The newest costly TikTok trend has hit the high school scene across the country, with “devious licks” leaving many schools with nonfunctional bathrooms and missing supplies. “Hitting a lick” is a slang phrase to describe breaking or stealing something, and “devious” has been one of the most common adjectives to describe the video-documented acts of vandalism.

The first perpetrator of a “devious lick” posted a TikTok on September 1st of him stealing a box of disposable masks and putting them in his backpack, captioning it “A month into school. Absolutely devious lick.” Immediately, high schoolers around the country took the idea and ran with it, attempting to one-up whomever’s lick came last.

Among the alleged thefts on TikTok: microscopes, car tires, textbooks, entire sinks and toilets, school phones, fire alarms, wet floor signs, hand sanitizer, water fountains, hand dryers, only scratching the surface of the expensive damage that the trend has caused nationwide.

The most prominent of licks has proved to be bags of soap from dispensers, making restrooms the main target for not just taking things, but causing expensive destruction in them, taking advantage of the privacy that bathrooms entail. Students across the country have broken vital supplies necessary to use the restroom, with the intent of causing misfortune for other people.

The trend’s motive is to be humorous, but for janitors and school staff around Springs, not many laughs are being shared. This month, principal Houston issued a statement in response to the trend, detailing the consequences that students may face if there is an attempt to take things from school property. Students may face fines or other disciplinary action not just from the school, but potentially from law enforcement as well. 

It is not in the best interest of students to rack up theft charges before they even finish high school, so no matter how devious the lick, refrain from stealing to go viral on TikTok.