Photo courtesy of The Southern Illinoisan
In recent weeks, some Choate students have been spending their after-school time with After School, an anonymous posting app that critics contend is a breeding ground for harassment and cyberbullying. The presence of this app on campus led dorm prefects to ask students to remove the app from their electronic devices.
Dean of Residential Life Mr. Will Morris explained that Choate’s Statement of Expectations “calls on each of us to treat all human beings with respect, refraining from behavior that insults, humiliates, or demeans; to use words constructively, avoiding gossip; and to cultivate compassion.”
He went on, “These principles apply to our personal interactions as well as to all forms of electronic media. The veil of anonymity, no matter the medium, often undermines our efforts to live up to these expectations.”
After School, released in November 2014, is a location-based app geared toward high-school students. Before students can access the restricted message board for their school, they must verify their identities, often done by linking their Facebook accounts to the app.
Sam Stitt ’20 said, “The posts cause unnecessary gossip and unintentionally hurt the school community.”
Laila Hawkins ’19 thought the app was more foolish than anything: “After School was kind of pointless because everyone said, ‘Oh, I like this person; I think this person is pretty hot,’” she said. “There was nothing really mean that was said, but it was just creepy because students were confessing their love for each other. We couldn’t respond though because it was all anonymous. Overall, it was just a circle of idiocy.”
Since its release, After School has drawn widespread criticism. After an online petition led Apple to pull the initial version of the app from its iTunes store in late 2014, After School released a new version the following spring, with features designed to combat harassment. According to The Washington Post, however, many high-school students still reported that cyberbullying and harassment on the app occurred frequently.
Many students had raised concerns to their prefects and advisers about the use of the app on campus. Head Prefects Jerri Norman ’17 and Chris Birch ’17 played large roles in leading the response of the School. The faculty members involved included Mr. Morris; Mr. James Stanley, Dean of Students; Mr. Jake Dellorco and Ms. Courtney Destefano, Co-directors of the Prefect Program; and Ms. MaryLiz Williamson, Director of Day Students.
Instead of addressing the issue during a school meeting, Choate decided to use a more direct approach. On the evening of Sunday, October 2, prefects in each dorm facilitated a discussion about students’ behavior on the application and how that might affect other users. Seniors likewise discussed the app with their adviser-on-duty that night. On Monday, October 3, day students had a similar meeting with their prefects.
Birch said, “I think we wanted it to be a conversation, instead of a lecture, because if you are going to highlight the negative side of something, it needs to be through talking with someone, not talking at someone.”
Students felt comfortable addressing the problems with After School through these smaller meetings. Caroline Rispoli ’20 said, “I thought it was a good idea to have a smaller dorm meeting with our prefects. It was more personable to talk with the senior prefects, as we’ve developed relationships with them over time.”
Silas Walker ’19 agreed. “I was thinking about downloading After School to see what people were saying,” he said, “but it was that night where we talked about it.” He continued, “Ultimately, I think the School’s decision was a good one, because After School could potentially lead to harassment.”
Students seem to agree that activity on After School has slowed down in the past few days since the meetings, though the frequency of such activity is difficult to determine.
For many, the situation with After School recalled the way another anonymous posting app riled Choate three years ago: Yik Yak, which allows a user to comment anonymously on posts that were uploaded from anywhere within a 1.5-mile radius. In 2013, some Choate students used Yik Yak to demean their peers.
There are key differences between the school’s reactions toward the After School and Yik Yak situations. According to Norman, “After School has not been on campus that long, so we addressed it earlier, rather than later.”
In addition, the School is unable to block the app, as it did with Yik Yak, which agreed to employ “geo-fence” technology to prevent its use on campus. After School does not offer such a feature. (Yik Yak now requires its users to identify themselves by name.)
According to Mr. Cory Levy, one of the founders of After School, the app was created to allow teenagers to express themselves in more unvarnished, honest ways than the self-curated images of Facebook and other social media platforms allow. When the app debuted, harassment and cyberbullying almost immediately followed.
Mr. Michael Luchies, After School’s Communication Director, wrote in an e-mail, “After School cares deeply for the teens who use our app, their schools, and communities, and we place a high importance on providing a safe and positive place for teens to be themselves.” According to Mr. Luchies, more than 99% of messages exchanged on After School are “positive or neutral in nature.”
Since the app’s reincarnation, After School has provided features intended to curb harassment. The app offers access to free crisis counseling, and reviews each post for inappropriate content before it is uploaded. The company has also implemented a zero-tolerance policy. “Offending users are blocked and banned from using After School,” Mr. Luchies wrote.
Inappropriate posts to the app do appear to occasionally sneak past After School’s censors. Less than two weeks ago, at a high school in Arizona, a student posted a bomb threat to After School, forcing the school’s evacuation. Employees at After School agreed to help investigators identify the offending user.
Students and faculty are thankful that nothing so serious has occurred at Choate, but many feel the opportunity for abuse still exists. Birch added, “The ability to freely speak in a way that you can’t be held accountable can be dangerous.”
Correction: Oct 24, 2016
An earlier version of this article misstated a functionality of the After School App. The app does not, as the article claimed, gather information from users’ Facebook accounts in order to generate new content automatically.
