The Westside High School administration sent an email to all students and parents warning them about the consequences of participating in speculated TikTok trends, including a “slap your teacher” trend. Principal Jay Opperman said that administrators are already taking action to prevent this.

“We’re just going to try and be proactive and, unfortunately with social media, you can’t stay out in front of everything,” Opperman said. “Probably the bigger thing is just to hopefully create a conversation between staff and students and parents and students just about making great decisions all the time.”

Westside Dean of Students Bradley Metzler elaborated on these measures.

“I think the communication piece is probably the biggest thing, just letting all of our constituents, [like] parents, community members, students, teachers, letting everybody know that this is something that we are aware of and if these behaviors happen,” Metzler said. 

Several recent news articles have questioned whether or not the challenge even exists. Senior Brady Meyerson said he had no idea this trend was happening and hasn’t seen anything related to it on social media.

“I have not seen or heard [of] anyone slapping their teachers,” Meyerson said.

Although many students feel the trend is outrageous, Opperman said he worries it may happen.

“Really hopefully we don’t want that to happen to somebody,” Opperman said. “We want people to be safe and enjoy school and be able to come here and be in a safe environment, whether it’s students or staff.”

Metzler said the consequences for participating in TikTok trends, namely the speculated “slap your teacher” challenge, will be costly.

“It can be in-school suspension if it’s something really minor, but if it’s theft, you’re looking at a short term suspension,” Metzler said. “If it continues, it could be a long term suspension, and if it’s anything that would be violent, then you’re looking at probably an expulsion.”

Opperman says he sees a light at the end of the tunnel in terms of destructive social media trends.

“We had a little rash with the devious lick challenge and we just seem to be in a little bit of a trend right now and we just appreciate that communication from our constituents,” Opperman said. “There are a lot of people that are getting fed up and they want the right things to happen. We [will] keep working together, students and staff, to have a great school year.”

Both Metzler and Opperman said they recommended students to not participate in these trends.

“Having a five second video on TikTok is not worth a criminal charge,” Metzler said. “So, just use your brains. You’re here for a reason and that’s to get a really good education.”