The #deviouslick Tiktok “challenge” that encourages students to participate in disruptive and destructive tasks has indeed been devious for Brea Olinda High School, resulting in a trashed bathroom and even prompted an email to the Brea Olinda Unified School District Community from Dr. Brad Mason, superintendent.

The “devious” acts started on Sept. 1 with TikTok user Jugg4elias posting a video of stolen disposable masks with the caption, “A month into school… devious lick.” The hashtag soon spread around social media, inciting other students across the U.S. to create videos of stealing small objects like staplers, pencil sharpeners, soap, and paper towel dispensers off the bathroom walls.

Vandals inspired by the trend struck BOHS during the week of Sept. 13, trashing a boys’ bathroom on the first floor of A Building.

Kevin O’Dea, BOHS custodian, expressed his anger about the incident, particularly the “breaking [of] the soap dispensers off the walls” because the custodians put in so much effort into keeping the school clean and safe for students and staff. 

Dr. Joshua Porter, principal, acknowledged the additional strain the trend has created for custodians: “The vandalism not only ruins the bathrooms for students, but it creates more work for our custodians and campus supervisors.” 

Members of the student body are already over the “devious” TikTok trend. “I think students taking school property, especially in the bathrooms, is annoying and really immature,” Alisha Choi, freshman, said.

In an email to BOUSD families on Oct. 5, Mason addressed the “growing concern” of the challenge and the impact it has had on the district’s schools. “September’s challenge to ‘mess up a toilet/vandalize a restroom’ has resulted in damage to some of our campuses restrooms and encourages even more egregious behaviors,” Mason wrote.

To combat the trend, Mason encouraged parents to talk to their children “about the consequences of making poor choices, especially this type of behavior that is glamourized on social media.” Mason also warned that BOUSD has a “zero tolerance policy for this behavior.”

At BOHS, Porter said that administrators are “increasing supervision and education in the classrooms.” He also encourages students to utilize the anonymous Text-a-Tip hotline to report any inappropriate, illegal, or suspicious behavior.

Porter predicts that, like all trends, this one too will “come and go.”