Newton High School Zoom-Bombed With Racist Rant, Again

NEWTON, MA – The Newton Police Department and the Anti-Defamation League and school officials are investigating after two people hacked into an online Newton South biology class Thursday and released a spate of foul language, including a racial epithet.

The teacher was able to remove the intruders, according to Principal Joel Stembridge.

"Our students say it better than I could: 'One would hope that awful racist attacks on those we care for would end as we try and stand together against a pandemic. But people can be awful so here we find ourselves, bewildered, hurt.' I share their hurt," he said in a statement.

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.

The city council has had to respond to at least one incident of zoom bombing, and this is not the first time the high school has had unwanted visitors to its online classes. Last month someone "Zoom bombed" a language class and displayed racist images.

After that incident, the school put together a human rights council to help it prevent and respond to incidents of hate, according to the principal, who said he planned to meet with them Friday.

Stempbridge said he is also directing faculty to only allow into classrooms students who have authenticated their NSHS identification through the use of their NPS student gmail, a security protection that just came available for our use Thursday.

"These hateful attacks are an attempt to thwart the very things that we need more of right now: connection, understanding, grace. I applaud our students and faculty who once again are showing tremendous resilience in these challenging times."

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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).