Lodi High Zoom class gets hacked

District investigating after hacker shows ‘inappropriate’ photos

Some Lodi High School students received a shock Thursday when their Zoom class was interrupted by pranksters who thought it would be funny to broadcast inappropriate images to the teacher and students.

Principal Adam Auerbach sent an email to Lodi High parents on Thursday afternoon, stating the campus is working with Lodi Police Department and the Lodi Unified School District’s technology department to identify the responsible party and take legal action.

The police department said the complaint was handled by the school resource officer on campus at about 3:30 p.m., but there was no information in the report taken as to when the hack actually occurred that day.

Police said on Friday there was no suspect information.

Chelsea Vongehr, spokeswoman for the school district, said the hack did take place during an instructional period.

She said the district on Friday morning sent parents and students a seven-page distance learning protocol and procedures document outlining appropriate behavior while interacting on Zoom and other platforms.

Prohibited activities in a virtual classroom include using district technology for other than approved educational purposes; gaining intentional access or maintaining access to materials that are obscene or pornographic, and distributing such materials to students or adults; and engaging in illegal activity, including any form of hacking, among others.

Alex Breitler, spokesman for Delta College, said a similar incident occurred during a virtual event organized by students Thursday.

“At some point, an unknown person showed some images that we are referring to as ‘disturbing,’” he said. “We don’t know who it was, and this wasn’t part of the event. We’ve reported it to the college police department, and they’re going to investigate.”

Like Lodi Unified, Breitler said Delta College will be distributing an online policy and protocol document to teachers and students in the coming days. An email about Thursday’s incident was sent to staff and faculty Thursday night, he said.

“We definitely want everyone to step up and take the proper precautions to ensure things like this don’t happen,” he said.

In California, the penalty for hacking is based on the “damage” done after access was gained. If there is no injury to anyone and the incident is a first-time offense, hacking is punishable by a fine of as much as $1,000.

A second offense could carry misdemeanor probation, as much as a year in county jail and fines of as much as $5,000.

In addition, the pranksters could be charged with distributing harmful material to minors, which is punishable by spending one year in county jail, if the crime is a misdemeanor. A felony offense carries a state prison sentence of as

much as three years.

The hacks come just four days after Zoom experienced a system-wide outage, affecting early morning meetings and classes in Lodi.

Vongehr said Lodi Unified notified its teachers of the outage, who in turn were able to get most students to log on to alternate distance learning platforms.

The issue was fixed by about 10 a.m., but as of Friday, Zoom had not reported what exactly caused the outage.