SPRING VALLEY, Calif. — Monday was the first day of school for Steele Canyon High School in Spring Valley. Like many California high schools, all the learning is virtual, with distance learning taking place over Zoom.
The school said some outsiders tried to crash a “handful” of Zoom classes with the intention "to disrupt learning and offend those who were present.”
This cyber trend is often called "Zoom-bombing."
Some parents spoke to News 8 informally and said that someone in a ski mask crashed the Zoom classroom and exposed themselves. However, none of the parents wished to appear on camera for an interview as of Thursday. Principal Scott Parr said that the school did not find such to be true.
“We did have some security challenges on the first day of school, but did not receive a report that someone exposed themselves in in the virtual classroom,” said Parr.
One parent said an incident occurred in their daughter’s freshman class.
“My daughter had someone jump on cussing and saying obscene things and drawing a penis on the screen,” said the parent to News 8.
“What an awful thing to do to kids,” said another parent.
Parr said that staff worked into the evening that day to brainstorm security solutions.
“We are confident that we have remedied this situation,” said Parr. “The spreadsheet in question is now deleted and the links included on that spreadsheet are no longer in use. All of our teachers have created new links for their classes today and will only provide them to students securely through Canvas. This ensures that the only people that have access to the links are students who are enrolled in their classes.”
Parr said the school held a second Zoom security training with teachers on Wednesday.
“Teachers are encouraged to create unique links for each meeting and delay the posting of the link until five to 10 minutes prior to the beginning of class,” said Parr. “When students access the link they will be kept into the waiting room while the teacher confirms that the student is on their roster. Students will need to make sure that they are using their first and last name when they log in to their class so the teacher can correctly identify them and let them into the class.”
Administrative Lieutenant Joel Stranger with the San Diego County Sheriff’s Rancho San Diego station supervises school resource officers in the area, as well as the detective unit.
“The investigation is in the early stages,” Stranger confirmed to News 8.
This isn't the first incident to happen with virtual learning in San Diego County. Officials at Olympian High School and with the Sweetwater Union High School District investigated reports of inappropriate videos showing during online classes earlier in August.
A student at Olympian High School spoke to News 8 on August 3 and said the video popped up while one of her teachers was giving a math lesson. The student said it then popped up again during another class. The student said the teacher was not sure how to turn the x-rated video off or where it was even coming from.
Zoom, which is headquartered in California, released safety and security guidelines:
