Disturbing TikTok Challenge 'Slap a Teacher' Prompts Warning From California Teachers Association

The California Teachers Association on Tuesday released a warning regarding a TikTok challenge dubbed "slap a teacher."

In a statement posted on Facebook, the association said there is a new "challenge" circulating on social media platforms TikTok and Twitter calling for students to "slap a staff member" on video, KTLA News reported.

The "slap a teacher" challenge was reportedly connected to a viral TikTok trend called "devious licks," in which students posted TikTok videos of themselves vandalizing school property.

Sandburg Middle School in Glendora, California was among two schools in the Glendora Unified School District to have encountered destruction last month due to the social media challenge.

TikTok Challenge to Slap a Teacher Prompts Warning From California Teachers Association

The California Teachers Association warned that slapping a teacher or an educator is considered "assault and battery," and recording on school property without permission is illegal.

The association noted that regardless of whether it results in injury, student perpetrators could face serious consequences such as expulsion or criminal prosecution.

The slapping challenge reportedly started last month. According to Lancaster County School District, an elementary school teacher in South Carolina was hit in the back of the head, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Los Angeles Unified School District spokesperson Shannon Haber noted that although they have not yet received any reports of students slapping teachers, they had already alerted school sites about the TikTok challenges.

Officials in other states also issued a warning against possible assault from students due to the latest TikTok challenge.

Connecticut's attorney general William Tong wrote a letter to TikTok chief executive officer Shou Zi Chew, urging him to review company policies to prevent further abuse.

Tong also asked TikTok to meet with educators in Connecticut and commit to reforms that stop these kinds of content. Tong said vandalism has closed schools in Connecticut, and "the new 'Slap a Teacher' challenge may put educators at risk."

Teachers and others have used TikTok to discourage users from participating in the challenge.

TikTok Challenge' Devious Licks'

Students in Sandburg Middle School had participated in a viral TikTok trend called "devious licks" last month.

The "devious licks" challenge had prompted kids to post TikTok videos of themselves vandalizing school bathrooms, stealing soap dispensers, and even turf from football fields.

Some schools were prompted to closely monitor or even shut down bathrooms to stop the damage to school property the said TikTok challenge was causing.

A high school in Pennsylvania also experienced vandalism in its bathrooms. Altoona Area School District's superintendent Dr. Charles Prijatelj said students were emptying soap dispensers and throwing soap on the walls and mirrors.

Prijatelj noted that they had encountered trash cans moved on top of toilets and paper towels all over the bathroom floor, with one incident wherein students actually peed on the floor, WTAJ reported.

He said they had caught a few perpetrators, but the school still heightened its restroom monitoring procedures.

According to Prijatelj, faculty checked all restrooms every period, and surveillance cameras were also installed in the hallways to see whose been going in and out of a bathroom.

Meanwhile, a TikTok spokesperson said they would remove "devious licks" content and redirect hashtags and search results to its guidelines. The spokesperson added that TikTok does not allow content that "promotes or enables criminal activities."

The "devious licks" hashtag has already garnered more than 175 million views.

This article is owned by Latin Post

Written by: Mary Webber

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