Senior Charlie Palmer still remembers the autumn of his sophomore year. It was the first time since the start of the pandemic that all students were back in the building full-time, with no remote learning option. The chaos of the time birthed an alarming TikTok trend that Palmer described as an evolved version of vandalism: devious licks. “Central was a dark place,” he said.
“Devious lick” was a term used to describe when someone stole, damaged or vandalized a piece of property at school, such as a soap dispenser or a pencil sharpener. The TikTok trend, which peaked in September 2021, focused mainly on school bathrooms and had kids across the country posting their “outrageous licks.”
“I did not know chaos until the devious licks era,” Palmer said.
The trend’s time in the spotlight coincided with the first attempt since COVID at a return to normalcy. Assistant Principal Jodi Dierks said the time was weird and confusing. “97% of our kids were following the bare minimum expectations,” she said. She believes the small minority of kids responsible for the licks were just very “loud.”
The initial response to devious licks from the Central administration was to push students to see how unacceptable it was. “We would get on the intercom so much, it was honestly tiring,” Dierks said. Video assemblies were also common during Eagle Time.
The problem was exacerbated by Central being short-staffed on security guards at the time. To help alleviate the issues, administrators began taking on the role of security guards. “I was constantly scanning, trying to be as proactive as possible,” Dierks said. “It’s surreal looking back now.”
“Teachers were really outnumbered,” Dierks said.
Dierks and other teachers around the building still say that the devious licks era was one of the building’s most impactful events in recent times. The biggest impact Dierks identified was financial repercussions.
Head Custodian Chad Knott agreed, pointing to the hefty bills the school had to pay for the damage. He said Central was not hit as hard as other OPS schools, mentioning that Burke and Northwest had upwards of $15,000 to $20,000 in damages each, but said Central still had quite a bit to pay for.
“We had at least three sinks ripped off, and we went through about 60 to 70 soap dispensers,” Knott said.
Palmer recalled someone seriously damaging a water fountain, saying it took quite some time to get it replaced. He said OPS was not great at replacing small items like posters and pencils.
Another impact was how the school approaches social media and how policies have changed since that semester. Dierks explained that the administration now monitors social media as best as possible, something they didn’t do strongly before. She said they also now have students who report information to them, something that wasn’t common before then.
“Students really care about this school and building, and they’ve gotten better at self-reporting,” she said.
Things have changed since the troubling time, though. “We’re a well-oiled machine with security now; I’m confident it would never get to that level again,” Dierks said. She also said all kinds of misbehaviors have decreased drastically since the 2021-2022 school year.
Palmer said, “Our administration has handled instances of vandalism appropriately, and vandalism has decreased as a result … we have grown from this era, and, hopefully, it will never return.”
Dierks continues to admit that it was one of the hardest points in her career, but she believes even a time as difficult to manage as that could be used as a learning experience. She said it made her focus more on building relationships with students and thus encouraging good behavior.
“It strengthened my connections with students, and I am forever grateful for that,” Dierks said. “The circumstances are so different.”
