school.

When Powell realizes what the gift is, she starts screaming and frantically jumping up and down, much to the delight of her students, who join in.

After the video was posted, it was shared all over social media. Among the many who re-posted it were the Pittsburgh Steelers, who shared it on their TikTok page with the comment “POW POW FOR THE WIN,” and ESPN, who shared it with the caption “Students of the year.”

Powell said that she’d recently started to sense the frenzy around the video dying down when she was contacted from producers from the “Today” show asking to interview her over Zoom for a possible teacher appreciation segment. (National Teacher Appreciation Week is this week)

A few weeks later, Powell said, she was told that they were coming to Wichita, and that’s when the nerves began.

One of the producers told her that she was going to be surprised during the live segment, but he wouldn’t give any hints as to what the surprise might be.

“...They want my authentic reaction to something,” she said. “I’m worried. I’m worried and nervous and excited about what is to come with the live show.”

She has 17 different outfits ironed, she said, and hasn’t been able to choose which one to wear. And she just keeps shopping, looking for the right outfit for her national television debut.

Despite all the nervous energy, she said, she’s been encouraging everyone she knows to tune in. She texted her inner circle about the show and posted on her personal Facebook about it.

“I want people to watch it,” she said. “I want to take some pride in this.”

Powell said she’s still mourning her mother, Lois, who died just as the COVID-19 pandemic was starting in March 2020. She can’t help but feel like all the attention from the video is somehow connected to her mom.

Though Powell, a 22-year teaching veteran, has confidence in her abilities as a teacher, it’s good to get affirmation, she said. She used to get it from her mother.

“She gave me that drive. She really did,” Powell said. “And to not have that voice, it’s been really crazy tough. I think a lot of this is her spirit moving through these people saying, ‘You did good, little girl.’”