Middle school takes down bathroom mirrors to combat TikTok use

A middle school in North Carolina has had mirrors removed from the school bathrooms after students would spend too much time recording TikTok videos in the bathrooms.

As social media has become a daily part of most people’s everyday lives, it has come to affect society too. From creating thousands of new jobs and career opportunities, to being accused of “poisoning” youths, the ways it’s affected our everyday lives are endless.

These changes have also been made clear in schools across the world, as the younger generations are growing up with different social media accounts. But some schools are claiming that students are taking it too far.

Middle school students at the Alamance-Burlington School System in North Carolina have now had their mirror privileges revoked after staff members argued students spent too much time in the school bathrooms filming TikTok videos.

Middle school removes bathroom mirrors to prevent TikTok use

“Students were going to the bathroom for long periods of time and making TikTok videos,” Les Atkins, the public relations officer for the school system, told WFMY.

Students were allegedly going to the bathroom up to 7 to 8 times a day to film content for their social media accounts. This has now resulted in the school having to take action by removing the mirrors in the bathrooms. And it seems to have worked.

“Not as many visits to the bathroom, not staying as long and students are held accountable and then when there’s accountability you see a great difference,” Atkins said.

The school district has also implemented a digital hall pass system that will allow students to check in and out of class, which lets teachers and staff document just how much time each student is spending outside of the classroom.

“We’re trying to educate students: we all have cell phones now. We have to learn to use them. We have to learn when to put them down,” Atkins said.

Atkins also argued it was a safety precaution as they would always know where each of the students was at every moment of the day.

Parents had mixed responses to the news, with some praising the school for what they’d done. However, some didn’t think removing the mirrors was the right solution, and that instead, students should not be allowed to bring their phones to school. Some even went as far as to say that the students should not have their own phones at all.