--- title: Kids Did the Sweetest Thing for Custodian's Birthday description: The internet is loving a heartwarming moment between a kindergarten class and their sign-language-speaking school custodian. canonical: https://time.com/5435015/kindergarten-sign-language-birthday/ author: Raisa Bruner article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-10-25T18:23:32.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:55:39.876Z og:title: These Kids Did the Sweetest Thing for Their School Custodian og:description: A group of kindergarteners surprised their school custodian with a birthday song og:url: https://time.com/5435015/kindergarten-sign-language-birthday/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: These Kids Did the Sweetest Thing for Their School Custodian twitter:description: A group of kindergarteners surprised their school custodian with a birthday song twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Kindergarteners Did the Sweetest Thing for Their School Custodian > Sponsored content. 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It curates the day's top headlines with TIME's reporting and analysis across politics, world affairs, business, health and culture. It is free to join at time.com/newsletters. #### How do I sign up for The Brief? The Brief is available free at time.com/newsletters, where readers can select it along with any of TIME's other six newsletters. There is no subscription required to receive it. #### Is The Brief free? Yes. The Brief is a free daily email newsletter from TIME. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes The Brief? The Brief is led by editor Richard Hall and draws on reporting from TIME's newsroom. Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-brief-2026q3/newsletters?i=40b87040-fe5a-4044-aaa9-8a9072bde162&cr=time-nl-brief-2026q3-v1)  by [Raisa Bruner](https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner Oct 25, 2018 6:23 PM UTC  by [Raisa Bruner](https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner Oct 25, 2018 6:23 PM UTC Kids do the kindest things. Today’s evidence: a class of Tennessee Kindergarteners at Hickerson Elementary School in the town of Tullahoma are the apple of the internet’s eye after a video of the children singing [“Happy Birthday”](http://time.com/4213570/happy-birthday-song-to-you-song-lawsuit/) in [sign language](http://time.com/4101720/adele-hello-sign-language-version/) to their school’s custodian began circulating online. The custodian, James Anthony, is deaf, [local news reports](https://www.wkrn.com/news/kindergarten-class-surprises-school-custodian-with-happy-birthday-in-sign-language/1547556167). But the children wanted to celebrate with him anyway — so [teachers](https://www.newschannel5.com/news/kindergarten-class-gives-special-birthday-surprise-to-custodian) Amy Hershman and Allyssa Hartsfield showed them the words to “Happy Birthday” in sign language, and the whole group surprised him with a performance of the song when he entered the classroom, as you can see in the sweet video one of the teachers filmed. “He was overwhelmed with it. It just was a spur of the moment thing and they just did it,” school secretary Bonnie Scott [told reporters](https://www.islandpacket.com/news/nation-world/national/article220599275.html). “He had his hands over his face, at the end he was tearing up. It just touched him.” Apparently Anthony is known for teaching some of the kids to sign, and for handing out high fives in the hallways of the school, where he’s worked for 15 years. The video [went viral on Facebook](https://www.facebook.com/HickersonElementary/videos/544589522632129/?%5F%5Fxts%5F%5F%5B0%5D=68.ARBCkgktAnGQa4esprIcNr3eZAkg6d1xzYe0kb6R2-YuYHFvKK1lQgXzbfF5XdqiSpnVfrOKQph-XCdnD6ZIL8eFzPqjyAAHvZssglT-MXzhe%5Fx96dz02w9m2C2Qw2a%5FIW3d-CXufk-5ZMs7a4pd2wZybKIdkfljrTRAr0oBZr5sVvE24As9%5FmFCn136FfTgGKJoLs-IGnwEIisNSrSU02Ia10Xq1ZPrUip-42A&%5F%5Ftn%5F%5F=-R) after the school shared it on Monday. “He was so surprised!” they noted in the caption — a fact corroborated by his expression from the footage. So far so good, [Generation Z.](http://time.com/5250542/generation-z/) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5435015/kindergarten-sign-language-birthday/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5435015/kindergarten-sign-language-birthday/"},"headline":"Kindergarteners Did the Sweetest Thing for Their School Custodian","datePublished":"2018-10-25T18:23:32.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:55:39.876Z","description":"Gold stars for all these students","url":"https://time.com/5435015/kindergarten-sign-language-birthday/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Education","viral"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Raisa Bruner","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5435015/kindergarten-sign-language-birthday/","name":"Kindergarteners Did the Sweetest Thing for Their School Custodian"}}]}] ```