Greene County Schools responds to 'Devious Lick' TikTok challenge

Students at Greene Central High School and Greene County Middle School participated in the ‘Devious Licks’ TikTok challenge which resulted in the discipline of six students. The ‘Devious Lick’ challenge encouraged school-aged children to steal or destroy school property.

“We had some vandalism in three bathrooms at Greene Central HS last week,” said Dr. Patrick Miller, Greene County Superintendent. “Soap was removed from dispensers, food coloring was spread in some sinks and toilets and a couple of seats were removed from the toilets.”

The schools were able to identify two students involved through video surveillance. The Greene Central High School students will be required to reimburse the school for the cost of any damages.

“Since then, we have not had any additional incidents at Greene Central,” said Miller.

At Greene County Middle School four students were disciplined for their participation in the vandalism. Toilet paper was stuffed in several toilets, urinals, and sinks. Restitution will also be a part of their consequences.

“As a result of these pranks, adult supervision has been increased in and around the restrooms at Greene County Middle School,” said Miller.

Social media challenges have resulted in various consequences for school-aged children. The Tide Pod challenge in 2017-2018 encouraged children to eat laundry detergent. The cinnamon challenge is another social media event that resulted in children choking on the spice.

The ‘Devious Licks’ trend originated on September 1, 2021, after a TikTok user posted a video of disposable masks they allegedly stole from the school. The name comes from the tag on their post that said, “A month into school… devious lick”.

The social media platform, TikTok, removed videos featuring the ‘Devious Lick’ hashtag on September 13, 2021, for violating their policies. At the time there were over 235 million views on the “devious” hashtag.