Medway middle school orientation ‘Zoombombed,’ participants reportedly shown child porn
The orientation had about 150 participants at the time.
A Medway virtual orientation for incoming middle school students was “Zoombombed” Wednesday night, officials said, and students, their parents, principals, and teachers were shown a brief video of child pornography during the incident, according to WCVB.The orientation, which included about 150 participants, was about to wrap up when “an obscene video” played for about 15 to 20 seconds, authorities said in a news release. This type of incident, when a virtual meeting is hijacked, has become known as “Zoombombing.”“We want to sincerely apologize to each and every person that was on the video meeting and say that this was indeed user-error on our part,” Superintendent Armand Pires said in a statement. “We will not be hosting any further video meetings this week as we review our policies and procedures and look into other video conferencing programs that we may be able to utilize for student and teacher interaction.”School officials shut down the meeting as quickly as they could, and police were called. Authorities are continuing to investigate.Officials believe that “certain protocols were not followed” before the meeting started, which allowed for someone to get in and play the video. Taking over of virtual meetings has become more common as businesses, school districts, and other entities have turned to video conferencing instead of in-person meetings during the COVID-19 pandemic, the release notes.Counseling is being offered to students and families.“A crime was committed here and this is something we are taking very seriously as we look to identify the person who did this,” Medway police Chief Allen Tingley said in a statement.
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