For years, teachers have complained about the same classroom distractions: bulky water bottles that clang to the floor and cell phones that quietly hijack attention behind glowing screens.
But in 2025, a new disruption swept through schools across the country — one that had nothing to do with the persistent chant of “67.”
Paper darts.
“They are everywhere,” said Easton Whitehead, an English teacher at Biloxi High School in a TikTok video, adding that he has since banned them and now issues detentions and write-ups for offenders.
Other schools are adopting similar measures. On Reddit, one teenager posted a letter sent home to parents saying that possession alone could lead to suspension, while throwing a dart carried even harsher consequences
In an interview with TODAY.com, Whitehead, 24, described the darts as small, folded triangles made from Post-it notes, stapled at the tip and flung toward classroom ceilings, where they lodge into the grid of acoustic tiles. He said he first noticed them appearing in the hallways before finding then in his own classroom.
“When I finally picked one up and asked what it was, my student looked at me like I was crazy,” he says. “They told me, ‘It’s a paper dart. You’ve never seen one before?’”
After Whitehead posted about the trend, other educators reached out to say they were seeing the same thing, with many sharing photos of their ceilings, dotted with dozens of paper darts in neon pinks, yellows and blues, jutting downward from the ceiling tiles like stalactites.
Reactions to Whitehead’s TikTok ran the gamut. Some teachers called the darts safety concerns, warning that the stapled tips could cause injuries. Others took a lighter view, noting that the distraction is simply the latest version of pencils once lodged in ceilings. A handful of teachers said they had leaned into the chaos, turning the darts into lessons. As one put it, “We talk about engineering and gravity.”
For Whitehead, the frustration is partly practical and partly personal. He says the darts regularly interrupt lessons, breaking his concentration just as he finds his teaching rhythm.
“You’ll be in the middle of a good flow, and suddenly something orange goes flying past your head,” he tells TODAY.
He also worries the darts could escalate from nuisance to a discipline issue. “It’s only a matter of time until they start throwing these at each other,” he said. “And once the ceiling’s covered in them, it just looks bad.”
(TODAY)
