A recent nationwide TikTok trend commonly known by the name ‘Devious Licks’, is a trend that encourages students to steal various kinds of items from school property, especially the school’s restrooms.

Items such as soap dispensers, toilet seats, sinks, and paper towel dispensers are just some of the most popular items for students to take. 

The trends rapid widespread has even made its way to Freedom High School. In the recent weeks, FHS has taken action by closing almost every single boy’s restroom to stop further damage. Males are also not allowed to bring backpacks with them into the restrooms anymore since that is where they tend to hide the stolen items.

Kathy Koscinski, the assistant principal at Freedom High School, described the consequences that would result from a student being caught.

“There will be some kind of suspension and also the police could be involved depending on the amount of things that have been stolen,” Koscinski said.

Some students may find these ‘Devious Licks’ to be entertaining and amusing, but others may be directly impacted negatively. Weighing out the pros and cons, it can be easily proven that this trend is not worth-while. 

“The trend is funny to watch, but once it’s actually happening in real life it’s extremely irresponsible and it becomes very irritating,” said Matthew Rutler, an FHS sophomore. “It’s very inconvenient for me and just really for everyone here at Freedom.”

Principal Neelum Chaudhry’s goal is for parents to speak with their children about the consequences and the dangers that this trend could potentially lead to. She believes that punishing students is not beneficial and could rather be damaging than helpful.

“Students make mistakes and sometimes get caught up in whatever the mess and school of thought is,” Chaudhry said.

Chaudhry hopes that through encouragement and working together as a group, FHS students will realize that not all trends are worth following.

“I just hope that positive peer pressure prevails and people are going to step up and say, ‘Hey this isn’t right,’” Koscinski said. “I think also we’re working on being respectful and unified which includes the way we treat our school.” 

The administrators at FHS plan to reopen the restrooms once the damage has been repaired and when the stolen items have been replaced. At press time, there was not an exact reopening date. 

Another trend has sprung up and is referred to as ‘Angelic Yields’. These so-called ‘Yields’, motivate students to actually replace and give back to their schools what they had previously stolen from the ‘Devious Licks’ movement. The ‘Yields’ are slowly beginning to override the ‘Licks’, but most likely will not 100% eliminate this trend for good.

As a community, understanding the core values of FHS and working as whole to continue and cherish those values are key. So, eventually temporary closures will be revoked and students will be able to freely access restrooms without restriction.