GREENWOOD (KFSM) – One day after the Greenwood School District banned a smartphone app, a message was posted in the app that shut down a California school for two days.
The app is called Yik Yak, and it allows people to share comments anonymously with others in the immediate area of the person using the app. The Greenwood Police Department worried kids would use it for bullying, but it can also be used to make threats, officials said.
CBS News reported the California school that was shut down on Nov. 18 and 19 was closed due to police investigating online postings from the app regarding threats of violence.
Five messages were posted from the Yik Yak app indicating violence would occur, so, police closed the Mira Costa High School for two days, according to CBS News.
The first message said, “If you go to Costa, you should watch out very closely at school today.” The next said, “Nice try, Costa. Today was just a drill,” CBS News reported.
Investigators are working with the makers of the Yik Yak app to identify a suspect and make an arrest, according to CBS News.
According to the Yik Yak app creators, the app uses GPS to determine a user’s location and shows anonymous posts within a 1.5 mile radius.
In Greenwood, a student named Alex Nolan got into trouble for seemingly anonymous things he typed about the assistant principal at his school. He was later caught, called into the school office and got into trouble for his posts.
