All over the country, students are shorting laptops at schools with new and sometimes dangerous social media trends.
“Chromebook Challenge” involves jaming objects into a laptop until students are sparked and smoldered. Students then record smoking laptops and share footage with Tiktok on Instagram. Sometimes it's set to music as viewers respond to heart and thumb emojis.
It's not just expensive computers that get damaged. The floor and desk are burnt. The lesson will be suspended. Classes will be evacuated. Fire and police station are summoned. And some students are being suspended or faced with criminal charges as schools work to stop the trend.
Here's what you need to know.
How does it work?
“Chromebook Challenge” includes using objects such as push pins, staples, paper clips, metallic gum wrappers, and graphite. They are inserted under USB or charging ports, under keyboard keys, or near the battery, to intentionally short-circumvent the device.
The battery can be destroyed to facilitate the response. It has been reported that students from elementary school to high school do that.
“Unfortunately, we've seen cases of this dangerous behavior occurring at schools throughout our district,” wrote Michael J. Testani, head of schools in Fairfield, Connecticut, in a letter to our families.
Scott Lour, the superintendent of the Center Joint Unified School District in Roseville, California, said on May 7, a middle schooler inserted a sharp metal object into a laptop keyboard, causing him to inhale smoke. His teacher evacuated the classroom and absorbed the device with a fire extinguisher.
“What we learned was that the idea came from Tiktok or this challenge,” Roar said.
Currently, searching for Tiktok assignment videos will give you a safe message about online challenges that can be dangerous.
In a statement, Tiktok said it would violate its policy on dangerous activities and issues and remove content redirecting search terms and hashtags. Instagram did not reply to requests for comment.
The student was suspended and fined.
School districts in Maine, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Arizona, Virginia, Colorado, Minnesota, California and Nevada are sending letters to families and urging them to intervene. Some have suspended students and fined hundreds of dollars to damage property and chrome books published at schools.
Additionally, some districts have called police or excluded criminals from technical privileges on school grounds.
In the Boulder Valley School District, which has more than 28,000 students, the first indication that something was wrong on May 2nd came when a white pillar of smoke erupted from a chrome book in a bandroom in Lafayette, Colorado. The device moved into a corridor that blended into the floor.
Staff thought it was malfunctioning, said Randy Barber, a district spokesman.
Then, on May 5th, smoke wafted from a laptop at Bloomfield Heights Middle School. On May 6th, an Angevine Middle School laptop blew smoke. Other middle schools, elementary schools and high schools reported smoking laptops on May 6th and May 7th.
The first few cases were featured in the Information Technology Department.
When the teacher reported smoking a Chromebook, Barber said, “The IT staff put things together after realising that the computer was tampered with and similar damage.”
He said he had heard similar accounts from a colleague at the National Schools Public Relations Association. “That's what's happening nationwide,” Barber said.
School evacuation and felony criminal charges.
On May 8, Bellville High School in Bellville, New Jersey, was evacuated after students smoldered their Chromebooks, police said, cited by News12. The student was charged with third-degree arson and criminal mischief, police said.
The 13-year-old girl was arrested in Long Beach, California on May 8 in a classroom at Perry Linsey Academy, according to the Long Beach Police Department. She was reserved for felony arson on property, a police spokesman said. The Los Angeles Times reported that it was related to the Chromebook Challenge.
In Maine, Waterville Middle School principal Don Rouse told parents in a May 7 letter that they did not allow students to remove chrome books from school grounds due to concerns that students could try pranks at home.
“If the sparks are large enough, they could burn bedding, drapes or furniture,” he writes. “It would put everyone at risk to the house.”
In Arizona on May 8th, students from Bullhead City Middle School were evacuated after Chromebook laptops began to soak smoke in classrooms. Firefighters and police were summoned. No six chrome books were destroyed at Fox Creek Middle School, but no one caused the fire, according to Bullhead City School District.
No one was injured.
The Bullhead Police Department said an 11-year-old male student is facing a juvenile referral on charges of worsening criminal damage and interference or obstruction or intrusion.
District Chief Dr. Carolyn Stewart told families in a statement that parents of children who undermine school property may be financially liable.
“This is an urgent and urgent call for parents and guardians to talk to their children about social media liability, inherent dangers, and the consequences of poor decisions,” she said, “these are not innocent mischief.”
Some online challenges have been fatal.
In Virginia this month, an 18-year-old was fatally shot dead in a house where he and his friends ran with the doorbells.
Other jaws include eating detergent pods and chili peppers. The Food and Drug Administration warns of the trend of encouraging participants to consume large amounts of benadril or to cook chicken in nyquil. Some challenges have not spread.
Dan Davis, a spokesman for Nevada's Carson School District, said he was aware of previous virus rampages, including slapping teachers and destroying school toilets and soap dispensers.
So there's a possibility of the Chromebook Challenge coming out at nine schools, warning families last week, saying there's a $300 fee to replace a deliberately damaged device. “We've come out on the front-end of things to dispel challenges and keep the situation easing to parents and families,” he said.
Why are students doing this?
“What makes teens do this?” said Barber of the Colorado School District. “I think they're very curious, like they want to do a science experiment.”
“Beyond that,” he said, “I don't know.”
