Latest TikTok craze: Taking school stuff Administrators not amused as videos reveal theft, vandalism, lead to

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 past 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, the trend is a sign, perhaps, of what teenagers are feeling, about the disruptions and powerlessness in their lives.

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.

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.

The trend seems to have started on Sept. 1, when a TikTok user shared a video, revealing a box of disposable masks in his backpack.

The hashtag: “absolutely devious lick.”

At Takoma Park Middle School, outside Washington, D.C., school officials discovered several vandalized bathrooms just days after school began on Aug. 30. On Tuesday, the school began locking bathrooms in the five-minute period between classes as part of its new “monitoring plan.”

At least 10 high schools in the Pasco County Schools district in Land O’ Lakes, Fla., are reporting stolen soap dispensers, signs and a torn chair leg that was shoved down a toilet, according to the district.

“We are trying to convince students that this is not a prank, it’s vandalism,” Stephen Hegarty, the district spokesperson, said. “It’s potentially a criminal behavior, and it’ll be a really bad day when we identify it.”

The district already disciplined a handful of students; the punishment includes suspension and criminal charges for theft and vandalism.

“We are really scratching our heads over several things,” Hegarty said. “Why post something on social media that will get you in trouble with the law? And why destroy things, at your own school, which will result in an inconvenience for everyone?”

For Amanda Brennan, senior director of trends for digital-marketing agency XX Artists, the answer might be the pandemic. After more than a year of shutdowns and virtual schooling, students, who are now returning to schools for the first time, may just be looking for a way to rebel.

“It makes sense to see kids stealing things because it feels like a power play,” Brennan said. “You feel powerful over these systems that you may not have felt as if you had a lot of control over.”

The North East Independent district in San Antonio is making students — and their families — pay hundreds of dollars in damages to each school, according to the district. The district hasn’t ruled out pressing charges for more serious thefts.

Brennan doubts that either TikTok or school districts will be able to stop the trend, likening any efforts to the Streisand effect — meaning that the more authorities try to deter students from stealing, the more they actually encourage it.

“I’m not saying schools shouldn’t send out these notices,” said Brendan Gahan, a partner and chief social officer for the digital agency Mekanism. “But it might be better to deprive it of oxygen, than acknowledge, or even push against it.”