Across school campuses are the TikTok trend “Devious Lick.” The trend involves students going on TikTok to boast that they’ve stolen school equipment like soap dispensers, paper towel holders, microscopes, toilet paper and other school items, targeting bathrooms in particular. Becoming one of the many trends that my generation has taken too far.
The trend started on Sep. 1 when a TikTok user posted a video of him stealing a box of disposable masks, captioning the video “A Month into school. Absolutely devious lick.” Many students took to the trend fairly quickly, including some from Mansfield.
Making its way to Legacy, parents have received several emails about vandalism in the school bathrooms. “In one set of bathrooms alone we have amassed over $2000 in damage” one email from Dr. Butler reads. The email pleads with parents to discuss with their students about respecting the school building.
This leads to my next question when do we as young adults realize a trend is getting out of hand? On numerous occasions, trends can be viewed as dangerous and plain out idiotic. Just to list a few the choking game, the cinnamon challenge, the salt and ice challenge, the tide pod challenge, and the fire challenge and now to add to the long list, the devious lick challenge. Though this trend might not be seen as life-threatening as the rest, it still can have serious consequences with law enforcement.
I will not deny that some trends are harmless and fun, but there is that handful that is life-threatening. At the age we are, we know right from wrong, good from bad. But gaining “clout” from these trends seems to blind young adults from those fatal consequences.
After 2020 I believe it is safe to say that this year we are reopening our lives. School is back in person, places are opening back up, we are remembering what it feels like to live. But it seems we can not handle the taste of freedom we are slowly gaining back. We are taking the privileges we are being handed for granted.
Many schools are closing down bathrooms as they should be. I am not saying that going to the bathroom is a privilege because it is a natural necessity, but if we abuse a natural necessity how can we be trusted with other privileges?
What started as a harmless trend has cost schools thousands of dollars in repairs and has been taken way out of hand. These young adults are starting to dig a hole for the rest of us that risks us not being able to get out of. With these trends comes the realization that our actions have consequences, and maybe it is time to go back to the berries and creams trend.
