'Devious Licks' TikTok challenge forces schools to closes bathrooms

The so-called “Devious Licks” challenge involves students vandalizing school property, most commonly bathrooms. Once the damage is done, the students post their results on the app.

The trend has allegedly emerged at a few Hudson Valley schools, including Arlington High School in Dutchess County.

In response, some districts have partially shut down bathrooms for large parts of the day.

Arlington Central School District Superintendent Dave Moyer says they’ve taken action to help prevent this.

“We had to close some bathrooms to clean them. We had to close some bathrooms,” says Moyer. “ We had to change our supervision patterns.”

Letters have been sent out to parents.

A spokesperson for the Middletown school district says soap dispensers were taken and soap spilled onto the floor.

They’re not allowing students to use the restroom during the first and last 10 minutes of each period. They’ve also increased security.

Jeff Cohen, a criminal defense attorney at Abrams Fensterman, says there could be possible legal consequences.

“I hear about soap dispensers flushing down the toilet, that kind of the thing, that is serious enough to rise to criminal mischief and that’s up to the school,” says Cohen.

TikTok says it has been taking the videos off of their platform.

In a statement TikTok says, “We expect our community to stay safe and create responsibly, and we do not allow content that promotes or enables criminal activities.”

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