Licks Lead to Loss of Leisure

From thievery to the destruction of school bathrooms, Woodstock Union High School has been plagued with poor student-lead behavior following a popular Tik Tok trend which has been viral for the past several weeks. The Tik Tok ‘lick’ trend started to take place at the beginning of the school year across the country, with miscreant students “copping” ( acquiring ) items of school-funded equipment ranging from Projectors, Soap Dispensers, Microscopes, Printers, Copiers, and other items supplied by educational departments across the country.

Many believed that the trend would not reach Woodstock students and that if it did there would be little involvement. One student who asked to be anonymous stated that: “ as a small enough school I would think that students would realize the consequences and laugh it off.” This, however, was not the case.

Woodstock Administration began dealing with the issue after hearing from a neighboring facility: Rutland High School, who expressed concern that the trend had recently overtaken the school and Woodstock would be soon to follow. And right they were. According to Hannah Leland ( Dean of Students ): “After hearing from Rutland we had one of the first reported incidents follow.”

Beginning with Soap dispensers and other toiletries to stall doors and other random appliances, students were ransacking the school, but this was not the most disheartening aspect of the issue to administration. According to Leland, the issue wasn’t stolen property, but rather the general destruction of newly purchased equipment: “ We spent thousands of dollars to repair a lot of the bathrooms at the school this summer with the understanding that certain aspects of the school were outdated, and that there were certain places where we could put money that would benefit students positively,” Leland says.

Leland then elaborates further on the destruction of property by stating: “ the only things really stolen was a few soap dispensers but damage wise they broke toilets, they broke paper towel dispensers and they broke more than they stole which is why it was so incredibly disheartening for us as a staff.”

With this in mind hall passes and sign-out sheets have been implemented to promote safety and record bathroom access time in case the trend continues. And while many students believe it to be a tragedy and “violation of my freedoms as a student”- (asked to be anonymous) one can only wonder: “Did we do this to ourselves ?”