COLUMBIA, S.C. — It's happening all over the country.
The 'Devious Lick' social media challenge is leading schools to be damaged and, in some cases, costing thousands in repairs. "Hitting a lick" is slang for robbing and stealing, and that’s exactly what these kids are doing.
Multiple South Carolina districts have already been affected including Sumter, Lexington School District's One and Three, and Kershaw County.
Richland School District Two says more than half of its middle and high schools have been damaged by a small number of students seeking social media fame.
"We’ve seen a hand dryer ripped off the wall…Trashing the bathroom. Toilet paper everywhere," Chief Operations Officer Will Anderson said. "The sheer volume of soap dispensers is probably the biggest thing. In one school alone last week, it was 24 ripped off the wall and thrown wherever or stolen.”
The focus has been mainly on bathrooms.
“Schools are trying to do all they can to have more supervision," Anderson said. "(Students will) see the harsh repercussions to that and they, hopefully they won’t do it again.”
Tik Tok is now removing content associated with the trend and redirecting searchers to their community guidelines, tweeting, in part, ".... Please be kind to your schools and teachers."
Anderson hopes the move will lead to fewer incidents.
"If they don’t have a platform to show that, then I think that’s going to really, hopefully deter this behavior," Anderson said.
Until then, it's cleaning up thousands of dollars in damages as they work to hold those responsible accountable.
"Just talk to your kids about valuing the place that they go to school," Anderson said, "and just working together so that we can get past this.”