Some teenagers have gone stealing and knocking down their school’s property with a viral challenge on social media.
For the sake of gaining “likes” on TikTok, the challenge has left Bay Area schools with thousands of dollars’ worth in damages. Called the “devious lick”, the destructive challenge urges Tiktok users to document their stealing and damaging acts on classrooms and school bathrooms.
Among the schools not spared from the damages is the Dougherty Valley High School in the San Ramon Valley Unified School District. Vandalism has caused two of its boy’s restrooms to go out of service.
Parents were notified by the districts of the students’ actions, from clogging toilets on purpose up to the destruction of mirrors and soap dispensers.
Diablo Vista Middle School was also among the four schools in the San Ramon Valley Unified School District to report damages.
“As soon as we had any issues, we said let’s connect with our families to be sure that this stops,” according to Superintendent Dr. John Malloy.
The trend was responded to by TikTok by turning down all the challenges and readdressing the hashtags. According to its spokesperson, the video-sharing application does not tolerate activities against the law.
However, the damages have already been incurred even before the take down of the videos. It also seemed that new TikTok challenges are emerging that feature school damages.
“It’s wrong and it has to stop,” Malloy said. “That’s what we’re focused on to help our kids make better choices — so all of our kids can be OK at school.”
TikTok views are believed to be the driver of these acts, with one of the posts hitting 2.5 million views.
“I kind of thought it was a funny trend until it happened at our school and you see the result of it,” Dougherty Valley High School student Landon Edmond said, as reported by NBC Bay Area.
Students involved in the destruction were already identified and will be disciplined, the San Ramon Valley Unified School District officials said.
