Vandalism on campus has been rapidly increasing, prompted by social media challenges. On Sept. 23, the Aragon administration sent an email to all students addressing the issues involving vandalism on campus after all schools in the San Mateo Union High School District experienced a rise in damage to property. The email explained that damaging school property is a felony and the school has the ability to involve the police. From the week of Sept. 23 to the week of Oct. 18, the boys’ bathrooms were closed to be cleaned of vandalism and to deter students from causing more damage.
The vandalism has largely been due to the “Devious Lick” Challenge on TikTok which went viral in early September and made its way to Aragon quickly. The challenge encourages students to damage and steal school property and it began when a user posted a video of themselves stealing masks, which escalated to stealing soap dispensers, mirrors, toilet paper and more. Such behavior has led to arrests and criminal charges on students across the U.S.
“We usually see some drawings on the bathroom walls [and] the stall doors, but some of it is right in line with that Devious Lick Challenge on TikTok,” said principal Valerie Arbizu.
The consequence for damaging school property is to reimburse the school for the cost of it. Aragon also offers the Alternative to Suspension Program that teaches students to pause and make educated decisions as a form of restorative justice.
“We’re not trying to be too hard on [students], because we understand that [they’ve] been through a lot”
Aragon custodians have had to clean up the messes that have taken place in the boys’ bathrooms resulting from the challenge. This has forced students to go out of their way to find other bathrooms since various ones were locked.
Juniors and seniors were on campus before the 2021-22 school year, so they have a stronger connection with the community than the new freshmen and many sophomores who did not come to school last spring. Arbizu thinks that this is why freshmen and sophomores are more likely to commit acts of vandalism.
“Our 11th and 12th grade students, for the most part, have come back [and] they already knew what it meant to be an Aragon student,” said Arbizu. “So it’s really hard for 9th or 10th grade students [to] really understand what it means to be a high school student.”
Chemistry teacher Kevin Doyle thinks that underclassmen who vandalized the bathrooms behaved carelessly, failing to realize the weight of their actions.
“The freshmen and sophomore class didn’t have any connection to [the campus to think beyond] social media telling them to destroy [the bathrooms because it’s not [theirs],” Doyle said. “I think that [mindset] resulted in a fair amount of difficulty.”
The Aragon staff and faculty have returned to talking to students in person to try to understand the motivations behind their actions in vandalizing school property.
“We’re not trying to be too hard on [students], because we understand that [they’ve] been through a lot, and [they’re] adjusting,” said Dean of Students Donna Krause. “Everything’s an adjustment. We’re trying to go underneath the surface and figure out what’s going on [such as if they’re] sad, depressed or have problems with students.”
Some of the increase in vandalism may be attributed to the return to in-person classes and the increasing stress of deadlines.
“I just think that we’re at the point of the school year when we’re between breaks, and it’s around the longest points of learning, so this is where school starts to take a toll on people,” said sophomore Aiden Kahane.
The rate of vandalism and fights on campus has gone down since Principal Arbizu addressed the issue in her email. However, the unpredictability of social media leaves staff uncertain about the rest of the school year.
