These days, Eddie Campbell Jr. makes his living as superintendent of Monongalia County Schools.
He was a high school principal before that.
During Tuesday night’s meeting of the Mon Board of Education, he sounded every bit like one.
That was when he reminded students that the vandalism of school property is a crime – and will be addressed as such by the district.
Even, he said, if a student participating in such an act is responding to the TikTok “devious licks” challenge that has been perplexing school administrators nationwide in recent weeks.
Especially if a student is answering the above challenge, he said.
TikTok is the popular social media app and “devious licks” is the let’s-break-something phenomenon that Mon’s superintendent said may be somewhat related to angst and aggression generated by the now-18-month-old pandemic.
In its pre-COVID past, the app might have been the province of, say, a student posting a clever, creative request for a prom date.
Now, it’s more aggressive.
A devious lick might mean tearing a chunk of artificial turf off a football field or lifting a microscope from a science lab – all the while videotaping one’s self in the act.
More often than not, though, it generally means getting a student where he or she really lives: The restroom.
Especially the restroom.
Yanking soap dispensers from the wall.
Plugging up toilets with paper.
Breaking stall doors and other fixtures.
Mon County’s schools haven’t been immune. The bathroom stalls at South Middle School a couple of weeks ago, for example, were an especially enticing target, the superintendent said.
Both the boys’ and girls’ facilities at the school on Mississippi Street were “significantly damaged,” Campbell informed the board.
So much significant damage, in fact, the superintendent said, that at one point, only two stalls – one apiece in each bathroom – were operational until repairs could be made.
This, in a school with 800 students.
A “staggered” schedule had to be quickly established in the repair-interim, he said, to accommodate Nature’s call.
Campbell said the trend goes beyond youthful hijinks, both because of the damage inflicted – and the darker tack the challenge appears to be taking.
That includes the “slap a teacher” challenge that is now said to making the rounds for October, according to national media reports.
Other challenges across the country have included faking choking attacks in the cafeteria at lunch.
Mon’s superintendent said any student caught in the TikTok act will be prosecuted, with no excuses or exceptions.
“These are serious consequences that could adversely affect their futures,” he said.
It would also mean, he said, that the adults at home would also be held accountable for the repair bill.
“I hope parents are having this same conversation with their kids,” the superintendent said.
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