Teenagers or TikTok? Who Is To Blame For Stealing from Rochester Schools
In a matter of about an hour yesterday, my inbox was full of messages from moms asking me if I had heard about all the stealing happening in the schools at Rochester Public Schools and in Stewartville, Minnesota. I hadn't even seen my kids yet that day so I was in the dark on all of this but I figured out real fast that the latest TikTok called Devious Lick was actually happening in our local schools. My kids' bathrooms were locked and soap dispensers had been stolen. Why? #DeviousLick is why.
Libary at Century High School is now closed for an uncertain amount of time. Which, is an issue for any student needing to print anything since that is the only place with student access, like my kid. - Century High School mom
At lunch, I saw a guy just walk off with the entire container of napkins. - Rochester Public School student
Devious Lick TikTok Challenge is happening in our schools in Rochester, Minnesota
If you search for Devious Lick on TikTok, it looks like it has been banned now so you'll have a tough time finding any current videos on that social media site. Twitter and YouTube aren't hard to find though and below is one that shows a whole bunch of people just...well, breaking the law.
What does Rochester Public Schools say about the Devious Lick Challenge?
Some of the moms that reached out to me were pretty upset, mostly because we are in the middle of a pandemic and not having soap or being able to use the bathroom is kindof a big deal. I haven't been in the schools lately so I reached out to Heather Nessler with Rochester Public Schools to see if she could answer a few questions for me and give me a statement on the entire stealing situation. She had a busy day with this latest issue in our schools but she was nice enough to send the following statement my way:
All of our secondary buildings with the exception of one have experienced problems of this sort to some degree. Mainly, theft has been primarily of soap dispensers, but other items have also been taken, such as containers for sporks in the lunchrooms, tape dispensers and other supply type items.
Our restrooms have sometimes been closed because the thefts have left a lack of soap in that specific restroom. Keeping them open without soap poses a huge hygiene risk. It is not uncommon for restrooms to be shut down following vandalism to give our custodial staff a chance to address and return the restroom to proper working order. We will/are replacing soap dispensers as part of the post-vandalism work.
Buildings have done some public service announcements to address the thefts and the safety issues they present. Also, students have been asked to share any information they have that would help stop this unfortunate activity based on a social media challenge. Many students have come forward to report knowledge of students posting items they have stolen on TikTok. Administrators are addressing the thefts following the Student Handbook. - Heather Nessler,, Executive Director of Communications, Marketing, Technology at Rochester Public Schools
What are people saying about the latest Devious Lick trend?
What do you think about all this? You can tell me - feel free to send me a message on my Facebook page - Jessica On The Radio.
From the e-mails and Facebook messages I've received in the last 24 hours, here is what I have heard: Parents are ticked off, I can tell you that. I can't even imagine what it is like being a staff member at a school right now. No one is paid enough to put up with disrespect like this and yet our teachers, paras, custodial team, and every person employed under the school umbrella are showing up in a pandemic to help our students...even the ones that are stealing from them and laughing about it.
Personally, I think these teenagers are morons and I know that they can be found because they posted all these videos online. They just aren't mature enough to realize that everything that goes online can be found - including all of those disappearing videos. Somewhere in the world, that video is still being stored.
My guess is that we will start to hear the other side of this story soon and teenagers across the country that have been participating will be expelled or charges could even be brought against them. As Heather mentioned above, they are following the Student Handbook on that one for Rochester, which you can find here.
FILL IN THE BLANK: Rochester has way too many _________.
Right now, I'd say "morons" who think TikTok fame is more important than a criminal record. Here are a few other popular answers...