coronavirus

TikTok Challenge Forces Schools to Close Bathrooms in Middle of Pandemic

The challenge urges students to steal from, and vandalize their schools, particularly school bathrooms, then post the videos online

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Bay Area schools have had to shut down entire bathrooms thanks to a TikTok challenge students have been taking part it. This at a time when kids should be washing their hands more often.

The issue has grown so much that parents in multiple districts around the Bay Area have sent NBC Bay Area emails saying it's not good to shut these down during a pandemic.

“Bad because we want to use the bathrooms, why’d you do it in the first place?” said a student.

Hindsight is 20-20 and when you see the 90,000 plus posts of students bragging about taking part in the latest TikTok challenge "devious licks" -- a clear problem spread nationwide.

A destructive challenge on social media has some teens stealing and destroying property at their schools. Thom Jensen reports.

The challenge urges students to steal from, and vandalize their schools, particularly school bathrooms, then post the videos online. 

The results are dramatic -- soap dispensers, sinks, even toilets ripped out of the wall.   

“Oh yeah, it was bad, all over the bathroom floor,” said the student.

Leaving schools with little choice but to close bathrooms -- which creates another issue. 

“It’s scary, close down during pandemic, how do they wash hands, how do we promote sanitation?” said parent Eric Briggs. 

Last week, at least two East Bay districts were forced to shutter multiple bathrooms because of the damage done.

Now, San Francisco schools are seeing the same issue.

U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal said TikTok needs to be held accountable, along with the students responsible for the vandalism. 

“TikTok needs to ban these videos. Ban the users who did it,” he said. “TikTok is complicit in these kinds of actions.”

TikTok says it has banned the challenge and is doing all it can to pull down the videos -- but others are going up almost as fast.

As for schools, they say they're doing all they can to catch those responsible.

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