Situational Awareness Bulletin: October TikTok Challenge

The Ohio School Safety Center (OSSC) has learned of a new October social media challenge that impacts Ohio schools and, specifically, staff and educators. 

Some TikTok users have devised a monthly list that includes various pranks or “challenges” to take place at school. For example, in recent weeks, there have been incidents of school vandalism as part of the "devious lick" challenge.

The published challenge for the month of October asks students to “Slap a Teacher."

The challenge encourages students to slap a teacher or staff member and run before being caught committing the assault. The incident must be also be filmed or the challenge does not “count.” 

Some open-source media states that TikTok is addressing these trends by deleting and blocking the names of users associated with the challenges. It is being reported that TikTok is now directing associated hashtags to its Community Guidelines page. However, these videos can still be found on this platform by using variations of these terms or misspellings. 

Several school administrators are working to inform parents of this new and upcoming trend and are speaking with students about the potential repercussions that could result if they participate. We recommend sharing this information and a copy of your school’s code of conduct with your staff, students, and parents.