The TikTok protests: Why children are rioting in schools across the UK?

It’s the season of stirs in the United Kingdom and even schools have not been spared. Even as tens of thousands of teachers strike across the country demanding above-inflation pay, students are staging their own rebellion. British school-goers are protesting against teachers over the one thing that children love to break – rules. Changes to the use of toilet facilities have left them seething. Some are angry over a change in policy for school uniforms.

In several schools, police were called as the situation escalated during demonstrations. These “TikTok protests” as they are being called – they were planned on the app – have rocked schools in the counties of Hampshire, Essex, Lancashire, Cornwall, Leeds, North Yorkshire, and Lincolnshire. And they are now spreading.

Headmasters warn that students are responding to a TikTok craze. But what has angered students?

The new rules

Strict new rules imposed in several schools across the UK stop students from using the toilet during lesson time. Students have alleged that they can use the restroom when they are no classes and girls must reportedly request red card passes when on their period.

Some schools have locked toilet doors during class. However, it is not clear why these measures have been implemented simultaneously across institutions in the country.

Also read: ‘Winter of Discontent’: Why UK has been hit by a wave of strikes

Students on a rampage

Angry students are reportedly going on a rampage in schools. Videos have surfaced on social media of scenes of chaos and violence in classrooms.

Secondaries in Cornwall, Essex, Lincolnshire and Yorkshire were all reported to have seen angry pupils rioting. They shook fences, flipped desks, kicked doors, or stood on playing fields, refusing to enter their classrooms, according to a report in The Independent.

At Cornwall’s Penrice Academy, they have allegedly been flipping tables in protest which left one girl injured. The school said that it introduced changes to minimise disruptions in class.

At Farnley Academy in Leeds, students were upset over locked toilets during lesson time. Only one set of toilets is reportedly accessible and it is guarded by a staff member. Those who need to relieve themselves must have a written note from teachers allowing them to use the facilities. The note is then handed over to the member standing outside the toilet.

In Southampton, around 200 pupils staged protests on Monday over the introduction of new unisex toilets in a school. A student told MailOnline “girl emergencies” mean they should be allowed to use the toilet without having to wait “up to two hours” for a break or lunchtime.

“You’re also not allowed to leave lessons to go to the toilet which isn’t fair on girls who are menstruating,” a 14-year-old complained.

A parent said that her daughter is not comfortable going to a unisex toilet. “The boys have got this thing about putting their phone over the toilet or under the doors to try to get pictures of them… My daughter is not going to the toilet all day while at school.”

The National Education Union (NEU), the trade union of school teachers in the UK, says on its website, “Suitable’ toilet and washing facilities must be provided for the sole use of pupils. All schools must have separate washrooms for male and female pupils aged eight and over, except where the toilet facility is provided in a room that can be secured from the inside and is intended for use by one pupil at a time.”

But these schools seem to make their own new rules.

Pupils at Rainford High School in St Helens, Merseyside, a country in northwest England, staged a protest this week over a new uniform policy requiring girls to have their skirt length inspected by teachers, according to a report in The Telegraph UK.

Riot police in schools

In some schools, police had to be called in as the demonstrations spiralled. In a school in North Yorkshire in north of England, riot police had to intervene after angry children pushed teachers and set a tree ablaze over new toilet rules. The school reportedly locked restrooms during class time and for a period during the break.

Police rushed to another co-educational school in Oxfordshire in southeast England, where students protesting against a ban on skirts refused to attend classes, forcing it to shut.

A parent told a local media organisation, “Students were setting off fire alarms and running amok at the school in protest of locked toilets, lack of school lunches and staffing issues.”

These protests are being arranged over Facebook, TikTok and Snapchat, which are popular among the youth. Videos of students damaging school property and urging other students to join in have been circulating on social media. Comments on these videos have more pupils asking how they could hold similar demonstrations amid growing fear that the anger could spread.

According to a report in The Independent, the headteacher at Haven High Academy in Boston, Lincolnshire, wrote to parents, “As you may be aware, a small group of students decided to imitate a trend relating to school protests that has been trending on TikTok within school today.”

“Such school protests have happened in numerous schools throughout the country and unfortunately several students decided to engage in a protest relating to certain school rules,” she said.

Teachers fuelling protests?

Politicians in the UK have warned that teachers, who are striking work, are instigating students to protest in schools.

Jonathan Gullis, a former teacher and Conservative Party MP, said that he believed the two were linked. “I hope that teachers call off the strikes, get back in the classroom and bring a sense of calm to the system and not encourage pupils to follow in these overtly political protests that are taking place,” he told The Telegraph.

Rev Steve Chalke, the founder of Oasis, one of Britain’s largest academy trusts, also said similar views that the two demonstrations could be linked. “We’ll see how this progresses… if this becomes a thing over the coming months and we see there’s a link… I suppose it’s just anecdotal at the moment,” he told the publication.

With inputs from agencies

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