Damaging TikTok trend hits Sacramento-area school district with bathroom vandalism
Toilet paper has been draped from the ceiling, mirrors have been smeared and soap dispensers have been damaged or stolen at several campuses in the San Juan Unified School District in what is believed to be the result of an alarming TikTok trend.
Similar and sometimes even more significant damage in bathrooms across the country has been linked to the “devious lick” challenge, in which social media users share videos of damage done to schools.
In some videos posted on TikTok, the short-video platform popular among younger people, toilets have been ripped out of bathroom stalls, sink faucet sensors have been broken and walls have been smeared with a red liquid.
“I don’t think we’ve seen anything that extreme” said Raj Rai, a spokeswoman for San Juan Unified, which has campuses across Sacramento’s northeast suburbs, Carmichael, Fair Oaks and Citrus Heights.
She said staff at several middle schools and high schools in the district have found broken soap dispensers, stolen soap dispensers or pouches of soap, toilet paper littered throughout the bathroom, mirrors smeared with soap and other materials. The damage has required school personnel to perform extensive cleaning in the bathrooms. Some fixtures have had to be replaced, including mirrors.
“It’s hard to get them cleaned, which is leading to replacement of some of them,” Rai said about the damaged mirrors.
She said all the damage at San Juan Unified schools has been reported this week and that the damage was limited to campus bathrooms. While school officials have not seen TikTok videos of damage done at San Juan schools, “we’re assuming this is part of the TikTok trend.”
Damage seen across multiple states
The trend already has led to reported damage in multiple states, including Arizona, Florida, Indiana, Kansas, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Texas. School districts nationwide are warning that the students responsible for the damage could be punished.
“We expect our community to stay safe and create responsibly, and we do not allow content that promotes or enables criminal activities,” a TikTok spokesperson on Wednesday told McClatchy News. “We are removing this content and redirecting hashtags and search results to our Community Guidelines to discourage such behavior.”
In an effort to prevent the damage, one North Carolina middle school created a new bathroom schedule, a high school in Kansas closed some of its restrooms and a school superintendent in Pennsylvania says some students are facing criminal charges after destruction there.
Rai said San Juan Unified administrators are having discussions about what they could do on campus to prevent further bathroom damage, which could mean limiting or monitoring bathroom usage.
“Obviously, we have can’t have a staff member assigned to monitor each bathroom in the 64 schools in our district,” Rai said. “Any form of vandalism on our campuses is serious; it can result in both financial and labor costs... it also creates an an extra layer of burden for school staff who are working hard to keep campuses safe from COVID-19.”
Mira Loma parents notified
School administrators are speaking to students about the trend in vandalism, letting them know about the costs and work needed to repair the bathroom damage. Rai said administrators also are telling them that students with information about the vandalism should tell school staff immediately.
The schools with reported bathroom damage, such as Mira Loma High School in Arden Arcade, also are informing parents about the TikTok trend. In a notice sent to Mira Loma families this week, school administrators asked parents to speak with their children about the trend and its negative impact.
“We need your help with a concerning new TikTok trend that is impacting the Mira Loma campus,” school officials wrote in the notice to parents. “The trend encourages students to break, take and vandalize items on school campuses. Unfortunately, this trend has hit Mira Loma in the form of theft, broken items and vandalism in the bathrooms.”
This story was originally published September 17, 2021 at 5:00 AM.
