Devious Licks for Kicks?

by Sierra Frederick

Tik Tok is known for creating some outrageous trends and a new one met the new school year head on. The trend got its name from a term in the Urban Dictionary, describing a “lick” as a “successful type of theft which results in an acceptable, impressive and rewarding payday for the protagonist."

Tik Tok has been convincing kids to commit mischievous and damaging acts in school. The objective of this trend is to steal a random object from school, take it home, and post a dramatic video removing it from your backpack. This all started when one kid stole masks and captioned it “A month into school absolutely most devious lick”. Kids have started stealing

toilets, soap dispensers, and even buses. Influencers have been convincing kids that this is okay so, everyday more and more kids are doing it and going viral.

The Washington Post have blamed these trends on children’s need for belonging. Students are just doing these trends for the likes, views, and comments. One student explained that he just posted the Tik Tok and never actually took anything. Another student saw a broken faucet leaking water, so he took a video and captioned it “most devious lick”. He claimed that he never broke and it was already like that. Students are trying to one up each other by getting something better without getting caught.

Schools and Principals have been counting this as theft. Tik Tok has been trying to shut down this trend. School faculty's response to this is shutting down the bathrooms in schools. Some kids have social anxiety, so closing the bathrooms could exhaust that. Some students have felt peer pressure from other kids into vandalizing the bathrooms. A couple of kids

who have been caught admitted to not wanting to do it. Schools have felt that it should be aware to the parents. This gives the parents a chance to prevent their kids from making mistakes.

The devious lick Tik Tok challenge has lead to criminal charges against students in the US. Students across the US are being arrested from this. Police are charging and arresting students for vandalism and theft. Nine kids have been arrested in Florida, Kentucky, and Marion County. This trend has gone beyond schools. Kids have stole soap dispensers out if the park

bathrooms. Police and Teachers are encouraging parents to talk to their kids

about the seriousness of vandalism.