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mahatmakanejeeves

(56,897 posts)
Sat Sep 18, 2021, 10:51 AM Sep 2021

Students are destroying bathrooms, swiping school supplies in latest TikTok challenge gone awry

What?

National

Students are destroying bathrooms, swiping school supplies in latest TikTok challenge gone awry

By Kim Bellware
Yesterday at 7:55 p.m. EDT

CORRECTION
A previous version of this article misspelled the name of Melissa Laudani. This article has been corrected.

In recent weeks, an unusual phenomenon has rippled through schools across much of the country: As students have returned to class, bathroom toilets, soap dispensers, science lab microscopes, parking signs and desks have disappeared or been damaged.

Enticed by a viral TikTok challenge, students have pilfered or vandalized items at their schools and then showed off their antics, or “devious licks,” on the popular social media platform — often as a sped-up version “Ski Ski BasedGod” by rapper Lil’ B plays in the background.

“In two school years unlike any other, this is absolutely the last thing we need to be dealing with,” said Jeffrey P. Haney, a spokesman for the Canyons School District in a Salt Lake City suburb, where bathroom mirrors have been shattered and toilets flooded.

The “Devious Licks challenge” has sparked condemnation from already-stressed school leaders, a handful of arrests and now action from TikTok, which announced Wednesday that it will remove videos associated with the trend and redirect related hashtags after reports of schools from California to Connecticut experiencing vandalism and theft.

{snip}

By Kim Bellware
Kim Bellware covers national and breaking news for The Washington Post. She previously worked for City Bureau, The Huffington Post and as a nationally-focused freelance reporter. Twitter https://twitter.com/bellwak
49 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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Students are destroying bathrooms, swiping school supplies in latest TikTok challenge gone awry (Original Post) mahatmakanejeeves Sep 2021 OP
This desire to live a life continually filmed is a scary one. Treefrog Sep 2021 #1
lol bigtree Sep 2021 #16
Those darn kids and their cameras again Shanti Shanti Shanti Sep 2021 #22
Nah, they all want to be famous, and rich. Treefrog Sep 2021 #24
Well just make it a law kids under 16 can only use flip phones, lol Shanti Shanti Shanti Sep 2021 #32
My flip phone has a camera. hunter Sep 2021 #37
... hlthe2b Sep 2021 #2
Yes, I got a message from our son's middle school about this. Ugh. themaguffin Sep 2021 #3
My word!!!!! secondwind Sep 2021 #4
Where are the parents..they should be made to pay for all damages and the asiliveandbreathe Sep 2021 #5
Get a court order. Igel Sep 2021 #13
What is "purple pencil crap"? W_HAMILTON Sep 2021 #38
We wouldn't want the little darlings to feel bad about a wrong asiliveandbreathe Sep 2021 #42
This was a pain in the butt for us in schools. QED Sep 2021 #6
The school announced parents will be held accountable arlyellowdog Sep 2021 #7
this pisses me off nt XanaDUer2 Sep 2021 #8
It's part of their endless freedom to screw up the world as much as possible. Irish_Dem Sep 2021 #9
In my day the boys liked to put a mouse in the teacher's desk - hide the chalk KentuckyWoman Sep 2021 #10
People are freaking out and I am like really? CrackityJones75 Sep 2021 #11
Going on forever? Treefrog Sep 2021 #25
I regularly got beaten bloody by bullies in the schools I attended. hunter Sep 2021 #39
Social media creates gangs. From kids on up. nolabear Sep 2021 #12
the crap we pulled in school... bigtree Sep 2021 #14
Do tell. Treefrog Sep 2021 #26
FBI bigtree Sep 2021 #28
I'm gonna guess whatever petty vandalism you are bragging about committing so long ago has Treefrog Sep 2021 #29
for ex. bigtree Sep 2021 #35
I'm glad I was playing tennis. Treefrog Sep 2021 #41
this is from a neighborhood where folks had their own personal courts bigtree Sep 2021 #43
Well , I had a wooden racquet, though not my own court. Treefrog Sep 2021 #44
look how you devalued my experiences bigtree Sep 2021 #46
You're like my brother. hunter Sep 2021 #45
yep, streaking! bigtree Sep 2021 #47
TikTok like all social media needs to die vercetti2021 Sep 2021 #15
I use those platforms and I'm perfectly fine bigtree Sep 2021 #18
Because I'm not looking? vercetti2021 Sep 2021 #19
Facebook is also packed with my friends and family bigtree Sep 2021 #20
I guess you avoid it vercetti2021 Sep 2021 #21
My experience is the same obamanut2012 Sep 2021 #23
Spot on! Treefrog Sep 2021 #30
In the 70s it was an M80 in the toilet. Iggo Sep 2021 #17
Wow, the most we did was loosen the tops on the sugar and salt dispensers in the teacher's lounge. Treefrog Sep 2021 #27
They, not We. Iggo Sep 2021 #34
Huh? Treefrog Sep 2021 #40
it's ridiculous vandalism and the parents should be held accountable XanaDUer2 Sep 2021 #31
IT HAS CREATED A HUGE ISSUE IN MY SCHOOL demtenjeep Sep 2021 #33
That's horrible nt XanaDUer2 Sep 2021 #48
Social media is turning people into fucking idiots. Initech Sep 2021 #36
People have always been fucking idiots. hunter Sep 2021 #49

bigtree

(85,918 posts)
16. lol
Sat Sep 18, 2021, 03:07 PM
Sep 2021

...been that way since the invention of moving pictures.

Ever watch what people would do to be photographed doing dangerous and outrageous stuff in the initial heyday of films?

This hyper-focus is nonsense, and you just know it's feeding these miscreant kids' fervor for it all, as much as it's causing tongues to cluck.

 

Treefrog

(4,170 posts)
24. Nah, they all want to be famous, and rich.
Sat Sep 18, 2021, 04:10 PM
Sep 2021

I think it’s much worse than it’s ever been.

People trying to get on camera during a new event is very different.

Look at all the deaths from “selfies.” Smh.

hunter

(38,264 posts)
37. My flip phone has a camera.
Sat Sep 18, 2021, 05:58 PM
Sep 2021

Maybe we could develop special phones for minors, with every upload passed directly on to a parent or guardian.

Kids caught with adult phones would go directly to juvenile hall.



My kids are old enough that they had to beg for cell phones in high school. By the time they were telling us "everyone else has one!" it was mostly true. And then they had to suffer the least fashionable phones available.

We trusted our kids to stay out of trouble with their phones same as we trusted them to stay out of trouble driving our cars. Mostly they did, but not always.

asiliveandbreathe

(8,203 posts)
5. Where are the parents..they should be made to pay for all damages and the
Sat Sep 18, 2021, 11:12 AM
Sep 2021

little rugrats need to do time in juvy... this purple pencil crap needs to go..

Igel

(35,197 posts)
13. Get a court order.
Sat Sep 18, 2021, 02:59 PM
Sep 2021

Expel from public education. Then the little trolls can be shipped off to private schools at parental expense.

Or home school.

QED

(2,730 posts)
6. This was a pain in the butt for us in schools.
Sat Sep 18, 2021, 11:12 AM
Sep 2021

We had some shenanigans at my school but due to super-vigilant admins and security, we seem to have escaped some of the extreme damage other schools faced. Most of my students thought the whole TikTok thing was stupid and did not participate.

Like we don't have enough to worry about.

arlyellowdog

(866 posts)
7. The school announced parents will be held accountable
Sat Sep 18, 2021, 11:15 AM
Sep 2021

Parents have fought any repercussions for students. The damage does not just affect staff, students are being traumatized by other students.

KentuckyWoman

(6,666 posts)
10. In my day the boys liked to put a mouse in the teacher's desk - hide the chalk
Sat Sep 18, 2021, 12:50 PM
Sep 2021

The generation behind me had a new school and indoor plumbing and toilet paper. Seemed like wet TP on the ceiling was the norm.

Some things never change... the cost of the damage goes up. The internet means the act follows these kids forever.

 

CrackityJones75

(2,403 posts)
11. People are freaking out and I am like really?
Sat Sep 18, 2021, 12:57 PM
Sep 2021

People are freaking out and I am like really?

Now don’t get me wrong as a tax paying parent I will give this a finger wag and a “Cut that shit out” reaction, and if my kid ever engaged in it there would be hell to pay but at the same time…. Yawn.

I mean come on this shit has been going on forever. Internet or not.

Call me crazy but kids living through some crazy shit for the last 18+ months and the shenanigans is hardly shocking to me.

hunter

(38,264 posts)
39. I regularly got beaten bloody by bullies in the schools I attended.
Sat Sep 18, 2021, 06:39 PM
Sep 2021

Some of the so-called adults in charge told me it was my fault and I should "Be a man!"

As a skinny squeaky klutzy highly reactive autistic spectrum kid called queerbait, being "a man" wasn't in the cards.

Most of that shit was gone by the time my own children were in school. There was much less tolerance of bullying, and even less tolerance for adults who thought such bullying was the natural order of things.

I don't look upon my own middle and high school experiences through any sort of rose colored glasses.

Quitting high school was one of the better decisions I've made in my life. I was fortunate to have parents who recognized that high school wasn't working out for me.

Maybe the world is a better place now with the rotten kids vandalizing bathrooms instead of physically assaulting their classmates.

nolabear

(41,915 posts)
12. Social media creates gangs. From kids on up.
Sat Sep 18, 2021, 01:20 PM
Sep 2021

It creates insular, reactionary, competitive hysteria and gangs rather than clubs, associations, committees, governing bodies, etc. I honestly think if we don’t find some way to have gatekeepers it’s going to do more harm to people than almost anything else. Control freedom of expression? Yes. Because expression has to have actual people and real world connection, not hit and run associations among people who are caught up in something that’s, to them, not real.

bigtree

(85,918 posts)
14. the crap we pulled in school...
Sat Sep 18, 2021, 03:01 PM
Sep 2021

...thankfully none of it televised or even reported on.

We would have been infamous. The stories...

 

Treefrog

(4,170 posts)
29. I'm gonna guess whatever petty vandalism you are bragging about committing so long ago has
Sat Sep 18, 2021, 04:49 PM
Sep 2021

long passed any statutes of limitations.

At least you have the fond memories.

bigtree

(85,918 posts)
35. for ex.
Sat Sep 18, 2021, 05:31 PM
Sep 2021

...'we' lifted over a dozen wooden bleacher bench planks from the ballfield and built a tree fort right across the street from the school in the woods. It was very much used (mostly for getting high), and strangely unnoticed the entire school terms.

They replaced the benches the next year and we stole those, as well, along with a huge length of rope and tackle from construction on the roof and built an even taller perch with the rope connected in a zip line between forts.

Pat Fischer got drunk and fell from the height of the thing, didn't realize he'd fractured his neck until he collapsed later that night (lived to adulthood).

They put in metal bleachers later that year.

It's nothing to speak proudly of, but undeniably some of the more memorable times of my life in those forts. We were as clueless as we were incorrigible. All we could see was the project in front of us - mission oriented, and I'd think, a bit proud of ourselves at the time.

Quite a dynamic force of nature there. Of course, you should realize we engaged in quite a lot of other mischief, from burning rubber in Road Runners and souped-up Opals; to defying park police with our beer, bongs, and guitars on the rocks at Great Falls.

Basically any trouble we could manage.

bigtree

(85,918 posts)
43. this is from a neighborhood where folks had their own personal courts
Sat Sep 18, 2021, 07:15 PM
Sep 2021

...wooden racquets in fashion in my time, though.

Small heads... lobs, and placement.

 

Treefrog

(4,170 posts)
44. Well , I had a wooden racquet, though not my own court.
Sat Sep 18, 2021, 07:20 PM
Sep 2021

Shame with all that privilege, you felt the need to destroy. Really a damn shame, and that’s what I feel about these idiots now.

I truly cannot understand being happy about stealing or destroying. The MAGAts obviously find great pleasure in it, but in the words of a long gone wise man..”if you’re talking bout destruction, brother you can count me out.”

bigtree

(85,918 posts)
46. look how you devalued my experiences
Sat Sep 18, 2021, 07:35 PM
Sep 2021

...we shunned most of the largess, much of it an expensive fascade.

If you take a moment and consider it, my childhood wasn't about privilege, as much as it was about independence. I wasn't defined by what my parents earned, or the neighborhood I lived in, except by geography.

We were a ragged bunch. I didn't wear, much less own shoes in the summer, switching to my Fry boots when it got cold. Trusty woods, and stone outcrops were our living rooms, a tight, smoky circle our bond. Some of us carried guitars, others worked endlessly on their cars. Like I said, I could tell some stories (for folks who appreciate them).

I stretched my horizon far past my town and formed a broad and rounded life as a teen, and later as a husband and father, which included my foray into activism, beginning as a teen with the ERA, No Nukes, and something we termed the 'ecology.'

It's that broad range of experiences which I propelled myself into which enables me to appreciate different perspectives, lifestyles, and attitudes other than my own. I never assume a life's experience is as shallow as the surface may appear, especially perfect strangers.

That would be absurd, and transparently unenlightened of me.

hunter

(38,264 posts)
45. You're like my brother.
Sat Sep 18, 2021, 07:34 PM
Sep 2021

He "borrowed" a big motorcycle and a wrap-around black helmet with tinted visor one day, stripped down naked, and rode wheelies across the high school quad.

Streaking was still a thing then. He did it on a motorcycle.

He almost knocked down the vice principal, a 300 pound mountain of a man who'd been a university football star.

The only thing I learned in high school was how to be invisible. Too often I was not successful. I got much better at invisibility after I quit.

Curiously, among my siblings, it's me and my sister, who both quit high school, who have the university degrees.

In my extended family there's still a negative correlation between graduating from high school and university degrees.

That pattern is breaking down with my own children, nephews, and nieces. The straight-A-honors-Advanced-Placement-valedictorian high school kids get the university degrees.

I wouldn't have survived today's world. I was "asked" to leave university twice. It took me nine years to graduate. I would have been road kill.


bigtree

(85,918 posts)
47. yep, streaking!
Sat Sep 18, 2021, 07:43 PM
Sep 2021

...football games, auditoriums.

Most of us wore a bag, or a mask, but damn, I had completely forgotten. Probably blocked it out.

We thought it was normal, challenging what we saw as 'authority,' no matter where we were. Silly, right? It made us a bit righteous, though, in a perverse way.

Not as interesting, though, to outline the 99 percent of our lives that was perfectly civil.

vercetti2021

(10,150 posts)
15. TikTok like all social media needs to die
Sat Sep 18, 2021, 03:06 PM
Sep 2021

It's creating so much bullshit with morons like Q-Anon, Tide Pod eaters, and a bunch of edgy teenagers trying to act cool by being little thugs. Social media was the worst thing created for humanity. MySpace was never like this whatsoever. We were dumbasses who enjoyed complaining about who would be in our top 8 or whatever. But Facebook, Twitter, and etc. It has created a toxic world.

bigtree

(85,918 posts)
18. I use those platforms and I'm perfectly fine
Sat Sep 18, 2021, 03:17 PM
Sep 2021

...the 'toxic world' isn't going to go away just because you're not looking.

I happen to enjoy my mostly benign social interactions with family, friends, and like-minded folks on Facebook and Twitter. Never once influenced me to vandalism.

And this description of the youth is so hostile. The schools will survive, and these kids will run into some kind of discipline. I mean, kids have been doing bad things to impress peers for ages, and won't stop just because Facebook shuts down. There are so many positive ways to reach young folks given to stupid acts.

No need to stifle their (our) avenues of expression just to punish a few kids acting out.

vercetti2021

(10,150 posts)
19. Because I'm not looking?
Sat Sep 18, 2021, 03:26 PM
Sep 2021

All I see is toxicity everywhere I see it now. When I was these kids age, we never used social media for clout. We were just making silly dumb videos and never caused harm. I'm 31, so you gotta imagine I grew up into an old ass person and yeah kids nowadays don't care about what they do, there is no consequence.

But Facebook has been taken over by antivax/mask idiots and right wingers. It's just a big mass misinformation center now than just funny memes and sharing pet photos.

bigtree

(85,918 posts)
20. Facebook is also packed with my friends and family
Sat Sep 18, 2021, 03:34 PM
Sep 2021

...I NEVER see any of the nonsense.

Not on Facebook, and only on Twitter when I read behind the threads. My timelines are free from bull.

That doesn't mean Facebook and Twitter don't need to act to eliminate the propagandists and hatemongers, but kids are always going to find ways to broadcast and share their bravado.

What's interesting is how little critics seem to regard my own experience with the social outlets, which is exceedingly positive.

I'm almost 61, btw, and most of these young ones couldn't hold a candle to our bunch growing up.

obamanut2012

(25,911 posts)
23. My experience is the same
Sat Sep 18, 2021, 04:02 PM
Sep 2021

with social media. There is no reason to see RWNJ stuff unless you ask to see it.

 

Treefrog

(4,170 posts)
30. Spot on!
Sat Sep 18, 2021, 04:50 PM
Sep 2021

“It's creating so much bullshit with morons like Q-Anon, Tide Pod eaters, and a bunch of edgy teenagers trying to act cool by being little thugs.”

 

Treefrog

(4,170 posts)
27. Wow, the most we did was loosen the tops on the sugar and salt dispensers in the teacher's lounge.
Sat Sep 18, 2021, 04:14 PM
Sep 2021

And I felt guilty about that.

XanaDUer2

(10,327 posts)
31. it's ridiculous vandalism and the parents should be held accountable
Sat Sep 18, 2021, 05:16 PM
Sep 2021

housekeeping staff are not paid enough for that shit

hunter

(38,264 posts)
49. People have always been fucking idiots.
Sat Sep 18, 2021, 07:56 PM
Sep 2021

Social media is simply exposing them.

Democratic Underground is my only social media.

I've been an idiot here.

The difference between me and the ordinary idiots is that I know it.


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