Police Investigate Zoombombing During Medway Middle School Orientation
MEDWAY (CBS) – Police are investigating an apparent 'Zoombombing' incident after a person played an obscene video during a Medway Middle School orientation Wednesday night.
The school hosted the online video conference on Zoom for their 5th grade orientation that included parents, children, teachers, principals and other school officials.
When the orientation was ending, an unidentified person took control and played the obscene video for about 20 seconds before school officials closed the meeting and called police. Approximately 150 people were in the meeting when the video was played.
In March, the FBI sent out a warning about Zoombombing as the coronavirus pandemic forced more meetings to be held online.
"Zoombombing is an act where an unwanted person enters into a Zoom meeting and displays obscene, racist or hateful speech, images and videos to unsuspecting participants," Medway Police Chief Allen Tingley said. "A crime was committed here and this is something we are taking very seriously as we look to identify the person who did this."
School officials believe certain protocols were not followed prior to the start of the meeting, which allowed for the incident to take place.
"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.
The school district will be offering counseling and assistance to any students or families that need it.
The incident remains under investigation by the Medway Police Department.