Written by Penelope King and Sophia Qin.
On the first day of physical education class, freshman Kathleen Suayan’s Zoom lesson was interrupted by an unexpected guest. An out-of-state student began harassing students, which quickly escalated into taking over the PE teacher Linda Brown’s screen sharing to display inappropriate videos and music.
“The week preceding [school starting], there was a lot of professional development going on, so all the teachers were meeting,” Brown said. “We were sharing screens a lot, [so] I didn’t realize that I hadn’t gone back and switched off just one button, the [share-screen] button.”
This incident is an example of “Zoombombing,” a form of digital harassment where a video conference call is disrupted by unwanted visitors, typically with no affiliation to the call they’re attending. It is a new, yet already common occurrence that pairs with the dependency on Zoom in distanced work and school environments. Various other cases of interrupted classes have happened at Aragon, targeting mostly underclassmen classes.
“The beginning of the school year is rough for teachers, [who] can have up to 168 new students, new names to learn [and] faces to memorize,” said Principal Valerie Arbizu in an email to the Outlook. “Zoombombing incidents … have capitalized on teachers’ varying abilities to immediately discern true students from fake students.”
“You don’t know what a class of 45 [students] is [going to be like] until you hit that button for the first time”
Brown expressed her struggles as a teacher adapting to distance learning.
“The toughest thing is that all of this technology is new to everybody,” Brown said. “If we were at school, [the Zoombombing] would not have happened. … You don’t know what a class of 45 [students] is [going to be like] until you hit that button for the first time.”
Brown hoped to prevent the intruder from returning by restarting the meeting multiple times, but it was unsuccessful. As was discovered after the incident, the attacker, a non-Aragon student, had access to the meeting information from one of Brown’s students.
“I was just trying to get him off the line,” Brown said. “I was just figuring out any way to stop it. My students … were being verbally abused from the standpoint that they were having to listen to language and words that are not appropriate, so I ended it as quickly as possible.”
Shortly after, the Zoombomber posted a recording of the incident on Youtube and TikTok, where it received many viewers’ support and approval.
“People just want to get more attention,” said freshman Mir Majumdar, who was in Brown’s class when the Zoombombing occurred. “The reason [viewers] were supporting him was because it didn’t really happen to them. … They found it funny happening to other people.”
Zoombombings are often characterized by the display of inappropriate content and targeted harassment of teachers or students.
“There was disrespectful language. There was swearing,” Brown said. “There’s just absolutely no respect for the people that are sitting there having to listen to it.”
“[T]echnology makes transparency even more important because studies show people are more likely to behave in a dishonest or morally questionable way when they can hide behind it”
Profanities appearing in Zoombombings have revealed a wider scale issue within high schools: hate speech.
“Every school has a slightly different manner of using dehumanizing language, often depending on the cultures, home languages and ethnicities of students on the campus and in the surrounding neighborhoods,” Arbizu said. “You will find this anywhere there are issues of power imbalance and lack of true integration amongst the students on campus.”
The promise of anonymity on internet platforms acts as a shield for many users, stimulating more to act rashly without the fear of consequences.
“[T]echnology makes transparency even more important because studies show people are more likely to behave in a dishonest or morally questionable way when they can hide behind it,” according to the BBC.
The sense of security behind a computer screen entices instigators to freely use degrading language filled with racism and homophobia, and laws and ethical considerations haven’t improved at the same rate.
In past incidents of digital intrusion, Aragon administrators have been able to determine hackers, understand how they gained access to the meeting and give students involved in the process appropriate consequences or counseling. Affected students were directed to wellness counselors and parents were notified immediately.
“The student [who leaked the link] had to come in and apologize,” Brown said. “There [are] some other penalties, [and] hopefully [the student can] learn from this whole process. … Sometimes people make choices that at the time seem kind of funny but then down the road they realize they didn’t see the whole picture.”
As a result of recent Zoombombing incidents, the San Mateo Union High School District has established an online security measure, which requires that students log in with their school emails in order to access online classes, making it harder for non-district students to intrude.
“Our administrative team has been working tirelessly to support the creation of positive learning environments for students,” Arbizu said. “Our software partners, like Zoom, are continuously updating and upgrading their user and security features; as they continue to refine their products, we will continue to implement those refinements if they improve the educational environment for our students.”
“[Zoombombings are] completely inappropriate, [however] I think it was a good learning experience for everyone”
Despite the unpleasant experience, Majumdar sees a silver lining.
“[Zoombombings are] completely inappropriate, [however] I think it was a good learning experience for everyone,” said Majumdar. “It made all the Zoom classes safer now that we’re using our school [emails], and all the teachers are more aware of what’s happening during the Zoom meetings.”
Some students have expressed their wishes for the earlier implementation of the online security measures, which they believe could have prevented the Zoombombing incidents.
“Before school started, we believed that we had provided teachers with all of the information they needed to provide a secure learning experience for the students in their classes,” Arbizu said. “Then we got Zoombombed on the first day of school. Within hours, Assistant Principal Elenz-Martin and our site tech team discovered additional methods to authenticate student users. This was brought to the attention of the district office and to our teachers as soon as we had a good plan for implementation and were sure that it would work within our domain.”
With new solutions being implemented district-wide, there have been fewer Zoombombing attempts and occurrences. Aragon’s administration is working to make students’ online learning experiences more enjoyable and safe.
Additional reporting by Kayla Li.
