People Performing Sex Acts, Saying Racial Slurs Find Way Into Plainfield Middle School Zoom Class
PLAINFIELD, Ill. (CBS) -- Students on remote learning in Plainfield ended up seeing porn recently – and in this case, the Zoom call wasn't hacked.
The people behind the porn were let in, and they weren't sharing videos – they were performing live.
As CBS 2's Tara Molina reported Tuesday night, parents understand that Zoom-bombing happens. But they are upset about the how Plainfield Community Consolidated School District 202 handle it.
We want to warn you – the descriptions of what happened in the Zoom call are graphic.
Plainfield police on Tuesday night were investigating the pornographic images, as well as vulgar language, that appeared in a middle-school science class Zoom call.
But parents said they were the ones to alert police – not the school district. And they want to know why.
"The most shocking part of it was a woman masturbating on one screen," said Karolyn Radulovich. "There was a man and a woman having sex on another screen. There was a third individual just yelling the N-word over and over again."
Radulovich described what happened, live, in her 12-year-old's virtual science class.
"He came to me and said, 'Mom, I can't believe, you know, what just happened,'" Radulovich said. "One child yelled out, 'Oh my gosh, I want to bleach my eyes!'"
Radulovich's son is a student at Richard Ira Jones Middle School in Plainfield. Her concerns aren't only about what happened, but how it was reported.
Radulovich said she received the following email from Ira Jones Middle School Assistant Principal Scott Oldaker:
"It was reported to administration that your child's 9th period Science class experienced a 'Zoom bombing' yesterday. Unfortunately, the individuals that entered the meeting displayed inappropriate content and used inappropriate language that was observed by the class. The individuals were promptly removed. We are working to ensure security measures are in place to prevent this from occurring in the future. Please contact me with any concerns.
"Thank you."
When Raudlovich called the district afterward, she said she was surprised to learn they hadn't reported anything to the police.
"So I called the police," Radulovich said, "and they were surprised that the school hadn't called them."
Plainfield police confirmed that their initial call came from parents. Days later, they followed up with the district - and now they're investigating.
Police said the school district is cooperating. But because there wasn't a hack – rather, the Zoom-bombers were in the virtual waiting room for the class and then allowed into the call by the administrator – Molina is told the incident would probably be a disorderly conduct case.
"The district has not thought through the entire concept of remote learning; how they need to protect the kids in a remote learning environment," Radulovich said.
Why were the people allowed into the virtual class, when every student was already on the call?
Plainfield Community Consolidated School District 202 spokesman Tom Hernandez released this statement:
"First and foremost, as you know, sadly, this kind of thing has happened to many school districts doing online classes right now, including us. It is an unfortunate aspect of remote learning.
"We have all appropriate safety mechanisms and protocols in place, and we have reviewed those protocols with this teacher.
"The parents rightly called the Plainfield police while we were doing our own internal investigation. We called the police ourselves later when we had all the right information, and of course we will continue working with them as needed.
"It's my understanding from the Police that the IP address of the Zoom bomber is from outside the state of Illinois. The Plainfield Police are continuing to investigate and we will support them in that investigation as needed.
"We apologize for any concern this incident caused our students and families."
But Radulovich's concern remains why she was the one who had to report the incident to the police.
"That's one of the reasons I'm following up is to make sure that this doesn't happen again," she said.
Molina wanted to ask the district about that, but the spokesman wouldn't take any questions.
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