Four 15-year-old teens arrested over viral TikTok gun prank

Four 15-year-old teens have been arrested in Kentucky after participating in a viral TikTok challenge that allegedly involves telling teachers they have a bomb or gun in their backpacks.

Since its launch in 2016, TikTok has become the home for a variety of online challenges — and some of them aren’t exactly the safest.

The Devious Lick challenge saw students stealing items from school and even “slapping” teachers, while the Sleepy Chicken TikTok trend saw people mixing Nyquil with their dinner.

In the platform’s latest challenge, students are allegedly “pranking” their teachers by claiming to have a dangerous item in their backpack, leading to the arrest of four 15-year-old teenagers in Kentucky.

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Teens allegedly claimed to have bombs in their backpack

As reported by the New York Post, the four Kentucky teenagers are now facing charges of terrorism and harassment after allegedly threatening their teachers with hidden bombs.

According to the report, three of the incidents were confirmed to have stemmed from the TikTok challenge, while the fourth occurred after hearing about the hoax.

Police said: “The challenge encouraged students to record a video of themselves telling a teacher there was a bomb or gun in their backpack.”

WDRB

The school sent a memo to parents shortly after the incident, warning them about the repercussions of making such a threat to the school.

“As previously communicated in a letter to families regarding terroristic threatening, students who participate in this type of behavior face serious consequences. In addition to school-level discipline, students are prosecuted to the greatest extent of the law for making a threat to a public school,” said the school.

“Whether written or spoken, all threats are taken seriously and students need to know the repercussions of these actions, both short and long term. Even if they are not credible threats, they can cause a great deal of stress or anxiety for our students, families and staff.”

The students have been suspended indefinitely and will be in juvenile court in the coming weeks.