Circulating in Newport Harbor news this week is the danger and impact of social media and the correlation that it has on the safety of our school. This Thursday teachers were alerted in 6th period to check their emails which told of a possible threat to the schools safety and that a lockdown would then be conducted. The threat was given on the popular app Ogle, a social media network that aims to keep the campus unified. Not only did Ogle tell of a school threat, but it’s also a hub of cyber bullying. This threat is an obvious reminder of the power of social media on our campus as a whole and our need to stop using social media negatively. We interviewed students and asked their thoughts about this growing problem.

“First of all, I would like to say that I do not think Ogle is a healthy environment for high schoolers to be involved with, especially since there is no censoring of the user, as it completely removes the feeling of responsibility for someone’s actions. Not to mention, there have been cyber bullying events as well as postings of naked students on the app. As for the lockdown, I would say it’s another drawback to the app. As I said before, without responsibility, someone can realize they have a test tomorrow, do not want to take it, announce they will shoot the next day and ditch to avoid the test, claiming they were scared of the shooting so they were absent. I think our school reacted in a perfectly valid and responsible way in that they did not overplay it, but still requested police intervention because the one time that we don’t take threats like this one seriously, an event could happen that costs lives of the students at our school.”

– Jantzen Fenn

“I was a little confused about it. I did not know what the app was until the day Mr. Cusik sent an email. It just makes me sad that this app is used to hurt people and create problems that are not necessary for anyone.” -Kaela Whelan

Written By: Katie Clark & Megan Carey