A mother in New York City is calling on municipal officials to take action after she watched hackers stream pornography into her 10-year-old daughter’s online class session.
Devon Morales first tweeted the upsetting development Wednesday, tagging New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio (D), NYC Schools Chancellor Richard Carranza, and the city’s Department of Education.
“[Five] minutes into my daughter’s Google meet with her first class, and several ‘students’ have hijacked the meeting,” wrote Morales, adding they first shared “Trump pics” before streaming pornography into the virtual meeting.
The “infuriated” mother said she immediately “shut the laptop in horror.”
“No teachers should be hosting online classes without remote conference managers or IT monitoring them,” Morales asserted. “[Pornography] should not have been part of my daughter’s 6th grade curriculum. Do better!”
According to WNBC-TV, the NYC Department of Education has launched an investigation into the indecent incident.
Miranda Barbot, a spokesperson for the department, told the local news outlet the agency has “strict security settings for DOE-approved platforms to prevent outside parties from entering.” She said the virtual class “was immediately taken offline.”
“We will provide any necessary follow-up support to the school community,” she added.
Another department spokesperson, Sarah Casasnovas, told the New York Post the agency anticipated technical issues, as this week has been one of “instructional orientation” aimed at acquainting students and parents with virtual learning and aiding in “troubleshoot[ing] any device or connectivity issues.”
Morales shared details of her daughter’s unacceptable classroom experience as de Blasio announced his administration is delaying until October the reopening of public school classrooms for in-person instruction for 8th-12th graders. K-5 and K-8 schools are slated to begin in-person education Sept. 29.