In early December 2025, a story about a night janitor, Stanley Okoye, and his “secret tutoring program” helping children learn how to read circulated online. According to social media posts, Okoye’s efforts did not come to light until he died.
The rumor primarily circulated on Facebook via a post by an account called “Astonishing.” It began:
“The night janitor at Pinewood Elementary died last Tuesday. Heart attack in the hallway, 2 a.m., found by morning staff.
Stanley Okoye. 67 years old. Worked there nine years. Quiet man. Mopped floors, emptied trash, locked up.
Principal called an assembly to announce it. Expected maybe a moment of silence.
Instead, forty kids started crying. Not polite tears. Gut-wrenching sobs.
Teachers were confused. Most barely knew Stanley existed.
Then a fifth-grader stood up. “Mr. Stanley taught me to read.”
The same story also spread on X. Several Snopes readers searched the website for information about this story and sent in email asking whether Okoye was real.
However, the tale Facebook user Astonishing posted was created using artificial intelligence, and there’s no evidence Okoye ever existed. As such, we have rated this claim false.
The Astonishing Facebook page is full of artificially-generated content — much of it in the same vein as the janitor story, in which an “ordinary” person does something inspiring. In fact, the account’s “Intro” section read:
Something Astonishing!!! Some stories here are fictional & created for inspiration & entertainment. AI-assisted writing. Images AI-generated or royalty-free.
The image accompanying the post from “Astonishing” also had several indicators it was generated using artificial intelligence, such as gibberish labels on food packaging, a suspiciously perfect-looking apple and a sign with text that looked too perfect to be written by hand — while also being too slanted to be printed out from a computer.
Zoomed in parts of the picture show clear signs of artificially generated content. (Facebook user Astonishing)
Furthermore, a Google search for “Stanley Okoye janitor” and “Stanley Okoye janitor obituary” returned no results from reputable news websites, schools named “Pinewood Elementary,” funeral homes and obituary pages. Astonishing’s post also claimed the school created the “Stanley Okoye Second Chance Scholarship” following the janitor’s passing, but there’s no evidence such a scholarship exists, further indicating that this story has no basis in truth.
For more on how to spot AI-generated content, see our explainer here.
