By Madison Dymond ‘16

In mid-September over a three-day period, seemingly every student at Sherwood downloaded the Yik Yak app onto his or her smart phone. Yik Yak is a social networking app where one posts, comments, and does everything that one normally do with social media. The only difference is that Yik Yak is completely anonymous. It is essentially Twitter but without identities.
Yik Yak appeared approximately three months ago on college campuses, but just recently became popular at Sherwood. Though the app is supposed to be used by college students, there is no way to guarantee this, as students are able to use it at school.

The app’s most attractive feature is that students can say whatever they want and no one will know it was them. The stated purpose of Yik Yak, as described in the app store, is to act “like a local bulletin board for your area by showing the most recent posts from other users around you.” It allows anyone to connect and share information with other people anonymously. While the creators of Yik Yak, fraternity brothers Brooks Buffington and Tyler Droll, intended for the app to be “a hyper-local place to rant about anything anonymously with people in your community,” posts from Sherwood students frequently ridicule or insult teachers and other students. Reportedly, some teachers with Yik Yak accounts “downvote” any hurtful posts they find.
Security Team Leader Patrick Rooney is aware of the app’s existence, but school security does not see Yik Yak as a significant problem, as new social media crazes come around all the time. “I understand that it’s out there and that it’s anonymous,” said Rooney.

Teachers have complained to Rooney about bullying on Yik Yak. Bullying is a concern and a criminal violation, so it is not covered by freedom of speech. However, as long as it is not threatening to public safety, there is little that the school can do. The app is “not worth your time. Don’t feed into the frenzy,” Rooney advised students.

If the cyberbullying gets in the way of students’ abilities to perform well in class or directly threatens someone’s safety, the school will have to become further involved in controlling the usage of Yik Yak.