The use of a controversial phone app which deletes messages as soon as they’re sent – by higher level staff at Fresno Unified School District – is generating questions.
Cyber Dust makes communication virtually untraceable – by deleting messages 30 seconds after they are sent.
In a release, Fresno Unified Trustee Brooke Ashijan says he never used the app – but alleges that Superintendent Michael Hanson and others did.
Independent blogger Mark Arax, who appeared this morning (9.30.2015) on KMJ’s Broeske & Musson Show – says for the past year, Cyber Dust has been used by F.U.S.D. school officials.
“What would compel a school district to even try this – because it does one thing and one thing only – it takes public communication and turns it private, which is illegal.” – Mark Arax
This form of communication for official business is against the California Public Records Act – and comes about a month after the Fresno Unified School District was served with a federal grand jury subpoena in regards to Fresno Unified’s involvement in no bid construction contacts.
“In the decade that Michael Hanson has run this school district, he’s had a compulsion to conceal things, its kinda almost – I call it a pathological disdain for transparency. – Mark Arax, Independent blogger.
KMJ news received this comment from the Fresno Unified District:
Superintendent Michael Hanson on Cyber Dust: Four senior staff members used it for less than a month on a trial basis in the spring of 2014 and we discontinued it after only a handful of messages because it was not helpful or useful in our work. Staff members were within district regulations in using the app as our regulations indicate we do not keep instant or text messages.
