Teaching Aide Masturbates During Zoom Call With Students, Says He Thought He Was Logged Out

A teaching aide from Maryland was put on administrative leave earlier this week after he was seen masturbating during a Zoom call with some eighth-graders.

Marc Schack, an assistant for special education students at Shady Grove Middle School in Gaithersburg, was seen in a 13-second clip, gazing at his screen before standing up, taking a few steps away, and beginning to pleasure himself, New York Post reported.

However, Schack said he was unaware that he had been captured on video.

"I thought I was logged out when class was over," he told Bethesda Magazine on Wednesday. "I had no clue that Zoom was still on. Why would I do that? That's my job. My career. I had no clue that Zoom was on. I mean, that's just crazy behavior."

The clip, which was posted on social media, shows Schack's name appearing on the screen as the host of the meeting. But after several seconds, another name is shown as taking over as the host.

"It was just a mistake on my part," Schack said. "I'm only human. It was my bad."

Schack was put on administrative leave Monday. District officials informed him that they "misplaced his background check file," but never mentioned the video to him. He was not aware of it until Wednesday.

"I'm not a pervert or anything like that, you know," Schack said.

He said he never meant any harm to his students. "You gotta believe me on that …," he said. "I thought I was in the privacy of my own home. I had no clue."

Shady Grove Principal Alana Murray, in a message to community members, wrote that an employee was "seen on screen in a breakout room engaged in inappropriate behavior" during an eighth-grade class. She also urged students who recorded the video to "refrain from sharing with other students."

Montgomery County police said no charges have been filed yet.

Recently, Jeffrey Toobin, a senior legal analyst for many media houses, lost his job after he was caught on camera masturbating during an official video call. Toobin had claimed that he did not realize the video was on.

A few days ago, an entire California school board had to resign after they made disparaging remarks about parents during an online meeting, without realizing it was being publicly live streamed. While one member said they had to "pick on us because they want their babysitters back," another commented that the parents wanted their children out of the house so they could take drugs during the day.