Ever since social media gained popularity, trends have always risen and caught on fast. Recently, many popular trends have come from the social platform TikTok, which has become extremely popular in the past few years. With over 1 billion downloads, the video platform reaches plenty of people and makes an impact on trends and behaviors. However, not all trends and behaviors from this app should be followed. One of the recent trends is the “Devious Licks” trend. This trend promotes vandalism and theft, typically in schools. 

     CBS New York has recently covered local schools that have been experiencing hundreds to thousands of dollars of damage to school property, specifically in school bathrooms. Most parents aren’t even aware of this trend as oftentimes adults don’t keep up with teenage trends. Superintendent Chris Wacha of Haledon Public School stated, “I was completely unaware of this phenomenon. But lo and behold, the very next day, we experienced a form of mild vandalism.” At this school $400 of plumbing damage was caused to one boy’s bathroom the very next day. Many parents are urging others to talk to their children about this trend and how damaging it is to schools and the kids’ reputations. One parent even suggested letting the trend ride its wave like all other trends do. They said, “For every action there is a reaction, so if you do something that’s not cool, then something not cool is going to happen to you.” 

     This trend isn’t just happening in New York. Even here, at Lewis Cass, students have been hopping on the bandwagon and destroying property that isn’t theirs. The janitor and maintenance staff are becoming increasingly stressed about this trend and the damage it’s causing. Principals are trying to punish those responsible for the damage, but it’s not always easy to catch those responsible. Further action has been taken to prevent these occurrences, such as restricted use of hallways and bathrooms during class times. 

     Some superintendents and principals throughout the country are trying to get TikTok to ban users who participate in this trend. Most videos showing this trend have been completely removed from TIkTok. Some schools have disciplined the students found responsible for the damage caused, but Wacha also said, “I want them to kind of go through the full decision-making process, and analyze and be an independent thinker.” With there being nearly 100,000 videos of this trend in just a few months, parents need to talk to their children and shut this trend down soon. 

     In conclusion, just be a decent person. School property isn’t there for us to vandalize, and your decisions as an individual don’t only impact you. Schools nationwide are struggling to find an appropriate response to this trend and pay for the damages caused. Parents need to talk to and educate their children on what trends to follow and which ones should be left alone as not all trends should be followed, and this is one of them.