TikTok’s New Teacher Challenge Comes Under Fire After Benadryl Video Controversy

Following a dangerous and possibly life-threatening challenge involving Benedryl, another new TikTok trend is now under fire. Videos part of the “New Teacher Challenge" circulating on the social media platform are being touted as promoting bullying.

The latest challenge to take the video-sharing app by storm shows moms asking their kids if they want to meet their new teachers for the upcoming school year. The clip continues with the moms then showing their children photos of women with disabilities or mugshots instead and filming their kids’ reactions. While some reactions were positive, most were not, which has led to the controversy.

One of the women who saw her picture used in a challenge is Lizzie Velasquez, a motivational speaker and author who suffers from Marfanoid-progeroid-lipodystrophy syndrome, which affects her ability to gain weight and affects the structure of her face. Velasquez told CNN that the challenge is actually teaching the children, who see their parents laugh after their reactions, that its okay to laugh at others who may have disabilities.

“I am one person that this has happened to, but there are so many others who this is continuing to happen to,” she said. “I’m just going to keep doing whatever I can, whether it’s speaking out about it, or whether it’s posting my own videos trying to get these mini-lessons in, and hope that they help.”

Velazquez also took to TikTok and other social media sites to share the problem with the lesson, posting a small snippet of one of the videos that did use her photo as she explained what was wrong.

The new challenge comes on the heels of others that have been blasted for what they promote and cause. A “Holocaust Challenge” last month saw users pretending to be deceased Holocaust victims describing their times in concentration camps and explaining how they died, which also transitioned into users then pretending to be 9/11 victims. The videos were intended to educate about the traumatic events but instead were blasted for being a form of “trauma porn.”

Meanwhile, the “Benadryl Challenge” has also resulted in backlash, specifically after it was speculated to be linked to an Oklahoma teen's death. The challenge, which also led to the hospitalization of three teens in Texas, encourages users to take a dozen or more doses of the allergy medication in order to experience a high that can lead to hallucinations. However, while Diphenhydramine, the drug that comprises Benadryl, is considered safe in normal doses, it can have severe side effects if taken in excessive amounts.

The trends are also facing criticism at a time when TikTok’s future in the U.S. remains uncertain. President Donald Trump signed an executive order in August that the owners of the app, ByteDance, had to either sell or spin-off their business in the U.S. within 90 days, or it would be banned.