“Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me.” These words are spoken often, but are they true? Words can be extremely hurtful and even go as far as to drive someone to take their own life.

Yik Yak is a new, Twitter-like app that allows users to post anonymously to other users within a five to ten mile radius. According to its developers, the original purpose of the app was to connect college students and let them have a place where they could express their opinions without being judged for it. This intention seems harmless; however, the app went viral and caused much more harm than good.

Yik Yak has been banned in countless school districts because of threats and hurtful comments. Lake Forest High School in the Chicago area is one of the many schools attempting to eliminate this extremely negative outlet from its halls and from students’ phones.

“The problem, as you might imagine, is that the anonymity is empowering certain individuals to post comments about others that are hurtful, harassing and sometimes quite disturbing.” Lake Forest principal Barry Rodgers said.

When asked what they were trying to do to fight the spread of this new trend, Rodgers was specific,

“We’re trying to teach them that even if they’re not doing anything wrong, if they’re on Yik Yak they’re part of the problem because they’re giving an audience to those mean-spirited comments.”

Dr. Potts sent out an email to Blue Valley West parents that urged them to have a conversation with their child about Yik Yak and to check that they were not using it.

Why are so many people attracted to this terribly negative, harmful app? If people knew what their sarcastic words can do to harm someone, they might be much more mindful about what they post anonymously.

In 2010, 38,364 suicides were reported in America, making suicide the tenth leading cause of death for Americans. In that year, someone in the country took their cyberbullied are about three times more likely than other kids to have suicidal thoughts.

So next time you are about to go on Yik-Yak, whether you post or just read others’ comments, think about whether you want to be at fault for someone’s damaged self-esteem or even their death.