A viral video posted to Reddit on Thursday shows Covington High School student Larianna Jackson attacking her 64-year-old disabled English teacher. But despite claims, the incident might not be related to a violent TikTok challenge.
The video, taken by other classmates and first posted on an Instagram Story, shows Jackson suddenly punching the teacher to the ground in the empty classroom.
The unidentified teacher was hospitalized from the attack. Jackson has since been arrested and charged with battery, according to the Daily Mail.
Meanwhile, the Covington Lousiana Police Department released a statement via Facebook claiming the attack may be part of a TikTok challenge in which students slap their teacher.
Despite outrage around the alleged “slap a teacher” challenge, Snopes reports there is very little evidence of the trend on TikTok. In its search for the trend on TikTok, the Daily Dot only found videos of people commenting on the supposed trend but not participating in it. The video of the incident was posted on Instagram Story.
In a statement on Twitter, TikTok said, “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.”
While the slapping challenge may not exist, public schools have recently been dealing with the “devious licks” TikTok trend in which students try to one-up each other by vandalizing and stealing from school bathrooms.
The Daily Dot has reached out to the Covington Police Department and Covington High School via email.
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