Connecticut Teen 'Zoom Bombs', Disrupts Online Classes Conducted By School, Arrested

The Madison, Connecticut, police Wednesday arrested a teen for "Zoom bombing" and repeatedly disrupting online video classes conducted by the Daniel Hand High School.

Adhering to the coronavirus lockdown and social distancing guidelines, public schools in Madison had recently switched to conducting classes through online video conferencing. They resorted to the popular video conferencing software Zoom to conduct their classes during the global pandemic

“Zoom has been our preferred platform due to ease of use and compliance with the Connecticut Student Data Privacy Act,” a statement from the Madison Public schools read.

The teen was booked and charged with computer crimes after the teachers at the school fell prey for what is called "Zoom bombing." When an unwanted or uninvited guest barges into a video conferencing conducted through the Zoom platform and starts disrupting the call with harassment or activities disturbing the morale of the callers is referred to as "Zoom bombing."

The teachers reported that an unidentified teen joined their video conferencing and intentionally disrupted the class with “obscene language and gestures.”

The school authorities decided to seek help from the police after teachers reported the incident occurred repeatedly and that it disturbed the morale of the class. The police took over the case and after investigation, narrowed down their suspicion and traced a teenager accused of the incident. Considering his age, the police have decided to keep his identity a secret.

Following the incident, the Madison Public schools have temporarily suspended their online classes through Zoom as it has failed to uphold its user security and have reported that they will soon resume while they are simultaneously looking for alternative platforms.

“We have decided to suspend use of Zoom for whole group instruction until the district can have more assurance that Zoom has addressed security concerns,” the superintendent of schools, Tom Scarice, wrote in a Facebook post. “We understand that staff and students were looking forward to face-to-face interactions and we look forward to resuming this using Google Meet.”

“Once staff is familiar with the use of Google Meet, we will resume our live sessions,” he added.

The teen was charged with fifth-degree computer crime, fifth-degree conspiracy to commit a computer crime and breach of peace.