Now, our children have to deal with anti-black racist comments during their online classes

BY PAUL JUNOR

“I was upset. How did this happen? How are we going to prevent this from happening again?” (Concerned Parent)

Now that many school boards in Ontario have been involved in remote learning, it has exposed inherent dangers with respect to invasion of privacy.

Principal Alison Gaymes San Vincent of LC 4 Virtual School in the Toronto District School Board (TDSB) was shocked when his intermediate Zoom meeting was bombed on Thursday, December 18^th, 2020. On December 19^th, 2020, a letter was sent to parents, which stated, “Unfortunately, at the end of the presentation, unacceptable and hateful language appeared in the chat.” The main purpose of the meeting was to provide mental health support for students as they transition from elementary schools to higher schools.

The attack on the Zoom meeting resulted in anti-black racist comments being made. As a result of this, an investigation has been launched to find out who was behind it. The letter sent by the principal to students and parents notes, “All TDSB students and staff will continue to receive education on the importance of anti-racist policies and practices in our schools and the role we all must play in eliminating all forms of hate and discrimination from our schools and society. On behalf of LC4 Virtual Schools, we acknowledge and regret the harm these incidents caused to students.”

In another development, Peel District School Board (PDSB) revealed on January 14^th, 2021 that a virtual Grade 4 virtual French classroom at Chris Hadfield Public School was hacked two times with disturbing pornographic images and kidnapping threats as reported by City News.

PDSB confirmed the incidents to 680 News on January 14^th, 2021 with an email, which states, “We can confirm that a class at Chris Hadfield Public School experienced two occasions where at least one unknown individual entered the online classroom without having access to the classroom link. We take all matters of online safety, student privacy and digital citizenship very seriously.” As a result of this incident, students have been transferred to another virtual classroom to continue their online learning.

City News revealed on January 14^th, 2021 the contents of two emails that were sent by the French teacher to the parents and guardians. The first email sent on Tuesday, January 12^th, 2021 states, “I’ m sure many of you are aware already, but I just wanted to let you know just in case your child hasn’t mentioned it to you. Today French class someone outside of the school and as far as we know, outside of our school board was able to enter the Google classroom and start sharing some disturbing images.”

In a subsequent email the next day (Wednesday, January 13^th, 2021) the teacher revealed, “As I’ m sure you are aware, there was another instance of hacking today in our class. This time it was only audio and seemed to be a repeat. I asked students to leave our meet right away and reset our class code immediately. I had a long discussion with the principal and she is letting the superintendent know about both instances and IT will also be consulted to see if we can figure out why this is happening. In the meantime, it may be a good idea for students to change their passwords for their school email address just in case. I will reiterate with students the importance of never sharing passwords and class meet codes with people outside our class.”

It is unfortunate that the hacking of this virtual classroom has brought to the public arena the issue of digital safety and Internet privacy. The four major teachers’ unions and other education stakeholders have raised concerns on many occasions about this issue. The emotional, psychological and mental effects on this Grade 4 virtual class from being exposed to X-rated pornographic images is real.