Racial slurs, profanity reported on first day of virtual school

Virtual classes in the Pflugerville district were disrupted Thursday, the first day of school, as intruders gained access and used racial slurs and foul language, several parents reported in social media posts.

The district was among those in Central Texas that reopened schools this week, although for Pflugerville, all classes are being held online only amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Parents said students shared on social media the links and passwords to their courses, giving access to anyone who saw the posts. The violators, who have not been identified, interrupted the online classes and lobbed racial slurs and profanity toward students and the teacher in the online class.

Tamra Spence, a spokesperson with the district, said Friday that the district received reports of the incidents Thursday afternoon and has since adjusted Zoom class meeting protocols, creating waiting rooms ahead of all online classes. This way the teacher can let students in one by one to ensure no one who shouldn’t be there gains access to the class.

Educators might be faced more regularly with these kinds of hacks as districts across the country launch the school year with remote-only learning. Such incidents have occurred in other educational settings. Last spring, a virtual meeting of Black students at the University of Texas was interrupted with racial slurs.

The Pflugerville district is offering only virtual learning for the first three weeks of school, meaning students are working from home using online learning and communication tools, such as Zoom and Google Classroom, to engage in lessons.

Spence said student misbehavior happens in the classroom and the district expects it to happen in online settings, too. She said principals are working with students and parents to ensure that everyone is adhering to the student code of conduct and responsibilities of virtual learning, adding that the foul language and racial slurs are not tolerated, on campus or remotely. She said the incidents that occurred Thursday are being dealt with individually and campus principals are working with those students and their families to address the issue.

“With 26,000 students, whether they are in person or virtual, we will have student behaviors that we have to address,” Spence said. “That is nothing new for us. We have the same expectations in the classroom that we have on Zoom. (Being virtual) these are little hurdles we will encounter as we work through this, but we are implementing changes as we go to ensure we have an adequate educational environment for our students, teachers and families.”

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