


If a suspicious character shows up at a brick-and-mortar classroom door, a teacher can simply close it - or call on colleagues and campus security if necessary. Our ultimate goal as teachers is to protect kids.”įor educators navigating a new virtual learning environment, they can feel a scary sense of powerlessness when it comes to making sure students are safe. “People are quick to blame the district, but they did it for the protection of the kids. “I think, if a teacher wasn’t reacting quickly, they could have gone into shock and who knows what the video would have turned into,” said the teacher, who asked not to be named. But she said the new information would not have changed the district’s response.Ī student told Berkeleyside that the video, which has made the rounds, was more amusing than disturbing to most of her peers, who recognized Beetlejuice.īut for administrators and the teacher of the Zoombombed class, the incident itself wasn’t as frightening as the security flaws it exposed. No BUSD administrator has seen video of the Zoombombing incident, which was reported by the teacher, district spokeswoman Trish McDermott told Berkeleyside on Wednesday. Several parents said they’d risk a nude interruption if it meant their kids could go to class.Ī few days after the suspension, Stephens announced that BUSD would pick up live instruction where it left off, but switch to the more secure Google Meet platform.

The “distance learning” plan had only just gone into effect, after a difficult waiting period for many people. The hiatus aggravated many parents, who said their families depended on direct contact with teachers and classmates during the crisis. Superintendent Brent Stephens said he could not continue to allow the use of a platform that might expose young children to the risk of naked intruders or worse.

The report of the Zoombombing prompted BUSD last week to suspend live online classes throughout the district on a temporary basis. The actual Zoombomber is not visible, and there are no audible racial slurs. After some loud music plays, the Beetlejuice video comes back on briefly, portraying the naked comedian yelling out nonsense. In the recording, apparently made by a student who filmed their computer with their phone, the screen switches to the name of a Zoom user, then to the Berkeley High teacher, who keeps his cool while clearly startled. In the recording, someone in a Zoom class shares their screen, playing a video of the comedian Beetlejuice - a member of radio host Howard Stern’s cohort and the subject of popular memes - who’s naked and dancing. One brief but impactful incident dominated the discourse and temporarily upended online learning in the Berkeley schools community last week: a nude Zoombomber reportedly invaded a virtual Berkeley High class and yelled slurs.īerkeleyside has reviewed a video of the incident, which portrays a different scenario than Berkeley Unified and Berkeley High previously described. The block-long Berkeley High campus sits empty during the pandemic.
