Why are teens across the country stealing from the bathrooms? At the start of the school year, a TikTok trend referred to as the “Devious Lick Challenge” consisted of people stealing anything from soap dispensers to urinals. Kids then post videos, calling it a devious lick. The trend started when kids started stealing masks from schools and quickly evolved from there. Since then, schools have had to change bathroom procedures like shutting down bathrooms and putting security guards outside of the open ones.

  Due to the past two years of online learning, many high schoolers are just looking to fit in and are easily peer pressured into doing what it takes to do so. The underdevelopment in teens’ prefrontal cortex and the feeling that they have to be a part of a community makes the “Devious Lick Challenge” the perfect trend for anyone trying to gain visibility. TikTok has taken off all hashtags related to the movement, doing almost nothing to stop it. Kids can change a couple of letters in a hashtag and post it under there, still making it related to the trend.

  I believe the “Devious Lick Challenge,” as funny as it may be, is a financial nightmare for many schools, especially for the inner-city schools, where the funding per student is far less than others. It seems absurd when thousands of dollars are being spent on replacing soap dispensers, urinals, mirrors, and stolen school supplies instead of spending that money on the kids’ education. These teens that are participating in this trend want to be seen and recognized. For the past two years, students have been missing out on regular social activities in school. Due to this, it has caused many things, including anxiety and depression. Schools have been trying to help to allow students to have a regular school year to help kids adapt, but the “Devious Lick” trend is making it harder for schools to provide them with those kinds of opportunities and freedom.

Click here for the “Devious Lick” trend explained- fox13now.com