‘Devious Licks Challenge’ causing problems for many school districts

ROCHESTER, N.Y. (WHEC) — To many teenagers, the "Devious Licks Challenge" is just the latest trend on the social media site TikTok, but for school districts all across the country, this trend is quite destructive and becoming costly.

Several Rochester-area schools are seeing the problem as well. In this challenge, students are filming themselves stealing various items that are primarily found in school restrooms.

For the past several weeks, the "Devious Licks Challenge" on TikTok has been sweeping across the country leaving a trail of destruction, caused by students vandalizing their schools just for popularity points on social media. Penfield High School, like several others in Monroe County, has had a few incidents of its own.

Paytyn Crane attends Penfield High School and talked about one of them.

Crane: "I’ve seen pictures of a missing sink from someone else’s phone, and it was quick at a soccer practice. Someone showed me a picture."

News10NBC’s Patrick Moussignac: "And it’s a sink that’s missing?"

Crane: "It’s a sink missing from the wall."

Moussignac: "At your school?"

Crane: "At our school."

Fellow classmate, Jaubert Black, noticed things missing in the boy’s restroom. One thing in particular, soap dispensers.

"I spent 20 minutes looking for soap," Black said. "So 20 minutes, and then there was a mirror that was gone. So that was tough."

Teachers at the high school are now helping to crack down on the problem.

"You can’t leave to the bathroom with your backpacks. You have to have a pass. Some teachers are even being so strict where you can’t even go to the bathroom during their class," Crane said.

The problem just isn’t limited to high schools. Charlotte Stinehour attends Bay Trail Middle School, and it’s going on there as well.

"I think that people, a lot of people are just doing it for laughs, and as funny as it is it can cause a lot of damage if it gets too far, and people start getting too many big things like sinks, and stuff," Charlotte said.

Her father, Seth Stinehour, had this to say about the TikTok "Devious Licks Challenge."

"I mean it’s dumb. I mean it’s not very intelligent. I’m against it. I’m against stealing bathroom equipment," Seth said.

Besides Penfield Central School District, East Irondequoit Central School District, Fairport Central School District, and Churchville Central School District have so far reported some vandalism at their schools.