A New TikTok Trend Has Students Vandalizing School Property

A new and unsettling TikTok trend is sweeping the nation’s high schools and middle schools, encouraging students to vandalize bathrooms and post about it.

The new challenge is dubbed “Devious Licks” and sees students stealing things like fire extinguishers and soap dispensers or vandalizing school property. “There has been over 94,000 of these viral videos in the last couple of months,” said Senator Richard Blumenthal.

On Friday, Granby Memorial High School Principal Mike Dunn sent a letter home to parents that explains the several acts of vandalism in the boys’ bathrooms, requiring them to close until further repairs. He concluded by saying that the viral TikTok trend may have caused the incident.

“Not only are such destructive behaviors far beneath the expectations we hold for our students, they put others at risk, reflect pathetically mindless adherence to social media trends, and will be subject to significant consequences for students found to be responsible,” the letter read.

Blumenthal and the Executive Director of the Connecticut Association of Public School Superintendents Fran Rabinowitz urged the video platform to ban users who post videos under the viral trend that’s caused thousands of dollars worth of damage to some bathrooms.

A spokesperson from TikTok recently released the following statement on the incident, “We expect our community to stay safe and create responsibly, and we do not allow content that promotes or enables criminal activities. We are removing this content and redirecting hashtags and search results to our Community Guidelines to discourage such behavior.”

It’s said that students involved in the challenge will face disciplinary action, and in more severe cases, the parents could be held responsible for damages.