Someone on reddit says this is due to Andrew Tate's influence. I barely know who Andrew Tate is, but other commenters there seem to believe it too.

https://old.reddit.com/r/chess/comments/12n0yxh/article_teac... :

GoodNormals 35 points 4 hours ago

I’m a high school dean and former teacher and chess coach.

While new students playing chess is great, and I see it all the time at school, unfortunately it’s the result of Andrew Tate’s influence. I’ve asked many students lately while they started playing, and Tate is brought up almost every time.