Smartphone app used to bully local students

Due to the insurgence of cyberbullying by way of various phone applications in our local schools, principals, administrators, teachers and parents have had to deal with a new type of name calling and worse.

And according to those interested in the well-being of local children, education is the first step toward winning the battle.

smartphone applications – even those meant to be used for positive reasons – can be destructive when used to demean others. And, unfortunately, we’re seeing instances of this in out local schools.

Examples of this can be found on but not limited to apps entitled Streetchat and YikYak – entities that many local parents don’t even know exists.

Under anonymous usernames, children have free reign to post whatever they want regardless how offensive or hateful the message may be.

Removal of any offensive content by those running the app seem to be tardy, at best, and even if it is removed, the damage may have already been done.

And then, of course, there’s a generational gap between those children who understand modern technology and adults who for the most part, do not.

Kimberly Chauvin hopes to change that.

She started a Facebook group Sunday which aims to educate parents regarding the dangers of children using these apps for the wrong reasons. The group is titled “Parents Against Streetchat & YikYak bullying Apps” and had 125 members as of press time.

“Parents are going to have to, whether they realize it or not, get way more involved with kids’ phones, computers. They’re just going to have to become more involved,” Chauvin said. “We used to say you’re going to have to get street-wise because you’re going to have to figure out what your kids are doing. Now, you’re going to have to get technology wise. You’re going to have to become app wise.”

Because Chauvin’s children have already graduated high school, she feels it takes someone like her to stand up against the bullying.

“The problem with is if parents of kids speak out – the ones that are being bullied – then those kids get victimized all over again because kids are cruel. I don’t know why they’ve chosen to be this cruel, so what we need is grandparents and other parents who may have grown kids to kind of fill in the gap to try to take over the apps,” she said.

Chauvin’s plan of attack – “invading” the cyber territory of children who are using the app to bully others. By that, she means local pastors, parents, teachers, administrators and principals flooding the app by posting positive messages about the school.

“I think the adults should keep it classy. Put positive things on there. Put scriptural things on there. That’s what I’m calling for,” Chauvin said. “ … We’re going to educate ourselves on the app, on the technology and work our way into invading their territory. People are wanting to join and wanting to meet so that we can teach others how to go about learning these apps and how to use them.”

This is all a preventative measure to stop bullying-induced drastic events.

“If you keep pushing someone in to a corner hard enough they are going to snap, and I worry about that so what we’re doing may save a child from committing suicide. It may save a child’s reputation. It may save our schools from having something as bad as a school shooting and that’s what we have to look for. We have to be diligent enough to keep going after these acts just to save children,” Chauvin said.

Local school districts are doing their part to limit the negative effects of the app also, however they do not have jurisdiction to police the app when things are posted away from school or if it is unclear if the post was made at school or not. Additionally, the fact that posts are made by anonymous usernames adds to the difficulty of tracking down culprits.

When found, however, schools will take action.

“We treat it just like any other software. If you use it in the wrong way and do stuff that affects the school climate, we’ll get you expelled, suspended or whatever. There will be consequences for it,” Lafourche Parish School District Communications Specialist Floyd Benoit said.

Lafourche allows cellphone usage in certain spots at school labeled “green zones.” Cellphone use is prohibited in “red zones” which make up the vast majority of campuses including classrooms, libraries and cafeterias.

In Terrebonne Parish, students may bring their cell phones to school, however they are prohibited from using them on campus.

“I think what all parents need to do, they need to monitor the social media that their children are on. They are the ones that own the telephone. They are the ones that pay the bills. They have the right to know everything their children are doing on those phones,” said Terrebonne Parish School District Child Welfare & Attendance Supervisor Kim Vauclain.

That grassroots effort has begun thanks to adults like Chauvin, and she’d like others to join her.