Timberlane Tries to Put a Stop to Damaging TikTok Trends

TikTok has taken the world of social media by storm and has become one of the most popular social media apps of 2021, having more than 1 billion monthly active users (according to datareportal.com). Recently, thousands of TikTok users have taken part in a trend known as the “Devious Lick” challenge, which entails videos of students stealing from or vandalizing their school bathrooms, and posting it for others to see. While Timberlane administration has made many efforts to prevent the bathrooms from being used for anything other than what they are supposed to be used for, the “Devious Lick” challenge has required them to reach out to the students for help.

This harmful TikTok challenge has caused many bathrooms to be shut down due to the vandalism. With only one to two bathrooms being open in the entire school for each gender, this has left students who haven’t been causing any damage to the bathrooms very frustrated. “It’s very frustrating to have to waste so much time trying to find a bathroom that’s open to use, just to have it full of students hanging out and refusing to move when you actually have to use it. You miss class time and then you seem suspicious because you’ve been gone so long, it’s just not a good situation.” says Jerimiah Moore, a senior at the high school. 

In another effort to keep the Timberlane bathrooms in shape, organizations like the National Honor Society and Student Council have been asked to counter the negative “Devious Lick” TikToks by creating a new, positive online trend to take over the school. As a result, what now is being called the “Timberlane Challenge” has students encouraging others to smile throughout the entire school. The challenge consists of students, one by one, having about a two or three second spotlight in the video to shine their smile to the camera, while the song “You’re Never Fully Dressed Without a Smile” by Sia plays in the background.  “I think it’s great,” says Cooper Kelley, “These TikToks are getting the entire school involved in something good, which is rare to see. It’s a good way to spread positivity instead of encouraging those who are damaging our school that what they are doing is funny.”

The “Timberlane Challenge” videos can be found under the “#timberlanechallenge” tag on TikTok. Although this challenge has only been going on for about 2 weeks now, many students and staff have taken the time to participate and upload their videos for the world to see. Encouraging positivity and appropriate online behavior seems to be an effective way to veer attention away from the “Devious Lick” challenge that has unfortunately caused so much damage to our school. The hope for this challenge is to promote students to behave positively enough in school that administration will not have to keep closing bathrooms.