- A Louisiana high school student was arrested after punching her teacher, the Covington Police Department said.
- Larrianna Jackson, 18, was charged with battery, according to police.
- Police said the attack allegedly stemmed from a Tik Tok challenge, but the platform said it's not a trend on their app.
A Louisiana high school student was arrested and charged with battery after being accused of punching a teacher in what appears to be part of a social media craze, police say.
The Covington High School student identified as Larrianna Jackson assaulted her disabled 64-year-old teacher on Wednesday, according to local police. A video of the incident obtained by WDSU appears to show Jackson striking the teacher multiple times, leading the teacher to fall on the ground.
The teacher was transported to a local hospital, and Jackson was sent to St. Tammany Parish Jail, the Covington Police Department said. According to the Washington Post, the 18-year-old was released on bail on Thursday.
St. Tammany Parish Public Schools Superintendent Frank Jabbia told the newspaper in a statement that officials are "taking the appropriate disciplinary action against all students involved."
On Friday, police also arrested two other students who recorded the incident. The department believes the attack was likely inspired by a Tik Tok challenge and warned others not to participate.
"Officers learned that this violent attack by Jackson may have been prompted by a viral social media application known as Tik-Tok," Covington police said. "Evidently, users on the app have deemed it to be a challenge to damage school property and attack teachers."
However, Tik Tok said the alleged "slap a teacher" challenge does not stem from their platform but other sources.
"This alleged 'challenge' would violate our policies, and we would aggressively remove such content, but the reality is that we have not found related content on our platform, and most people appear to be learning about the offline dare from sources other than TikTok," a Tik Tok spokesperson previously told Insider.
-TikTokComms (@TikTokComms) October 6, 2021
In a tweet on Wednesday, the platform doubled down on their stance, saying "it's not a trend on Tik Tok," and the challenge itself "is an insult to educators everywhere."
The incident in Louisiana follows other viral challenges online that have resulted in students facing consequences. Last month, an Alabama high school student was charged after participating in a Tik Tok challenge dubbed "devious licks" that encouraged theft and vandalism at school. The platform later removed the hashtag altogether on their app, stating that it doesn't "allow content that promotes or enables criminal activities."