Schools are warning students to stop taking part in viral 'devious licks' challenge

Schools are warning their students to stop taking part in the viral "devious licks" challenge.

Now, as we all know, viral challenges are nothing new, but as the Tide Pod challenge from a few years back taught us, they can have serious - and on occasion - deadly consequences.

The devious licks challenge has its roots on TikTok and involves students attempting to steal or damage something from their school, which obviously is an all-around bad idea.

High school principal, @sarahbambergerr, has now hit back at the trend on the app itself, warning students that if they don't stop causing damage, they could be prevented from going to the bathroom altogether.

Watch the principal's TikTok below:

"This is nonsense that sinks were ripped off the walls.… teachers do not let students go to the bathroom during class anymore; especially males, since they seem to want to destroy everything," the principal says.

He then explains that the boys' bathroom at his school could be closed "indefinitely" and that "all students can go to different bathrooms which will have people at them to make sure we're not destroying things."

Watch a bathroom be destroyed as part of the trend below: 

In the above TikTok, the teacher explained that five bathrooms had been destroyed at the school in a single week.

"Whoever's destroying the bathrooms, be prepared to get kicked out of school," he said.

Now, TikTok itself has banned the Devious Lick hashtag in a bid to discourage the trend.

They wrote on Twitter: "We expect our community to create responsibly - online and IRL. We're removing content and redirecting hashtags & search results to our Community Guidelines to discourage such behavior. Please be kind to your schools & teachers."

Urban Dictionary defines a "lick" as "a successful type of theft which results in an acceptable, impressive and rewarding payday for the protagonist."

As per the Guardian, other acts carried out as part of the challenge have included stealing soap dispensers, and in some instances turf from playing fields, as well as smashing up bathroom mirrors.

Police in Bartow, in central Florida, said that they have arrested a 15-year-old who tore a soap dispenser from its fixtures.

"He said he did it because of this TikTok challenge and he wanted to be cool," police chief Bryan Dorman said.

Other schools have said that they will also be taking disciplinary action against those participating in the challenge.

Featured image credit: TikTok / Anatolii Babii