MEDWAY, Mass. — Medway Police have launched an investigation after someone “Zoombombed” a middle school orientation session over the online videoconferencing app Zoom.
On Wednesday evening, Medway Middle School officials were hosting a Zoom video conference for their 5th grade graduation. About 150 people, including teachers, parents, children and school officials were part of the virtual meeting.
When the conference was coming to an end, someone took control of the video display and played an obscene video for about 15 to 20 seconds. The 150 people were still in the meeting.
School officials closed the meeting as quickly as possible and immediately notified police.
Preliminary investigation shows the school did not take the appropriate security protocols to ensure outside parties could not access the meeting. Police believe the meeting was hacked by someone as part of an act called “Zoombombing.”
During the COVID-19 pandemic, as people have made the switch to working and studying from home, Zoom has been a helpful tool for both educational institutions and businesses. Whenever an unwanted third party invades a Zoom call and disrupts and/or displays obscene, racist or hateful speech, images, videos or music.
“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,” Medway Schools Superintendent Armand Pires said. “We will not be hosting any further video meetings this week as we review our policies and procedures and look into other video conferencing programs that we may be able to utilize for student and teacher interaction.”
The district will be offering counseling and assistance to any students or families that wish to further discuss the incident.
“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," said Medway Police Chief Allen Tingley. "A crime was committed here and this is something we are taking very seriously as we look to identify the person who did this.”
Police continue to investigate the incident.
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