Schools
Salem Schools Responds To TikTok Troubling Trend With 'Kindness'
Superintendent Steve Zrike said the district will have "no tolerance" for students emulating "Devious Licks" and "Slap a teacher."
SALEM, MA —As districts across the state respond to students emulating TikTok trends to steal items from schools and, in some cases, harass and attack teachers, Salem Public Schools has begun a "Choose Kindness" campaign starting this week through the end of the month.
The district is asking students, families and staff to submit videos showing acts of kindness and compassion as part of National Bully Prevention Month.
The Braintree superintendent's office last week sent a letter to families condemning an incident at Braintree High School where a student was following a TikTok "Slap a teacher" challenge.
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"(The TikTok Challenge is) encouraging kids to do inappropriate and destructive things in schools," Zrike said. "We have no tolerance for that. It's incredibly disconcerting. Our students are already struggling enough to come back from a pandemic and get used to the routines.
"So we're going to flip it. We're going to have a kindness challenge."
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The videos, which should be 30 to 60 seconds long, can include committing a random act of kindness, paying a kind act forward or showing gratitude and thanking someone for their kindness.
Each week, students from each school will be selected for outstanding entries and receive Amazon gift prizes. One video will be selected as a grand prize winner at the end of the month.
"We will get a chance to show kids doing positive, remarkable things to impact their community," Zrike said. "This is what challenges should be about. Not about encouraging young people to do destructive things. There is absolutely no place for that anywhere."
TikTok said it will remove any content advocating what it said is "an insult to educators everywhere."
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(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)
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