Teacher Review Moderation Policy

A review can be unflattering and still stay up: "strict grader," "boring lectures," and "way too much homework" are all fair opinions about a real classroom experience. We remove a review when it:

• Contains harassment, slurs, or a threat against a person or a school
• Makes a claim about the teacher that's clearly false or defamatory rather than an opinion (e.g. accusing them of a specific crime with no basis)
• Shares someone's private information (home address, personal phone number, etc.)
• Is spam, an ad, or entirely off-topic for a teacher review

Anyone can read reviews. Writing one needs a signed-in student who lists that teacher's school on their profile, with a verified email. A reviewer's name is shown only to their friends; everyone else sees "A student."

Two things can bring a comment to an admin's attention:

1. A student reports it. Any signed-in student can report a comment (not their own) directly from Commons, with an optional reason.
2. Automatic flagging. A comment containing certain severe language, threat patterns or contact details is flagged for review the moment it's posted, even before anyone reports it. See "Automatic flagging" below.

Either way, it lands in the admin moderation queue, most-reported (and any auto-flagged item) shown first. An admin reads the comment in context (the teacher it's about, the report reasons, and the reason it was auto-flagged, if it was) and either removes it or dismisses the report(s) if the comment doesn't actually violate this policy.

We aim to review every reported or flagged comment within 24 hours. Every new report or automatic flag emails the team right away (and notifies our admin accounts that have notifications on), and once a day Kaddy emails the team again about anything that has waited longer than 24 hours. A comment auto-flagged as a possible threat is marked urgent, goes to the top of the queue with the other auto-flagged comments, and stays hidden until someone has looked at it.

Kaddy runs a lightweight, narrow check on every new teacher-review comment for a small set of severe slurs, explicit threat language, and allegations of misconduct (theft, drinking, abuse, a relationship with a student). It's separate from (and stricter than) the general profanity filter that just masks swearing and slurs inline. Threats include ones against a school, like bringing a weapon to class. Spaced-out or number-swapped spellings, like "s h o o t" or "sh00t", count too. The check also looks for contact details, like a phone number or a Snapchat handle. A match keeps the comment hidden from everyone but its author until a human reviewer has looked at it. This is a backstop for the worst cases, not a general-purpose content classifier. Most moderation still happens through student reports.

When a school has its email domain on file, a review is marked Verified if the student who wrote it has verified an email address on that domain (their login email or a school email added in Settings). Schools without a domain on file just show reviews as unverified. That's a gap in our records, not a claim that the review is fake, and we're filling it in over time.

If a comment of yours is removed for violating this policy, you'll see it's gone the next time you open that teacher's page. We don't currently send a separate removal notice, but you can always ask why.

If a review was reported or held for review and is then deleted, by its author, by an admin or along with the author's account, we keep a copy for our moderators, so a report can still be looked into.

If you think a review of yours was removed by mistake, or that a review still up should have been removed, email intellibloomapp@gmail.com with the teacher's name and, if you have it, roughly what the comment said. A different admin than whoever made the original call will take a second look and reply with the outcome, generally within a few days.

This page is about teacher reviews, but the same admin team handles reports about everything else in Kaddy:

• Messages in direct and group chats, including photos. Direct messages are private: no filter or automatic check reads them unless someone reports one. Once a direct message is reported, the same checks used on reviews run on that message only, to help an admin sort the report. In group chats, swearing and slurs are masked automatically, but nothing is held, so reports matter most here. If an adult account and a student under 18 share contact details in a group chat (like a phone number or a Snapchat handle), the message is still sent, but it's flagged for an admin automatically. (18 and 19 year olds count as adults here only toward students 15 or younger.) If a reported or flagged message is deleted, by an admin or by the person who sent it, we keep a copy (with any photo) for our records. The same goes when its sender deletes their account or the chat it was in is deleted: we keep a copy (with any photo and the name it was sent under). A report is withdrawn if the person who filed it deletes their account.
• People, reported from their profile.
• Class announcements, class notes and decks shared to a class. Only students who have verified an email address from their school can post them. Swearing and slurs are masked in announcements and notes, and in a shared deck's title in the class library and its title and cards when someone adds it to their own decks. Any of them with threats, slurs, misconduct allegations or contact details (like a phone number or a Snapchat handle) is held until an admin has looked at it. Anyone who can see one can report it. A held or reported class note or deck is kept as a copy for our records if it's removed, or if its author deletes their account.

We aim to review these within 24 hours too. Every report, and every class post that's held, emails the team right away, and a report that a person or a message seems like an adult contacting students is marked urgent.

If you're a teacher and a review about you is false, shares private information or crosses into harassment, email intellibloomapp@gmail.com from your school address with your name, school and the review. We'll look at it within 24 hours. If a review describes a student being harmed, we may pass it to the school or the appropriate authorities rather than just removing it.