‘Devious Lick’ trend leads to vandalism across campus

Heba Dalu, Editor-in-Chief|October 22, 2021

Sam Laguna
A detached sink lies on the counter in a boys bathroom after being disconnected in an effort to damage the bathroom as part of the “Devious Lick” trend that spread on TikTok.

Students at Akins could soon face felony charges if they are caught participating in the recent vandalism because of the ‘Devious Lick’ TikTok trend.

Since the week of September 13, students have been vandalizing the restroom walls and removing soap dispensers, urinals, toilet paper, and sinks.

Associate Principal Manuel Garcia said that he’s surprised by how big of an influence TikTok has been on Akins students.

“We have been shocked that our students are using TikTok, or are getting influenced by TikTok, to vandalize our own property,” Garcia said. “It is our responsibility to make sure that we take care of our school and that’s something to be proud of. We have been upset, and we’re doing everything that we can to help mitigate the situation. In some areas, we have been locking the restrooms that have doors.”

Garcia said that administrators have identified some students involved in the vandalism and that they’re going to face severe consequences.

“If we catch you, we are going to file felony charges for destroying public property,” he said. “And so the school is taking a stance on that and we’re very firm. We’re gonna go all out in terms of we have proof, and we find somebody that’s doing that, that we are filing felony charges for destruction of public property,” he said.

According to Garcia, there’s not yet a monetary value estimate to the recent acts of vandalism that have occurred on campus.

“When we fix something, for example, when we either go to a bathroom and they destroy the sink or they remove the mirror, or they take out the soap dispenser, we try to put it back. And then it goes back again. They do the same thing, so it’s kind of like, constantly, so at this time we don’t have any monetary value of the damage,” he said.

He also believes that students are behaving this way solely due to the TikTok trend.

“It is because of a social media TikTok and it’s happening across the entire school district for students,” he said. “It’s happening in middle schools, it’s happening in high schools. It happened in all of AISD secondary campuses where students are destroying their public property bathrooms, because of TikTok.”

Many students and teachers also had similar reactions to the vandalism. Sophomore Angie Madrid said that the students that are behind this are “too immature” and says that this is most likely happening because there are no restrictions.

Nicholas Rodriguez, social studies teacher and football coach, said that this trend “does more damage to the individual than necessarily the property itself.”

He also said that the trend is very “young and impressionable.”

Custodian Bersalia Majano said (translated from Spanish) that it feels really bad that students are throwing everything around. “It’s terrible that they are mistreating the school. It’s a place where you come to supposedly get education, and get taught, not to vandalize,” she said.