Parents warned about Ogle app after students use it for bullying, threats

Parents in Santa Cruz County are being warned about a new app that is linked to cyber-bullying after threats were made against at least two schools last week.

“This is a time to work with your children to know what they are doing on social media, to get involved and to talk to them about proper uses,” said Mark Brewer, assistant superintendent of secondary schools at Pajaro Valley School Unified District.

The message from Brewer comes a week after a student allegedly made a post on the app threatening “gun violence” to Aptos High School and Monte Vista Christian.

“In this particular case, the first thing the student told detectives was that it was a joke,” said Brewer.

It was no laughing matter. A 16 year old Aptos high school student was arrested.

According to the app’s website the goal of Ogle is to “connect to your campus in a fun, creative way as you go about your day.”

The app allows you to can look up a school and make anonymous posts.

As you swipe through the app you can see some of the posts are harmless. One read, “any thoughts on the freshman beating the seniors at dodgeball.” Other posts are so explicit we can’t show them without blurring out the bad words.

“All the teachers addressed the students in their classrooms about it and had a conversation with the whole student population about how disruptive that kind of behavior can be,” said Brewer.

The app isn’t just worrying people at the school district, it is becoming a problem that law enforcement is concerned about more and more every day.

“A threat to our school system is priority,” said Sergeant Roy Morales with the Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office. “Once we receive one of those it is on.”

All threats made on the app or any platform are taken seriously, according to Morales.

“Once we receive one of those threats, it doesn’t matter if it is by phone, social media…we are on it right away,” added Morales.

The sheriff’s department does offers some advice to parents.

“Nowadays every kid has a smart phone,” said Morales. It is mostly the parents that are paying the bills so you have the right to look at your kid’s phone so that is what we are asking and that is what we are trying to educate the parents on,” added Morales.

KION did reach out to the Palo Alto based Ogle for comment, but did not hear back.