MONROE, Utah – A teenager is speaking out after a fellow classmate cut her hair while she was in school and bragged about it on the anonymous smart phone app called After School.
Parents are concerned about the app, since teens keep using it to bully their peers. Last week, 18-year-old Sydnee Anderson was a victim to the app used for bullying.
The South Sevier High School student fell asleep while she was in class last week, and a random student cut off part of her hair.
“After school, I went to get ready for a drill team performance, and I went to pull my hair back and I didn’t have any like right here,” Anderson told FOX 13 News in a Skype interview Tuesday.
After the student cut her hair, they anonymously posted they were the one that did it on the social media app After School.
“After School is probably the best app on the marketplace. I can connect with my friends, they can be anonymous and everyone can be truthful,” one student said in a video on the website.
“I kind of started to cry and I went into my mom to talk to her about it and we didn’t know what was going on,” Anderson said.
The website says the After School app was created as a private message board for high school students to post their opinions and feelings anonymously.
“I feel very violated,” Anderson said.
Child psychologist Margaret Thompson said the app allows teens to openly bully each other and that can have long-lasting impacts on a young person’s self-esteem.
“You start believing them at some point,” Thompson said. “And thinking, ‘maybe I am worthless,' or 'people don’t like me,' or 'what’s wrong?'”
Thompson said parents need to regulate their teen’s cell phones on a daily basis and educate them about the harmful effects of bullying.
“They need to have complete access to their kids’ phones. And I think there should be no barriers to finding out if there’s any passwords that they need to have so they can see what’s happening,” Thompson said.
Anderson said she was humiliated by the post and thinks the app should be removed.
“Like erased and not available -- it’s just a place where people can get bullied,” she said.
FOX 13 News did reach out the school for comment. The principal said he is working with law enforcement to address the issue and make sure it doesn’t happen again.
They still don’t know who cut Anderson’s hair or made the anonymous post.
