Devious Lick

What started as a TikTok trend has now turned into a nationwide scandal that has affected many schools, students, teachers, administrators, and anyone else involved in the school’s communities.

High school students over the past month have been vandalizing and stealing school property as part of a Tik Tok trend. What came to be known as the “devious lick” trend has resulted in millions of dollars in damage in thousands of schools nationwide. Students in the United States have participated in stealing items such as; soap dispensers, toilets, urinals, school busses, water fountains, and other items around the school.

Social media often influences trends that sweep over the world. Some of these trends include the “ice bucket challenge.” Trends like the “ice bucket challenge,” where people pour water over their heads to raise money for ALS(amyotrophic lateral sclerosis), are positive trends that have some kind of benefit. As of recent, trends like the “tide pod challenge,” where people ate tide pods, or the “devious lick” trend, have had negative impacts on social media and schools.

Silver Creek High School in Longmont, Colorado, has been one of the many victims of the devious lick trend. With “around 25” devious lick acts, Ismael Granados, the head custodian at Silver Creek, has been working overtime to respond to the devious licks with the rest of the staff, which is already short handed. Around the school, graffiti has been found in the bathrooms, and students have been vandalizing and stealing objects to participate.

Making the situation more difficult, now there is racially discriminatory graffiti, forcing the staff to lock bathrooms at times. “If it is racial then we don’t want other kids thinking there is someone racist in the school.” Granados says.

Whenever custodial staff finds graffiti and racial comments written in the bathroom, this really concerns Granados. “Wherever we find the graffiti, we have to lock it before other kids can see it because otherwise they add to it,” said Granados.

Granados continues to explain how there is only one custodian for the entire grounds. Now that all of these devious lick acts are taking place they have to “hustle” even more than usual. Leaving hot dogs on the baseball field, spraying mio squeeze in the bathroom stall, breaking soap dispensers, and spraying soap everywhere are just a few of the acts they have cleaned up over the school.

Cecilia Adams, who is a senior at Silver Creek, also shared her opinion on the trend. Adams provided a new perspective on the devious lick acts by explaining how she’s seen more and heard more activity coming from the bathrooms, specifically from the boys bathrooms.

“I was walking to the bathroom during my fifth period class and I heard a lot of noise coming from the boys bathroom”, Adams said. Adams wasn’t a hundred percent sure she had just witnessed a devious lick act, but judging from all the noise she was hearing, it was pretty obvious what was going on.

Surya Shrestha, a junior at Silver Creek, was actually able to see the results of one of the acts. In D-wing, a student sprayed soap all over the bathroom floor. He also noticed that the soap dispenser was broken off the wall.

“When I first walked into the bathroom I almost slipped because of all the soap on the floor.” Shrestha said. “I also noticed the soap dispenser was broken on the floor.”

Not only do these devious lick acts incite racist messages, theft, and vandalism, but they also cause a safety hazard in a place where students and staff are supposed to feel safe. The devious lick trend impacted many schools across the world as a result of what was supposed to be a funny Tik Tok trend. Silver Creek high school is trying to figure out how to stop harmful acts from happening but are hopefully nearing a solution.