Schools are being left thousands of pounds out of pocket through a viral “trend” in which pupils are cutting plastic chairs in half using the string from face masks, Tes has learned.
One teacher reported that hundreds of chairs had been damaged at one school alone by the actions of pupils, who use the string like a saw.
Another said: “It’s pointless and criminal damage” while another said it’s “unbelievable and absolutely shameful”.
Scores of teachers responded to a tweet by a head of maths from Yorkshire, @missradders, who posted a video made by a pupil demonstrating the trend, titled “Can you cut a chair using a face-mask string?”.
She said: “Has every school been hit by this annoying TikTok thing of sawing the chairs with face masks?”
Has every school been hit by this annoying Tik Tok thing of sawing the chairs with face masks? ??https://t.co/Spjepm0mbb
Teacher @peterrobert 1928 posted: “My previous school has had 400 chairs damaged and a small number fully decapitated.”
Teacher @StephGraham17 said: “We had just bought chairs with new backs, too. £1000s wasted.”
@letsgetmathing said: “Found that one of the chairs in my room had been attacked while I was away. Very annoying.”
The four-minute video, which has had 18,000 views on YouTube in the past four weeks, shows a chair being sawn in half in a classroom.
It is captioned with tips including: “Use 4 strings at once. Makes it go faster.” But then the maker adds: “Cut my finger with all the cutting.”
One teacher questioned how pupils could do it without teachers seeing.
But @missradders said: “Our damage has been at the back of classrooms. It’s hard for staff when they can’t move from the front but some of ours is quite “impressive”. By impressive I mean ridiculously destructive/no respect for their environment. Now need to source some new chairs.”
Our damage has been at the back of classrooms. It’s hard for staff when they can’t move from the front but some of ours is quite “impressive”. By impressive I mean ridiculously destructive/ no respect for their environment. Now need to source some new chairs.
She added that she was “amazed” by how much damage pupils can cause and that it was “pointless and...criminal damage”.
@last_centurion said: “I’m religiously checking chairs before I dismiss them, making a thing of it at change over so they know I’ll catch them and pass it up to someone to deal with - thankfully, I’ve not had anymore in my room since Easter, but I think we’ve had a couple of grands worth of damage
@StuartMyles2 said: “I haven’t come across this. Unbelievable. Absolutely shameful. Hope you catch the perpetrators and ensure they pay for the damage they have done.”
Head of science @Mr_T_Wahid said:“Nothing yet but what a ridiculous trend.”
The DfE has been contacted for comment.
You need a Tes subscription to read this article
Subscribe now to read this article and get other subscriber-only content:
