SAUGUS — Students have been taking part in illegal TikTok challenges since classes resumed this year, with multiple instances of school bathrooms being vandalized in the district.
Now, school officials are concerned this might escalate to more violent behavior; the most recent TikTok trend challenges students to slap a teacher during the month of October.
Students were challenged on TikTok to vandalize school bathrooms in September; during that month, multiple bathrooms throughout the Saugus Middle-High School were vandalized, according to the School Committee, which discussed the issue at a meeting on Wednesday.
School Committee Chairman Tom Whittredge said the students not only vandalize school property, but go on to boast about it on the popular social-media platform, where they post videos of themselves committing the illegal behavior. This is the first year the new school is open, which makes repairs extremely expensive, he said.
At its meeting, the School Committee warned students that they will face stiff punishment if they are caught vandalizing school property or engaging in other illegal behavior.
“We will not be putting up with any nonsense from a challenge from TikTok, whether it be vandalism or even worse, assault or disrespect towards an educator,” said School Committee member John Hatch. “If something like that happens and an educator is assaulted, touched, or disrespected in any way because of a TikTok challenge, we will seek to prosecute as far as we can to make sure the person that decided it was OK to do this challenge will be punished to the maximum extent.”
While the vandalism remains a concern, school officials have now turned their focus to a second, more violent TikTok trend, which has seen students across the country slapping educators to complete the October challenge. While TikTok has issued a statement that it has found no evidence of such a trend on its platform, several students — including one in Braintree — are facing expulsion, or other significant punishment for assaulting their teachers.
No student has participated yet in the Saugus Public Schools, but Whittredge said that committing an assault against a teacher would result in expulsion from the district. He said the challenges are another example of how social media has created an unsafe atmosphere for educators in public schools.
“Teaching now and 30 years ago is completely different,” said Whittredge.
District administrators are urging parents to talk to their children about these illegal social-media trends, with the aim of avoiding further incidents in the town’s public schools.
Hannah Chadwick can be reached at [email protected].
