As the new school year opens up, especially during the COVID-19 era, things are bound to go a little rocky. Many school administrators are prepared for the best and the worst. But, few anticipated the TikTok trend that would take schools across America by storm. 

The Devious Lick Challenge, a “lick” being a typically successful form of theft, spread like wildfire. Students around the nation began to vandalize school properties and steal even basic necessities. 

The trend started on the popular social media platform TikTok, with a user by the screen name of “jugg4elias.” The student had uploaded a short video of himself showing off a box of masks he had allegedly stolen from his school. Despite many seeing this as “only” a box of masks, it was still school property. This makes the action theft, and therefore, a crime. 

Soon, TikTok as a whole, along with many teens’ For You pages, began to fill up with videos of students participating in the challenge. But, the challenge had become much more serious. Students began to steal soap dispensers from the school bathrooms. They then moved on to breaking stalls, stealing or damaging toilets and urinals, and even removing the faucets from some schools’ sinks. The situation had become far too out of hand. 

Comedian Trevor Noah was not too pleased with the situation. Noah says, “It is not just disrespectful, its also dumb. You’re gonna destroy the toilets in your school? You realize those are your toilets, right?” Noah provides his view by addressing the students and saying that the same bathrooms that they are destroying are the ones that students use. These students are in fact destroying their own bathrooms. 

TikTok also showed their disapproval of the trend. The social media site began to take down many videos showing the theft and vandalism left behind by students. But, after the trend grew and grew, TikTok took down the whole tag altogether. If the TikTok application is opened, and the Devious Lick Challenge is put into the search bar, TikTok’s message says: 

“This phrase may be associated with behavior or content that violates our guidelines. Promoting a safe and positive experience is TikTok’s top priority. For more information, we invite you to review our Community Guidelines.” 

Many school administrations have since handled or have begun to handle the situation across the country. The damage, however, has already been done. As a student, the decision lies between destroying others’ property for fifteen measly seconds of fame, or choosing to do the right thing.