Teenagers stealing stuff from school is TikTok’s latest craze
The app hosted close to 94,200 similar videos last month
Teenagers are acting out — and their high schools are the victims. It’s all on TikTok. Missing are soap dispensers, bathroom mirrors, paper towel holders, fire alarms and even a teacher’s desk — anything that can be swiped from school and then revealed in a TikTok video, with the hashtag #deviouslicks.
In the last month or so, TikTok has hosted close to 94,200 similar videos under #deviouslicks, or #diabolicallicks, according to the website Know Your Meme. The hashtag also seems to have encouraged more serious vandalism, with students taking ceiling tiles, hand-railings, toilets and bathroom stalls.
“Zoinks dude. Sometimes licks are a little too devious,” one commenter wrote about a video in which the poster walked toward school, with a key, hashtag “diabolical.”
To school administrators, the thefts are not what they want to deal with now, just weeks into the new school year, with the virus and learning loss and other pressures bearing down. And to some social watchers, the trend is a sign, perhaps, of what teenagers are feeling, about the disruptions and powerlessness in their lives.
Ban on breaks
Schools from California to Michigan to Georgia are cracking down. There have been suspensions, criminal charges and restitution orders. There are bans on bathroom breaks. And there have been warnings.
TikTok is also trying to stop the trend by deleting the content and redirecting hashtags and search results to its Community Guidelines page, according to a spokesperson. But as of Thursday, tens of thousands of videos can still be found under adaptations of the original hashtag.