Loyal administrator warns of dangerous TikTok trend

Loyal School District Administrator Chris Lindner issued a Remind message to parents and guardians on Friday warning about a concerningTikTok trend.

“A new TikTok trend is booming, and Loyal isn’t alone in its aftermath,” Lindner wrote. “Students are putting mechanical pencil lead [or other items such as paper clips, push pins, or metallic gum wrappers] into Chromebook USB ports, because it ‘smokes.’” This action can cause the computer’s lithium ion battery to spark or explode.

“The smoke is toxic, it’s sending kids locally to seek medical treatment, it’s causing explosions, it’s getting kids arrested and suspended and possibly expelled from schools, it’s closing schools down for evacuations, it’s costing schools and in return the parent thousands of dollars, all on top of having to pay for the device,” Lindner wrote.

“If students do this at home, you have the risk and worry of the house being burned down from the spark and explosion of the battery also.

“Please talk to your student/s about the danger associated with doing this. We don’t want school devices ruined, but most importantly, we don’t want to see students get hurt.”

TikTok, for its part, has flagged the “#chromebookchallenge” tag and if someone searches for it, they will get a safety warning.