‘Mortified and angry.’ Hackers play porn during virtual Dreher High graduation meeting
A web conference intended for roughly 300 graduating seniors at Dreher High School and their parents Friday was hijacked by a hacker who displayed a pornographic video.
Richland 1 Superintendent Craig Witherspoon issued the following statement when contacted by the newspaper Tuesday: “The incident that happened during Dreher’s virtual meeting with a group of seniors was unfortunate and disturbing ... We are investigating the incident and reviewing our protocols and procedures for virtual communications with students.”
About 40 students were on the call during the time of the incident, according to district spokeswoman Karen York.
Dreher High officials apparently shared a meeting code last week with seniors and parents so they could join Friday’s WebEx conference call to help plan the Columbia school’s upcoming graduation.
During the virtual meeting, the principal was booted out and replaced by a user who locked the meeting and showed a pornographic video, according to a parent who was on the call.
“As you might imagine I’m both mortified and angry,” wrote Dreher principal Kevin Hasinger in an email to families.
“I sincerely apologize to anyone exposed to the inappropriateness displayed by that individual,” he also wrote. “I will be sharing the recording with local law enforcement and will be contacting Cisco Systems and if it is determined that this had something to do with one of our students, I will expel without thinking twice (if graduating this year, they will not walk in our ceremony and the diploma will be held). Again, you have my sincere apology if you or your child were exposed to any vulgarity.”
Hasinger notified a school resource officer Monday — three days after the web conference, according to Richland 1. The district’s security and IT departments were notified on Friday, according to Witherspoon.
The resource officer intends to file an incident report, according to Columbia Police spokeswoman Jennifer Timmons, adding that the department’s special victims unit was not yet aware of the incident.
State law requires educators to report such crimes involving minors to law enforcement. But it does not specify how quickly it must be done.
The web conference system is the same one the school board uses for its online meetings, though it has stricter rules on the number of attendees, according to the district.
It’s the latest example of a botched online meeting as schools around the country work to keep in touch with students during the coronavirus pandemic.
In April, a student group at the University of South Carolina had its Zoom meeting interrupted by racists depicting black face and bearing a Nazi flag. Before that, an elementary school in Utah held a meeting for about 50 children that was interrupted with pornographic images.
The troubling trend raises questions about whether schools are taking the necessary security measures as online learning becomes the norm.
School board member Lila Anna Sauls said she reached out to the superintendent Tuesday after learning about the incident. She said she agrees with the principal that the hacker should be held accountable and that more safety measures are needed to prevent future attacks on virtual classrooms, adding that it’s a widespread problem facing many schools.
School board member Jonathan Milling, who said he was unaware of the incident prior to The State phoning him, said the incident underscores the need for an extra layer of security.
“We just have to make sure we’re protecting the integrity of these meetings the best we can,” Milling said.
This story was originally published May 19, 2020 at 4:35 PM with the headline "‘Mortified and angry.’ Hackers play porn during virtual Dreher High graduation meeting."