The latest vandal craze on TikTok: stealing things from schools

Teenagers misbehave … and their high schools are the victims.

Everything can be seen via TikTok. Soap dispensers, bathroom mirrors, paper towel containers, fire alarms and even a teacher’s desk are gone; whatever they can take to school and then show it off on a TikTok with the tag #DeviousLicks (a phrase meaning to obtain something for personal gain through illegal or questionable means).

In the past month or so, TikTok has hosted approximately 94.200 videos similar under #DeviousLicks (daring heists) or #DiabolicalLicks (evil thefts), according to the Know Your Meme site. The label also appears to have encouraged more extreme vandalism, in which students remove pieces of the ceiling, handrails, toilets and bathroom stalls.

Shit, mate. Sometimes thefts are too risky, ”one person wrote of a video tagged“ evil ”in which the person who posted it walked to school with a key.

For school administrators, shoplifting is not what they want to deal with now, just weeks after the new school year, with the virus, loss of learning and other pressures they are facing. faced. For social watchers, the trend is a signal, perhaps, of how teens feel, of the interruptions and helplessness in their lives.

School campuses from California to Michigan to Georgia are fighting these events with force. There were suspensions, criminal charges and orders to return the items. Toilet breaks are prohibited. And there have been warnings.

TikTok is also trying to stop the trend by removing content and redirecting tags and search results to its community standards page, according to a spokesperson. However, as of Tuesday, tens of thousands of videos can still be found under adaptations of the original tag.

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

The label: “completely daring flight”. It has received over 239,000 views.

A few days later another TikTok was released, this one with hand sanitizer, with the same label.

It got 7.2 million views.

At Takoma Park High School on the outskirts of Washington, DC, campus officials discovered several vandalized toilets just days after school resumed on August 30. On Tuesday, the school began closing the restrooms during the five-minute period between classes as part of its new “supervision plan.”

“To our knowledge, this inappropriate behavior probably stems from a ‘challenge’ promoted through various social media platforms, including TikTok”Principal Erin L. Martin wrote in an email to families on Wednesday.

At least 10 high schools in the Pasco County School District in Land O ‘Lakes, Fla., Report the theft of soap dispensers, signs and a chair leg that was ripped off and forced into the toilet, according to the district . .

“We are trying to convince the students that this is not a joke, this is vandalism,” said Stephen Hegarty, the district spokesperson. “This is potential criminal behavior and it will be a terrible day when we identify it.”

The district has already disciplined a handful of students; penalties include suspension, as well as criminal charges for theft and vandalism.

“We really don’t know what to make of various things,” Hegarty said. Why post something on social media that will get you in trouble with the law? And why destroy objects in your own school that will be a nuisance to everyone?

For Amanda Brennan, senior director of trends for digital marketing agency XX Artists, the answer could be a pandemic. After more than a year of confinement and virtual teaching, the students, returning to school for the first time, may be looking for a way to rebel.

“It makes sense to see young people stealing things because it feels like a show of power,” said Brennan. “You feel like you have power over these systems that you maybe didn’t think you had much control over.”

Brennan assured that other platforms, such as Reddit or Tumblr, have also hosted communities where people give advice on how to steal or share what they have stolen.

Brendan Gahan, partner and social director of digital agency Mekanism, said #DeviousLicks was like hazing before the internet age, along with other shenanigans on the net – like ‘breaking gallons’, people they film while destroying milk containers in grocery stores, and “stealing LeBron’s head” (stealing LeBron’s head), decapitating the basketball player LeBron James figure.

“It’s all about the teenage rebellion, but it’s just in a different medium,” Gahan said. “There is something naturally appealing about conflict and rebellion. TikTok allows people to share and display this behavior on a scale that wasn’t really available before. “

However, this rebellion is costing schools dearly.

The North East Independent District in San Antonio is forcing students (and their families) to pay hundreds of dollars in damages to each school, according to the district itself, which has not ruled out laying charges more serious theft.

District spokeswoman Aubrey Chancellor said five of six schools in the district are reporting thefts ranging from soap dispensers to fire extinguishers. A school found broken mirrors. Guards and other security staff should clean up damage to students.

“After identifying the student, it is the parents who will pay,” said the Chancellor. “It’s not about money, it’s about principles.”

Brennan and Gahan both doubt that TikTok or school districts can curb the trend and have likened any effort to the Streisand effect (meaning the more authorities look to discourage students from stealing; in fact, the more they encourage them) .

“I’m not saying that schools shouldn’t send out these notices, but that maybe it’s better to ignore them than to acknowledge or even show rejection,” Gahan said.

Maybe he’s right. In a video responding to a reprimand official, one user wrote: “What I heard: don’t get caught, just keep going, because now it’s even funnier.”

(c) The New York Times

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