This year there’s a new trend on Tik Tok, which is named “Devious Licks.” This trend consists of students stealing items from their school and posting a video on Tik Tok showing what these students have stolen. the things that people have stolen vary, but most of the popular items are toilets, bathroom doors, soap dispensers, soap, and many other things. This trend has been going around for about a month and it is still continuing. “This week alone our high schools have had thousands of dollars worth of damage done by acts of vandalism to their facilities, mostly to our student restrooms,” said SMJUHSD administrator Steve Molina in a Parent Square email sent out to district families.

This trend has reached many local schools in a lot of places, including ours. “Damage done to restrooms often requires us to close that facility for repairs, unfairly harming all students that need to use that facility during the day,” said by Steve Molina.

An email has been sent out to students on Friday, September 17, talking about this trend and how costly all damage has been and what would happen if you are caught stealing items, along with many more things regarding this trend. “These are very serious offenses, and if a student is found to be damaging school property, stealing, vandalizing, or being in possession of stolen school items (including people’s personal belongings), the district will:

• Take appropriate disciplinary action.

• In accordance with Board Policy and Administrative Regulation 5144, students may lose school privileges for the remainder of the school year, such as participation in athletics or other extracurricular groups, clubs, school dances, and activities.

• File charges, per California Penal Code 594PC Vandalism and 484PC Petty Theft.  Stolen property valued at $950 or more is a felony in California.

• Seek restitution for the stolen and damaged items from the student or their parent/guardian(s). The typical cost to replace soap dispensers and urinals can run from $500-$2,000.”

According to a Los Angeles news report, “Tik Tok was removing “devious licks” content and redirecting hashtags and search results to its guidelines to discourage the behavior and that it doesn’t allow content that promotes or enables criminal activities.”  But the damage has already been done; the “devious licks” hashtag already had more than 175 million views.