 TikTok challenge encourages students to hit their teachers A new TikTok challenge challenges students to “smack a teacher.” Educators warn that it could land students in handcuffs. Another month. Another TikTok challenge. The "slap your teacher" challenge is the latest trend that has resulted in some students facing charges and has schools and TikTok speaking out. TikTok tweeted the challenge was an insult to teachers everywhere and any related content posted to its platform was against its community guidelines and would be removed immediately. A quick search on the platform turns up zero results, but that didn't stop schools from moving swiftly to curb any potential attacks. Schools across the nation are notifying teachers, parents and students of the possible consequences after the challenge began to trend on social media and multiple students made headlines for assaulting teachers. An 18-year-old student in Louisiana was arrested and faces charges of suspicion of battery of school teacher, a felony, after she allegedly attacked a 64-year-old disabled teacher as a part of the challenge, police said, according to WDSU News. The alleged attack was caught on video. Viewer discretion is advised. A middle school student in Braintree, Massachusetts is facing disciplinary consequences after they allegedly hit a teacher after being inspired by the challenge, CBS Boston reported. The incident happened on Wednesday at East Middle School and led to the school sending a letter to parents. USA TODAY has reached out to the Braintree Police Department to see if any charges against the student have been filed. "The most recent TikTok challenge involves ‘slap a teacher,’ and we had our first case in the district today,” the district told parents, according to CBS Boston. “Please be aware that physically assaulting any staff member in the Braintree schools will immediately result in notification of the Braintree Police Department and significant school-based discipline, up to and including expulsion.” An elementary school student in South Carolina faces similar consequences after assaulting a teacher on Oct. 1 in the Lancaster County School District. Nation's teachers are feeling burnt out: 'Devious licks' asks students via TikTok to 'smack a staff member' 'Not getting injured over going viral': TikTok bans 'milk crate challenge' from its app, citing concerns over dangerous acts "Unfortunately, the challenge that has been put out for this month is to slap or hit a staff member from behind," the Lancaster County School District Safety & Transportation page posted on Facebook. "Sadly, we actually had an elementary student assault a teacher by striking her in the back of the head." The post continues to advise that these challenges are not pranks and mentions last month's "devious licks" challenge where students were vandalizing or stealing school property. Other school districts across the nation have followed suit in issuing stern warnings against the challenge and giving teachers a heads-up. "Educators beware!," the California Teachers Association posted on Facebook. "As if widespread vandalism in our schools last month wasn’t enough, the same 'challenge' circulating on social media networks TikTok and Twitter is now calling for students to 'slap a staff member.'" Charges and consequences for students who do the challenge can vary. Mo Canady, the executive director for the National Association of School Resource Officers, told USA TODAY that resource officers across the nation are aware of the challenge and charges can vary based on the extent a student assaults a teacher. "When adolescents see something like this and see it play out on the social media world, they don't understand the ramifications and the potential criminal charges," he said. On Friday, in a letter shared with The Wall Street Journal, Rebecca Pringle, president of the National Education Association, called out TikTok, Twitter and Facebook for their role in these trends. She said while schools should be a safe zone, online trends have fueled "violence against our educators." Pringle called on the companies to end violent trends and misinformation. She demanded the companies alter their algorithms to "put public safety over profits." Canady said it is up to the victims of the assaults to press criminal charges, and this challenge differs from last month's "devious licks" challenge because there are direct victims. "It's flat out wrong but beyond that, it can affect their future and that has to be the message," he said. Follow reporter Asha Gilbert @Coastalasha. Email: . In the latest TikTok trend, students are asked to calmly walk up to their teachers, slap them, and then run off, making sure that they capture the whole thing on camera. If anything, this trend is even worse than the devious lick challenge, in part because it involves actual assault. Thankfully, the challenge hasn't actually begun just yet. Unraveling viral disinformation and explaining where it came from, the harm it's causing, and what we should do about it. Want the best of VICE News straight to your inbox? Sign up here. Teacher associations, school districts, and law enforcement officials are so worried about a new viral TikTok challenge that they’re warning teachers and parents, and even writing to the head of the Chinese social media company. The only problem: There’s no evidence that the “Slap a Teacher” challenge they’re all worried about even exists. On Tuesday the California Teachers Association (CTA) issued a blunt two-word statement to its members: “Beware educators.” In a statement on the CTA website, President E. Toby Boyd outlined the threat. “One of the latest trends on social media is a ‘challenge’ that encourages students to physically attack (‘slap’) educators and video-record it.” Boyd said that “slapping a teacher, regardless of whether it results in injury, is assault and battery, and is completely unacceptable,” adding that “recording in a classroom or on other school property without permission is illegal.” The CTA linked the “Slap a Teacher” challenge to the same group of people conducting last month’s viral “Devious Licks” challenge, in which students stole or vandalized items of school property. The “Devious Licks” campaign was also referenced by Connecticut Attorney General Willian Tong in a letter to the head of TikTok. In the letter, Tong wrote: “In Connecticut, vandalism closed schools and the new ‘Slap a Teacher’ challenge may put educators at risk. I am urging TikTok to come to Connecticut to meet with educators and parents and commit to reforms that stop this reckless content.” While the “Devious Licks” challenge was a real thing on TikTok, there is no evidence that the “Slap a Teacher” challenge is. “As far as I’m aware, not a single story has actually included evidence of an initial threat,” Abbie Richards, a disinformation researcher who focuses on TikTok, tweeted on Tuesday night. “And when I looked into this, I couldn’t find a single TikTok actually endorsing this behavior.” “All evidence indicates this is a hoax turned into reality by local news and school districts reacting to completely unconfirmed rumors,” Richards added. To back up their claim, the CTA pointed to a recent case in South Carolina where, it said, one student carried out the challenge. The incident supposedly took place in the Lancaster School District in South Carolina. Last Friday the director of transport and safety Bryan Vaughn issued a statement on Facebook claiming that a student had attacked a teacher, and that it was part of the TikTok trend. “Sadly, we actually had an elementary student assault a teacher by striking her in the back of the head,” Vaughn said. However, there are several issues with this claim. The first is that elementary school students are typically too young to have a TikTok account, which requires users to be at least 13. Secondly, there was no mention that the assault in question was recorded and put on TikTok, and, as Richards points out, “filming is a prerequisite for a TikTok challenge.” In Florida, Superintendent Alberto M. Carvalho, who oversees the fourth-largest school system in the U.S., warned students that the Miami-Dade County Public School district has “has zero-tolerance for such behavior and will investigate and prosecute to the full extent of the law.” An error occurred while retrieving the Tweet. It might have been deleted. The claims about the “Slap a Teacher” challenge appear to have originated from a single online document that lists various school TikTok challenges for each month, which began with the “Devious Licks” challenge in September. However, there’s no evidence to show that this list is real or represents a TikTok trend. An error occurred while retrieving the Tweet. It might have been deleted. Despite the complete lack of evidence that students are attacking teachers and posting videos of it online, numerous media outlets have run credulous stories about the “trend” citing the warnings from officials as evidence. On the video-sharing app itself, a number of teachers have posted videos warning their students not to try anything. Other users are simply using the claims to make fun of the situation: But there are no videos showing students actually striking their teachers—and a teacher being attacked in a classroom isn’t evidence that a TikTok trend is real. “That is simply confirmation bias,” Richards said. Part of the problem appears to be a lack of understanding of how TikTok works and how trends become viral on the platform. A single user cannot dictate what becomes a trend just by writing down a list of these trends. “TikTok has real threats (I would know, I study them professionally). But this particular threat appears to not be from teens,” Richards tweeted. “Seems like a whole lot of adults don’t know what a TikTok challenge is or how they work. And they didn’t ask anyone to explain it to them either.” The situation echoes a hoax that went viral in April based on a rumor that April 24 had been designated “National Rape Day”, even though there was no evidence to support the claims that men were spreading videos urging others to celebrate the day. TikTok has a lot of issues to deal with in relation to hate speech and disinformation—as Richards highlighted in research she published Tuesday that shows the app’s algorithm leads users from transphobic videos to far-right rabbit holes—and making claims about hoax challenges on the platform simply detract from the real issues. |
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