Trending on TikTok: Devious Licks

Ami Yamane, News

After a trend on Tiktok called “devious licks” came about on Sept. 1, students around the United States, including Hawaii, have been stealing various things from school campuses. No campus is safe, even Kalani.

Sometime during the first week of October (the date is uncertain, according to admin), the Girls’ bathroom near the new locker room was vandalized when vandals ripped the sink and soap dispenser from the wall.

Other bathrooms around Kalani have also been the victim of this dangerous TikTok trend.

“I was shocked when I went into the bathroom and saw there was no mirror,” Gosei Doi (12) says. “There was another time I went in last week and the soap bag was ripped out of the dispenser.”

When TikTok user @jugg4elias posted a video allegedly stealing a box of disposable masks from his school with the caption “a month into school… devious lick,” it didn’t take long for similar videos of people “hitting licks” to flood social media.

A sign in the girls’ bathroom by the Kalani gym asks users to be respectful. In October, the sink was torn off the wall by vandals. “The behaviors encouraged by these TikTok challenges will not be tolerated by our schools,” The Department of Education (DOE) said in a letter sent out Tuesday, Oct. 5. “These challenges have escalated beyond minor pranks and are serious offenses that can lead to severe disciplinary consequences. Offenders will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law and face student disciplinary action.” (Ami Yamane)

“At first, I thought the trend was just a joke and people weren’t actually stealing things,” Reece Kosaki (12) says. “Then I saw that some schools aren’t even allowed to use the restrooms anymore because of how out of hand it got.”

Other TikToks posted have been taken down, where students show what their school has done to prevent devious licks from happening.

Some schools asked staff to keep an eye out for suspicious activity.

However, other schools have responded by removing students’ privileges and installing cameras to monitor students walking in and out of bathrooms.

“I think the trend is funny, but it’s also inappropriate and immature for high school students to be stealing toilets for a couple of likes and views,” Aiden Cheung (12) says. “I haven’t witnessed any of the devious licks at Kalani yet, but I heard someone hit a lick in the bathroom.”

Vice Principal Cindee Raymond sent out an email on Sept. 15 asking students to stop the practice. The warning has not stopped students from vandalizing bathrooms.

“I am very disappointed to hear that our boys’ bathrooms have been repeatedly vandalized,” VP Raymond wrote.

VP Raymond also asked that everyone “continue to show respect and responsibility” to keep the campus clean and safe.

As a reminder to students, Raymond said that stealing and vandalizing school property is a Chapter 19 Class A violation and can result in “serious discipline, police arrest, and/or restitution.”

There have already been arrests made for students damaging and stealing school property on the mainland.

TikTok has since been deleting all of the devious lick videos in hopes of encouraging people not to “hit licks” anymore. So far, it seems to be working.

A new trend has arrived: students are doing nice things on their school campuses, such as bringing couches, TVs, snacks, soap, and mini-fridges into bathrooms.

Some students like TikTokker @kaidenvibes have also cleaned bathrooms. This new trend has been given the TikTok title of “angelic yields.”