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Michigan School District Fights To Get Sexually Explicit, Anonymous ‘After School’ App Pulled From iTunes, And Quickly Succeeds, Says Superintendent

By Dawn Papple
Published on: 06:21 PST, Dec 5, 2014

There were no doubts that once Apple got wind of After School, the sexually explicit application that was available for free download from iTunes, the company would remove it, Pinckney Community Schools’ Superintendent Rick Todd said on a Facebook post. Some Livingston County students were victimized by the After School application, which allowed students to cyber-bully each other by posting anonymous messages to individual school message boards through the application being downloaded from iTunes, Superintendent Rick Todd told the Livingston Daily.

After School marketed itself as an application for “Funny Anonymous School News for Confessions and Compliments.” It is compatible with iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch operating systems of iOS 6.0 or later, according to the Livingston Daily. After School is accessed through Facebook accounts. The After School app verifies that the individual is a student of the school they are posting on, but then allows the students to post anonymously.

Rick Todd said that Apple removed the After School application after being in direct contact with Pinckney Community School’s assistant superintendent for curriculum, assessment, and technology, Tom McCurdy, on Wednesday. Todd said McCurdy “was paramount in informing Apple of the dangers of this app and played a key role in getting this app removed.”

“I’m very pleased with the proper action Apple took,” Todd said. “They’ve been strong educational partners with schools, and I didn’t have any doubt when they realized the magnitude of what’s going on they’d do the right thing.”

The contact with Apple came a day after Principal Jim Darga addressed high school students’ parents in an email. In the email, Darga said that “extremely cruel comments” were being left on the Pinckney High School message board on the After School platform.

Content posted to the application includes sexually explicit videos, which were being downloaded to students’ individual cell phones. Law enforcement was notified Monday when a student at another Michigan school, Flushing High School, anonymously wrote on that school’s message board, “Bringing a Gun to School.” In Swartz Creek, Michigan, students launched a petition on Change.org to remove the After School application.

“But how do you fight with a force of invisible, faceless people? I looked at the app with a friend to get an idea of what all was being said, and it was completely and utterly disgusting,” the text of the petition stated. “There were accusations of teachers sleeping with students, gay bashing and hate mongering, cyber bullying, threats of physical bullying, sexual harassment, and promotion of suicide.”

Though the application has been removed from the Apple store, students who already downloaded it are still able to use it, according to Rick Todd, who advised parents to check their children’s devices for the After School application.

[Photo via Change.org petition page]

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