Around 50 students from a Tennessee high school have been suspended for five days for joining a TikTok challenge, where they performed a gun pantomime using their phones or other props. The police were also called to the campus because the school authorities were concerned that the suspended students would cause problems.
According to Insider, several videos discussing the suspension of the 50 students from West Creek High School went viral over the weekend on TikTok. However, the original video showing the actual gun pantomime, titled "Who Want Smoke," was taken down from the platform.
The pantomime supposedly showed the kids "drawing out guns" to aim at the people taking their videos, and the original upload had over 500,000 likes before its removal. A sophomore student owned the original content.
'We Could Go Viral!'
Christian Williams told Daily Dot that he gathered many of his friends at the West Creek High School to do the "Who Want Smoke" challenge on TikTok, believing they "could go viral" for it. He directed the students on what to do and gestured for them to use whatever they were holding as weapons.
The student said the video came close to 200,000 likes for the first three hours of his upload on a Thursday. The following day, however, he was called to the principal's office along with several of his friends. They were led to the conference room where the "Who Want Smoke" Tiktok video was playing on the projector screen.
After the video played, the principal told Williams and all the students identified in the video that they violated the school's code of conduct when they did the pantomime. Apparently, doing a TikTok challenge within the school premises was considered "disruptive, dangerous, harmful to the student or others."
Williams confirmed that they were suspended from school for two to five days, depending on their participation. There were cops from the Clarksville Police Department (CPD) on the scene when the kids were handed out the disciplinary action.
Cop Goes Viral
Following the suspension, videos featuring some of the Tennessee high school kids perpetuated a story that a cop from the CPD was heard telling some of the suspended students that he would have shot them if he saw their gun pantomime live. When one of the students laughed at the cop's comment, the officer allegedly reprimanded them.
"If I would have seen you on the street pointing an object that looked like a gun, I'm just going to shoot you," the cop said. "I don't have time to sit and think about if it is or not. I won't get charged for it."
Scott Beaubien, the spokesperson for the CPD, said that the cops were on campus because they conduct a "walk-through" every Friday. The school officials then asked the CPD to talk to the students at the conference room regarding laws related to disruptive behaviors. Beaubien reiterated that at no point were there any inappropriate actions or statements from the cops.
The incident comes months after schools across the U.S. heightened their security or policies due to the numerous TikTok challenges that damaged school properties or affected the teachers. In September, the popular Devious Lick TikTok Challenge saw the kids stealing and promoting school vandalism. According to reports, West Creek High School had to spend $20,000 to fix the damages from that challenge.
