NYC Department of Education Bans Schools from Using Zoom Due to ‘Zoombombing’

The New York City Department of Education banned schools from using the video conferencing platform Zoom due to recent disruptions known as “Zoombombing.”

The New York Post reported that it had obtained an April 5 memo from New York City Department of Education (DOE) head Ursulina Ramirez ordering school district to use other video conferencing platforms like Google Hangouts or Microsoft Teams instead.

“We’ll share detailed how-to documents for your teachers and families to support the transition to Google Meet and/or Microsoft Teams,” she wrote.

The memo did keep the door open for schools to go back to using Zoom, stating the education department will “review and monitor developments with Zoom.”

New York Mayor Bill de Blasio said on April 6 that the city doesn’t think Zoom has been complying with efforts to address the matter.

“We’re not going to put our students’ privacy and our students’ data at risk,” he said.

Some anonymous principals in the city questioned the move to the nonprofit news site Chalkbeat. One of them argued that Microsoft Teams is too clunky; others said they have already figured out ways to stop Zoombombing.

“If the DOE follows through with this decision, I believe that the impact will be no more live teaching for many teachers,” one of the principals said. “I am not sure that the DOE and the mayor fully understand the impact of decisions like this.”

An anonymous school official and city Department of Education administrator similarly told the Post that it had taken weeks for schools to get accustomed to Zoom.

“It took countless phone calls and steps outlining how to access these virtual platforms for parents and families, and now we have to change it and start from scratch again,” the administrator said.

There have been several instances of Zoombombing occurring around the country since the coronavirus pandemic has forced schools to move their classes online. Some examples include Yeshiva University President Ari Berman’s March 31 speech being disrupted with anti-Semitic memes and messages in the group chat stating “the Holocaust never happened,” as well as a March 24 Conejo Valley Unified School District board meeting being disrupted with swastikas and pornography.

Nevada’s Clark County School District has also banned Zoom from being used for classes, and other school districts are reviewing the matter. The issues with Zoombombing have caused Zoom’s stock price to decline, according to Fortune.

Zoom said in a statement to the Post, “Zoom is committed to providing educators with the tools and resources they need on a safe and secure platform, and we are in continued dialogue with NYC’s Department of Education about how Zoom can be of service during this time.”

Eric Yuan, Zoom’s founder and CEO, told CBS on April 2 that the company has not done a good job of teaching first-time users how to protect their calls from Zoombombing.

“When we offer the free service, we should have a training session, we should enable a password,” he said. “Looking back, we should have done that. … This is our oversight.”