It’s a TikTok trend which has gone viral and Oakdale High School has not been spared.
Known as “Devious Licks” the viral trend entails students filming a video of themselves stealing and vandalizing items, most commonly in the school restroom.
While to some it may seem funny, for most OHS students it has proven to be anything but and the viral trend has caused the campus to go down to as few as one restroom per gender.
“The damage that was done, wasn’t seen on video,” Principal Mike Moore said of the soap dispensers as well as paper towel holders which were vandalized in multiple restrooms on the OHS campus.
Moore shared that the trend started on campus shortly after the school year started and while nothing was physically stolen the vandalism was significant enough to make the restrooms inoperable.
“It got more and more popular. I think more kids started talking about it,” Moore stated. “These devious acts that had been seen.”
This week the campus was able to reopen two more restrooms for the students and hope to have the remaining two open later this week or early next week at latest.
“It’s unfortunate that it’s just a few kids,” the principal said. “We have 1750 kids here and the vast, vast majority of them are doing the right thing. It’s just we haven’t caught the kids that have caused the problems yet.”
While rumors have circulated that toilets, as well as dividers and sinks have been removed from the campus, Moore indicated those are not facts. The damage at OHS has been strictly vandalism, with graffiti beginning most recently.
“It’s just been more about the man hours and the inconvenience more than anything else,” Moore said of the impact on the campus.
“Most of our kids have pride in their school,” he continued. “I don’t know that these kids are necessarily realizing what they’re doing or if they just think it’s funny. How it got started or caught fire I just can’t tell you.”
Students caught vandalizing, stealing or participating in the “Devious” trend will be faced with suspension and financial restitution.
