TikTok trend for chromebooks

[ddelboccio]

Hello!

Has anyone experienced this new TikTok trend where students are forcing objects into the USB ports of devices, potentially causing short circuits and fires?

Has anyone proactively sent out communications to parents warning the dangers and consequences to these types of social media trends?

[kaned]

Neighboring districts sent out some communication to staff and parents today.

I sent something out today to our staff.  I wasn't expecting the response I got back with kids already doing this.  I can tell you that I do not have any incidents of smoke, fire, or other, but supposedly I have students attempting this according to my staff.

[jduerst]

We shared a message with families today after reports that some students may have attempted this TikTok trend on their Chromebooks. I’ve also alerted all staff to be vigilant and watch for any students attempting this behavior during class or passing periods.

[Justin_W]

Anyone care to share their communications they are sending out?

Or a link to something formal/official looking regarding this "trend"?

[jduerst]

This is the communication we sent home to families.

Subject: Urgent Safety Alert – Chromebook Misuse Trend

Hello,

We want to make you aware of a dangerous trend currently circulating on TikTok that has unfortunately made its way into our schools. Several students have reported attempting inserting pencil lead or other conductive materials into Chromebook charging ports or USB slots in an effort to make the device smoke or short out.

This behavior is extremely dangerous. It poses a serious risk of injury, permanently damages the Chromebook, and could potentially start a fire. In addition to safety concerns, this type of damage voids the device warranty and leaves families financially responsible for repair or replacement.

We have already sent an email to all students clearly outlining the dangers of this behavior, along with a reminder that anyone found intentionally damaging school-issued devices will be responsible for replacement or repair of the device. 

We are asking for your help. Please speak with your child about the seriousness of this issue. Let them know this is not a harmless prank—it’s a safety hazard with real and lasting consequences. 

If you have any concerns or hear anything from your child related to this trend, please don’t hesitate to contact us. Together, we can help keep our students safe and protect valuable school resources.

Thank you for your support.

[papennat]

Thank you for sharing this - would you also be willing to share the communication you sent to students?

[jduerst]

This is what we sent to students. 

Dear Students,

We’ve learned of a harmful trend on social media that encourages inserting pencil lead or other materials into Chromebook ports to cause them to smoke. This behavior is extremely dangerous and permanently damages the device.

Please know: intentionally damaging school property is a serious offense. Anyone involved will face disciplinary action and will be held financially responsible for repairs or replacement.

Take care of your device, think before you act, and help keep our school safe. If you see or hear of this happening, report it to a staff member right away.

[PatrickM]

Need another button other than "Kudos" ... while I give kudos for sharing that information, I want to have a sad emoji face instead as this post is disappointing that students are being this malicious.

[Olger]

Pfff. Back in the early ninetees I worked for a university with computer classrooms. An entire classroom would be set up with computers (desktops and goog old CRT monitors), all connected with coax. For those that don't know (it is a while ago now) coax is a long black cable that runs as a single length from computer to computer (unlike UTP which is point to point). Each computer would have a T-connector on the network card onto which the coax cable would connect and continue with another cable at the other end. At the beginning and end of the coax run would be cable terminators.

We continously ran around trying to find which connector had been loosened and pulled back slightly so that there would be a break in the cable, and the entire run wouldn't work. It wasn't destructive as such, but it did waste time for a lot of students and teachers.

Here's a museum page of what that looked like: http://www.networkmuseum.net/2011/05/coax.html

[ddelboccio]

Thanks for all the great responses so far!

My serious question remains whether anyone has seen this first hand in your own districts?

I'm just wondering how much this is a "real" thing versus, a "viral" thing?

I do not doubt it has happened somewhere, but I also have a legitimate concern over sending out messages to parents and students and whether that might incite the action further.  No?  Would this be inviting students to try this by sending out the communications?

[kaned]

Once I sent out the report to staff I got immediate responses back about students doing this, but it sounds like there has not been any hardware related issues on my Dell computers... At least not yet...

We do not have any increased hardware tickets open as of yet either.

We have seen this as early as 2012 which forced a immediate reboot of our netbooks.  It's not new, it's just received the attention of social media.

[Scott]

I sent out a notice to our building admins but so far we have not sent home any communication to families.  We've only had one reported case at this point in time.

[papennat]

Unfortunately, yes - we have one confirmed instance from Monday and a second suspected instance.

[jduerst]

We have also had a few instances of this happening which is why we sent out the communication.

[mknelson]

We also had this happen in our school yesterday. Paper clip in an outlet = four classrooms lost power and at least one report of a student putting a paperclip in their charging port. 

[ddelboccio]

Paperclip in an AC electrical (wall) outlet!!!!!  How did the student not get shocked??!!??

[mknelson]

I have no idea! Maintenance and admin had no idea what had happened until a parent called and reported that their child saw it happen. I do recall my sons who are now grown, talking about students doing that in their high school in 2017-2019.

[clarkk]

We had 4 with chromebooks yesterday at middle school.  Assistant principal made an announcement over the speakers and sent home an email to all parents. District office also notified. 

[MattDPenn]

No known cases in my district as far as I'm aware but I've been at our Elementary campus most of the week where that kind of issue is less likely to happen. I warned my boss earlier this week when I saw the first reports elsewhere start rolling in. Seeing lots of reports on other forums and at least a handful from other districts in my county.

[mpartenope4676]

This happened in my own kids' district at the High School earlier this week forcing an early dismissal due to a section of the school filling with smoke. Fire fighters came and police and the arson specialist. State ed sent out a communication today to watch out even if it wasn't successful. I'm not an electrician though, how can we tell?!?! From an article about my kids' school.

The deputy state fire administrator released the following statement:

“Tampering with the ports and mechanics of laptops is a serious fire hazard and completely unacceptable. With a new trend sweeping across social media, it is crucial parents and guardians sit down with their children to talk about this danger and put an end to this once and for all. Not only is there an enormous risk of fire when lithium-ion batteries fail, they also produce large quantities of toxic and flammable vapor.”

[Samantha_Reid]

Yes and Yes,,,  

This is what I sent out... 

Dear Principals,

I’m writing to alert you about a dangerous new trend circulating on TikTok that may impact our students and school devices.

The trend encourages students to insert mechanical pencil lead into the USB ports of their Chromebooks. This action can cause an electrical short, leading to sparks, smoke, and potentially severe damage to the device. Beyond damaging equipment, this poses a safety risk to students and others nearby.

Please take the following steps as soon as possible:

• Inform your staff and teachers so they can help monitor and discourage this behavior in classrooms.
• Share an age-appropriate warning with students about the dangers and consequences of tampering with school devices.
• Communicate directly with families to make them aware of this issue, ask for their partnership in speaking to their children, and remind them that damaging school property may result in disciplinary action and financial responsibility.
• Encourage staff to report incidents immediately to the technology department so we can address any affected devices.

Thank you for your leadership in helping to ensure the safety of our students and protect our technology resources. Please don’t hesitate to reach out if you have any questions.

[ddelboccio]

Hey all!  Can we all respond back with what part of the country (or world) you are from, so we can get a better sense of where geographically this actually occurring?

Again, I saw a lot of news articles about it happening in the Connecticut state area (USA).

I am in the Chicago area, and have only heard rumblings about this from my students, but have not seen it in practice yet, nor do I hope to.

[MattDPenn]

Centralish California. No known cases in my district. It sounds like there may have been at least one case at another school in my county but that was a few weeks ago and could be unrelated.

[mpartenope4676]

Tri-State area here, specifically Southern NY near CT. We had a failed attempt here. Emails have been sent and announcements over the loudspeaker today.

[Samantha_Reid]

Outside of Tulsa, OK.  We have had about five incidents that I know of so far. 

[chand]

Glad to see that this seems to be slowing down. We sent out a communication to families on 5/12/25 and we had one reported incident. There was also a separate "durability test" reported where devices were put under some stress tests. I'm near you @ddelboccio - Evanston, IL. Again, hope we've moved past this. 

[CUSD2_Tech]

West-central Illinois.  We have experience with at least one incident and are aware of three other districts that have also.

[MarkLoundy]

Our district's communications director just sent out a precautionary notice to all sites about it.

[mknelson]

Nebraska - we have had 2-3 instances of this in our middle school classrooms.

[MarkLoundy]

Has anyone experienced this in an elementary school?

[MaryGrant]

From a diagnostic/triage situation with the battery and system board, how are you all going about addressing the health of the device? I've got a stack of chromebooks that have been tampered with and other than running the battery diagnostic tool in CROSH and then opening up to see any visible damage, how are you going about addressing the repair/tech health of the device? Our warranty only covers one year on batteries and these are 3 year old devices (the ones in question) and I'm not confident replacing the battery is suffice? 

[JoyMagnolia]

Good question Mary. 

I think opening the devices and visually inspecting the batteries is a good idea. I am receiving all of our devices back from classrooms next week, and I'm thinking about adding battery visual inspection to our summer Chromebook maintenance check list after this "trend".