About

The Slap A Teacher Challenge or Smack A Teacher Challenge refers to an alleged trend on TikTok where users slap a teacher or school staff member on the backside and upload the video to the platform. Rumors about students preparing to make the trend viral in October began circulating the web in late September 2021 following reports of damage at schools across the globe due to the Devious Licks trend. In response, teachers began posting TikToks warning their students against the slapping challenge, sometimes making vague threats about what might happen to them if they get slapped. In March 2022 it was revealed that the "Slap a Teacher Challenge" was a hoax spread by PR firm Targeted Victory by Facebook to malign TikTok.

Origin

The Devious Licks trend, which saw TikTokers stealing from school and filming their stolen goods, went viral on TikTok throughout September 2021, causing widespread damage across schools. This caused worry amongst school staff and teachers who were encouraged to watch for students taking part in the trend. On September 28th, Twitter^[1] user and news anchor @SarahSFrench posted a list to twitter allegedly detailing months of planned trends focused on school damage, including October's planned trend "Smack a staff member on the backside" (shown below). The list is allegedly being shared around by teachers. It is unknown where this list originated.

Spread

Over the following days, word of the "slap a teacher challenge" spread across the web, inspiring responses from a range of teachers. On October 30th, TikToker^[2] and teacher @2kute4wordz posted a video beginning with an unrelated, now deleted 2020 TikTok of a girl slapping her teacher across the back of the head where she warns and threatens students who might try to slap her or other teachers in October, gaining over 1.5 million views in a day (shown below).

The slap a teacher challenge gained widespread new coverage on October 1st, including articles on PopBuzz,^[3] Distractify,^[4] and a number of local news sites.^[5] There have been no viral videos of students slapping teachers in relation to the trend as of October 1st, 2021.

Targeted Victory PR Campaign

On March 30th, 2022, the Washington Post^[6] published an article revealing that Facebook had hired the PR firm Targeted Victory^[7] to spread rumors that the "slap a teacher" trend was spreading on the platform to paint TikTok as a harmful platform and detract users from it. In reality, the trend never appeared on TIkTok.

Various Examples

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External References