Students are destroying bathrooms, swiping school supplies in latest TikTok challenge gone awry [View all]

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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.

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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