Some Arkansas schools, like others across the nation, have been hit by social media-inspired vandalism in the first few weeks of classes.
The Little Rock, Pulaski County Special, Cabot, Bentonville and Jacksonville/North Pulaski school districts are some of the systems in the state reporting acts such as ripped-out soap dispensers, pulled-down mirrors, purposely clogged toilets, and defaced walls and signs. Similar vandalism, costing thousands of dollars, has occurred at schools in California, Texas and Michigan, among other states, according to news media accounts.
Nancy Rousseau, principal of the historic Little Rock Central High, expressed frustration in an email to parents and others over the weekend.
"Some Central students have literally destroyed our soap dispensers, dumped chrome books, auditorium air vents, paper towels, food, bottles, books, etc., in the toilets and urinals," Rousseau wrote. "If that isn't bad enough, they have published their vandalism [and] criminal mischief on an Instagram account where they encouraged more of this behavior including disparaging remarks about their principal."
She said the Instagram account appears to have been disabled as of Sunday morning.
In addition to Central, other Little Rock School District campuses affected by vandalism are Pulaski Heights Middle, Pinnacle View Middle, Mabelvale Middle and Cloverdale Middle schools, Randy Rutherford, the district's executive director of secondary education, said Monday. The destruction has occurred over the last three weeks and, to date, no culprits have been caught, he said.
Kevin Yarberry, the district's director of maintenance and operations, said the cost of repairs is a moving target.
"We learn more about further damage from day to day at this point," Yarberry said.
He also said he was unaware of any school restrooms actually out of commission as of Monday.
The Cabot School District has posted on its website photographs of the vandalism in that district. Liz Massey, a spokeswoman for the district, said the destruction has occurred at all of the system's secondary campuses.
Photos from Cabot show a case where one end of a toilet grab bar has been pulled off the wall and pushed into the toilet. Other pictures show a red dye that has been splashed on to wall tiles, floors, toilets and urinals. Still, others show yanked-apart soap dispensers and a mirror pulled from the wall.
"Teachers' belongings have also been stolen," the Cabot website states.
"This behavior is illegal and will not be tolerated," the post continues. "Please know that vandalism and theft carry stiff consequences. Law enforcement will be notified when applicable and students will face school disciplinary action."
The post urges parents to talk with their students about the seriousness of the vandalism.
"School leaders should not have to divert their attention from teaching and covid-19 mitigation to investigate. Additionally, our building maintenance and custodial teams are understaffed, so you can imagine the negative impacts these trends have on our district schoolwide," the Cabot post states.
The vandalism is being sparked at least in part by the "devious licks challenge" posted on the TikTok social media platform, the Washington Post reported late last week. In response to the challenge, vandalism occurs and the culprits show off their destruction on social media.
TikTok has announced it is removing such videos and related hashtags because the challenge violates guidelines for posting on the platform, the Post also reported.
The vandalism comes in a year when schools and districts are continuing to struggle with the covid-19 pandemic that has disrupted school since March 2020.
In the 2020-21 school year, Arkansas schools were open for onsite instruction but some had to periodically transition to at-home, online learning when there were covid outbreaks in their schools. Thousands of other Arkansas students opted for full-time online instruction.
"It's been quite a week and a half," Rousseau wrote Sunday to parents and others. "It appears that it is not enough to have had to deal with a covid pandemic, but now we have had to suffer with a viral TikTok destructive bathroom pandemic in our boys' restrooms.
"The district administration, City Hall and Little Rock Police Department have all helped us address these problems," Rousseau continued.
"Our custodians have suffered tremendously throughout this destructive behavior. They work so hard every day from 6 a.m. [to] 11 p.m. to keep our school clean and safe for all of us. These harmful activities are the result of a small number of our male students but has been disrespectful to our entire school family. We are hopeful that this will be resolved very shortly," she said. "Please talk to your child/children about respecting other people's property.
Jeremy Owoh, superintendent of the Jacksonville/North Pulaski School District, said that two restrooms were vandalized in a single day.
The vandalism consisted of the removal of soap dispensers in one restroom and the spread of toilet tissue and paper towels throughout another restroom, he said. Video of the acts has not been found but the district continues to investigate and has increased the monitoring of restrooms.
"We are proud of our scholars who chose not to participate in the challenge and continued to respect our schools throughout the district," Owoh said.
In the Bentonville School District, an outdoor sign at Creekside Middle School was damaged over the weekend.
"It's not yet been repaired but we're working on it," Communications director Leslee Wright said.
"We're sharing a communication later today with parents of middle school, junior high and high school students to let families know we intend to criminally prosecute perpetrators. Any student found guilty of such a crime will be responsible for reimbursing the district the cost of the vandalism," Wright said.
Ashley Kelley Siwiec, communications director for the Rogers School District said said social media's broad reach rarely skips over that district.
"Whenever there's something popular on social media circulating around the country, it usually touches here, too," Siwiec said. "We address it as we would with any other discipline matter following our policies.
Information for this article was contributed by Mary Jordan of the Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.