Newton High School Class Zoom-Bombed With Anti-Chinese Images

NEWTON, MA — In the middle of an online Advanced Placement Chinese class for students at Newton South High School last week, class was interrupted with "vile, hate-filled images and speech" directed at the class and the teacher, according to the school administration.

Racism and hate crimes have targeted Asian Americans across the United States amid an outbreak of the new coronavirus. The disease caused by the virus, officially called COVID-19, originated in Wuhan, China. Since it has spread, the United States have seen multiple discrimination incidents, Patch has reported from New York to Los Angeles, Patch has reported.

With more meetings and classes moving online to slow the spread of the virus, the FBI's office in Boston said it had received an increase in reports of "Zoom-bombing," where someone interrupts a meeting held on the online meeting platform Zoom, and shouts or uses the screen share function without permission and shares images which often include hate-filled rants.

"It was clearly racist, hateful, and horrible," said Principal Joel Stembridge in an email to the community on April 16 about the incident.

The school notified the Newton Police Department, which is investigating the "Zoom bombing" as a hate crime.

"Initial reports indicate that the intruders were likely not from Newton, although that could change as we learn more," said Stembridge.

Stembridge and Superintendent David Fleishman both described the interruption as traumatic to students and the teacher.

"An attack on members of our NSHS Asian-American community is an attack on all of us," said Stembridge who said a plan to respond is in the works.

Stembridge canceled Zoom meetings scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday to review security protocols.

The Asian Pacific Policy and Planning Council and Chinese for Affirmative Action launched the Stop Hate website so people could directly report incidents and the group got 1,135 reports in its first two weeks.

The FBI recommends password-protecting online meeting and said organizers should not publicly share links to meetings on social media. Once the meeting is underway, hosts should make sure participants cannot share screens without the meeting organizer's approval.

In Newton Monday, there were more than 400 cases of the virus and nearly 40,000 people had tested positive for it across the commonwealth.

"Together we will push back against racism, hatred and intolerance," Newton Mayor Ruthanne Fuller said in response via a statement. "Together we will stand for Newton's core principles of respect, acceptance and diversity."

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Patch reporter Jenna Fisher can be reached at Jenna.Fisher@patch.com or by calling 617-942-0474. Follow her on Twitter and Instagram (@ReporterJenna).