Statement by George Penick Made to All 7th 12th Grade Students March 6, 2014, 2:40 p.m.

St. Andrews Students, If you have Yik Yak on your phone, you need to delete it. We are asking your parents to check all of your devices and, should they find Yik Yak, to delete it. Each of you has signed an Acceptable Use Policy for technology. It states that, Social media use which disrupts the daily operations of the school, brings unfavorable notoriety to the school, defames or brings harm to an individual or group, or causes any legal burdens upon the school, will be investigated by the school and where appropriate local and federal authorities will be informed. Those individuals who have been identified creating, disseminating or otherwise participating in such social media use will be considered to have incurred a severe infraction as outlined in the Student Handbook for Middle and Upper School. While there are certainly innocent uses for this app, judging from what Ive read today I think about 90% of you who are Yakking are in violation of the AUP. Violation of the AUP is an automatic severe infraction. That can mean suspension, and that can mean expulsion. St. Andrews takes its values very seriously; our values are the prism through which we measure our actions as good and worthy, or left wanting. Our values include truth, honesty, and integrity and respect for the dignity of every human being. Hiding behind anonymity in order to belittle your classmates is not only cowardly and shameful, it is behavior that is beneath what we want to see exhibited in our students. So, you have a choice. You can work towards changing your behaviors to better reflect our core values, or you put yourself on a perilous path where your future at this school is less than certain.