Boulder school officials say viral TikTok trend appears to have led to 6 laptop fires
Boulder Valley School District says incidents have happened at Centaurus and Broomfield high schools, Angevine Middle School and Eldorado PK-8
Boulder Valley School District sent a note out to families Wednesday morning raising awareness about students participating in a dangerous social media trend.
The district has experienced six fires that appear to be related to a TikTok trend encouraging students to short-circuit their laptops or puncture the lithium batteries within, the email from the school district said. The acts can cause the battery temperature to uncontrollably rise, potentially leading to a fire or explosion that can release toxic fumes.
“Our concern is not so much about specific damage to the laptops,” said Randy Barber, chief communications officer for the school district. “Thankfully, there have been no reported injuries and no major damage to facilities, but there is potential there.”
The first of the incidents in the district occurred on Friday at Centaurus High School, Barber said. Two more happened on Monday at Broomfield Heights Middle School, then a third at Angevine Middle School on Tuesday. Then, on Wednesday, another happened at Eldorado PK-8 School and one more happened at Broomfield, bringing the total number of instances to six so far.
The laptops involved have mostly been school-provided Chromebooks so far, but the type of damage that the students are attempting to do can be done on any computer, Barber said. At least one case — the one at Eldorado — involved a student creating a short by tampering with the computer’s USB port.
As of Friday, it appears all the incidents have happened on school property, with most of them occurring in class, Barber added. It was not until a few had occurred that school officials realized they were connected to a social media trend, which the students involved confirmed.
The students involved will be facing disciplinary action for the damage they caused, Barber said.
Adams 12 School District officials confirmed Wednesday they had been having similar incidents at their schools, but did not share more information.
The trend also spread to El Paso County, as Colorado Springs Fire Department officials warned parents about educating children against the stunt. There have been 16 reported incidents in Colorado Springs, according to officials.
