Schools

How Should Local Schools Handle 'Yik Yak' Bomb Threats?

Bomb threats posted to the new social media app Yik Yak is prompting school evacuations across the country.


It's a troubling growing trend. 

Schools across the country, including a high school in Marblehead, Mass., are being evacuated after school officials are alerted to bomb threats posted to the new social media app Yik Yak.

If you haven't heard of Yik Yak, it's a social media application that doesn't require its users to create a username and allows anyone to post information anonymously for people within a ten mile radius to view.

Yik Yak's terms of service require that users have to be 17 to download the application to their smartphones. 

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution recently published an article about the problems Yik Yak is causing in schools nationwide, and it seems school officials are looking for the best way to deal with anonymous threats posted to the site.

"In addition to it being a misdemeanor crime for disrupting a school assembly, it is also a felony for making a bomb threat. In addition to the massive disruption to the educational day, it is also a massive drain on public safety resources who respond to the call," Marblehead police posted to their Facebook page following the school's second evacuation Tuesday

Should school officials take a different approach to Yik Yak threats? Have you had a talk with your kids about Yik Yak? 

Let us know in the comments section below. 


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