As Tik Tok Takes West, Bathrooms Take the L
Devious Licks hashtag
Oct 1, 2021
The widespread trend on Tik Tok known as “devious licks” made its way to the bathrooms and common spaces at Niles West. For those who are unfamiliar with this trend, the main goal is to steal or vandalize items in school. Some of West’s bathrooms have been damaged, temporarily closed, and other items may have been stolen.
On Tuesday Sept. 21, the second floor English hallway bathroom mirror was missing. Empowering note cards were put up in its place. On Friday Sept. 24, the second floor girls bathroom mirror was also missing. Students have also reported other missing items such as hand sanitizers, soap, lunch trays and caution signs.
As an effect of the vandalism, some students have reported closed and locked bathrooms.
“At the women’s bathroom near the choir room, the women’s sign was torn off and only had the letter ‘n’ of the sign left over. I have seen many bathrooms locked, such as the one by the choir room,” sophomore Sierra Sherrard said.
On Friday Sept. 24, three girls bathrooms were closed and one boys bathroom was closed.
After a week of vandalism, on Monday Sept. 27, Assistant Principal of Operations Steve Parnther confirmed by email that “all bathrooms [were] open. However, if a bathroom is vandalized, we may need to close it to allow our team to assess the damages.”
Several students expressed frustration and disapproval.
“I think that school vandalism is unnecessary and that when kids are partaking in it they aren’t thinking about all the other people it is affecting,” sophomore Jenna Shimanski said.
“I was in the second floor bathroom and there was no mirror. There were also door signs missing from the school,” sophomore Nashri Quadri said.
“I saw on people’s snapchat stories of mirrors being removed from the girls’ bathroom and since then, certain bathrooms have been locked off for security purposes,” senior Emily Kim said.
According to a Sept. 17 email from Assistant Principal of Operations Steve Parnther, students caught engaging in such behaviors will face consequences.
“Any student caught vandalizing will be subject to school and district level disciplinary consequences and may be subject to legal consequences, will be required to pay for all damages, labor cost, and placed on a no pass list during scheduled classes until further notice,” Parnther wrote. “If such actions continue, we may need to close some bathrooms within our buildings.”
It remains unclear as to whether or not any students were caught or received consequences for this vandalism. Though multiple requests for specific damages and costs were sent to various school officials, the NWN did not receive responses as of press time.
Parnther’s email also encourages students not to participate in the trend, which is a position many students support.
“I think it’s a very unnecessary trend and I don’t understand why people do it. All the supplies at school costs lots of money and costs lots of money to fix and replace,” sophomore Afra Abdul said.
“I think actions/behaviors like that are extremely immature and disrespectful to both faculty and students. It puts a stain on the name niles west and what kind of students wolves are,” Kim said.
“I think vandalizing the school is very unnecessary, and the people doing it don’t take into consideration the people that have to clean up after them, and sometimes people can get very out of hand with the things they take. It’s very disrespectful to the school,” sophomore Anna Lusson said.
