Over fifty students have been suspended for participating in a video on TikTok, which shows them simulating gun violence by holding their cell phones and mimicking the use of weapons. The video was part of a challenge on social media that uses Nardo Wick's viral song "Who Want Smoke."
Two separate incidents resulted in lots of suspensions at Tinley Park High School outside of Chicago, as well as West Creek High School in Tennessee. According to a report from Fox 32 Chicago, several high school students at TPHS, as well as even some educators and staffers, pointed their phones to the camera as though they were guns in the video. The clip was posted to TikTok and Facebook, and it has resulted in outrage with many saying it's dangerous and not funny at all.
At West Creek High School, a similar video was posted and over fifty students were suspended after it picked up over 500,000 likes. 17-year-old Christian Williams says he made the video, and he explained why he posted it.
"I was at school and I was on my phone just going through random Instagram stories. I saw the trend on someone’s page and I’m like, ‘Oh, we need to do this, we need to do this. We could probably go viral for this,'" he told Clarksville Now.
Nardo Wick is not very active on social media, and he has not addressed this. What do you think about students getting suspended for a TikTok video trend?