As labour negotiations between the province and the union representing 55,000 school support staff continue Sunday evening, several high school students — faced with the possibility of school closures come Monday morning — took to the social medium platform, TikTok, to air their hot takes.

Videos include everything from overflowing garbage at the high schools due to the lack of janitorial staff to karaoke-style memes of students expressing their desperation to graduate. As of Sunday afternoon, the #ontariostrike hashtag had at 1.4 million views and #cupestrike had 191.7K views.

In one video, a student is seen “praying for the strike” in the hopes of school closing for some time — resulting in a much-needed break from studies.

In other videos, students are noted criticizing Premier Doug Ford for his government’s changes to education and lamenting the possibility of not being able to graduate on time.

Another video says students may have their school year extended into the summer if a possible strike goes on for too long.

TikTok is a relatively new social media platform, the latest obsession of Gen Z where people are able to post short videos — usually only a few seconds long — with a soundtrack. In August 2018, it skyrocketed to popularity in North America after it merged with a similar app, Musical.ly.

Taylor Lorenz, formerly a staff writer for The Atlantic covering technology, wrote in late 2018 that the videos on the app are “incredibly addictive,” with many people finding its content “cringe.”

“TikTok stars may get the final laugh,” she wrote. “As viral cringe compilations continue to spread, more people are becoming aware of the app and downloading it, and many who do love what they find.”

Ilya Bañares is a breaking news reporter, working out of the Star's radio room in Toronto. Follow him on Twitter: @ilyaoverseas

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