Teacher in Wheelchair Attacked in Suspected TikTok Challenge

I remember when students gave teachers an apple, not a contusion.

In what is linked to an alleged TikTok challenge—”slap a teacher”—18-year-old student Larrianna Jackson of Covington High School in Covington, La., attacked a 64-year-old teacher, knocking her out of her wheelchair. The teacher was sent to the hospital with injuries. The student was arrested. The video is here.

Disabled teacher attacked by student in suspected TikTok challenge https://t.co/IA5px4d3Hr pic.twitter.com/GSwAq0eqqa

— New York Post (@nypost) October 8, 2021

The Challenge

TikTok denies the “slap a teacher” challenge is real, though this isn’t the first attack on an educator that is related to the alleged TikTok challenge. A school district in South Carolina went so far as to post a notice on its Facebook page regarding a local teacher being attacked, linking the assault to the alleged TikTok challenge.

Unfortunately, the challenge that has been put out for this month is to slap or hit a staff member from behind. Sadly, we actually had an elementary student assault a teacher by striking her in the back of the head. This type of behavior just like theft and destruction of property is not a prank. It’s criminal behavior.

TikTok claims violent “challenges” aren’t allowed on the app,  going so far as to insist that they scrub anything resembling invitations to commit violent attacks. “This alleged ‘challenge’ would violate our policies, and we would aggressively remove such content, but the reality is that we have not found related content on our platform, and most people appear to be learning about the offline dare from sources other than TikTok,” the company told Fox News. 

The rumored 'slap a teacher' dare is an insult to educators everywhere. And while this is not a trend on TikTok, if at any point it shows up, content will be removed. Learn more about practicing responsible behavior here: https://t.co/68VWesl9rf

— TikTokComms (@TikTokComms) October 6, 2021

Fox News found no results when searching “slap a teacher” on TikTok. However, they did find 11 videos of adults discouraging such attacks.

How long before Chinese Communist TikTok is banned in America?

Xi Jinping is just playing us now… "Slap a Teacher" challengehttps://t.co/57aFaLUnLx

— GOP Rick Wilson Smeared 3X Amputee Sen. Cleland (@RussellSieg) October 6, 2021

The “slap a teacher” challenge follows the recent “Devious Licks” challenge, where students were stealing or damaging school property, including swiping toilets. Some schools have had enough, and are alerting parents that their kids might be purloining porcelain.

I liked high school kids more when they were eating Tide pods. Perhaps what this country needs is a “slap a disrespectful student” challenge. It seemed to work for the nuns when I was a student at  Saints Peter and Paul Elementary School in Detroit.