Miramonte High School implemented a new Zoom policy at the start of this school year in response to cases of strangers joining virtual classes around the country. This policy is meant to ensure safety in the online classroom.

In order to keep Zooms secure, the Acalanes Union High School District, along with many other districts, implemented a new Zoom safety policy that  allows only participants with a district email to enter the Zoom classes. It is intended to prevent strangers from hacking into Zooms.

Last March, Miramonte experienced its first cases of Zoom bombing. 

 “Ms. (Linda) Hora (public speaking teacher)  couldn’t see who was swearing, so people started to tell her that they weren’t in our class. They continued to yell and curse while Ms. Hora tried to kick them off the call. She got two of them off but one was still on the call. She thought she had gotten them all and continued to teach but then people started to tell her that there was still someone on and she eventually got them off,” senior Claudia Gravono said.

“I think they (the school) have been doing a good job,” Miramonte junior Casey Roy said.  “Personally, I haven’t seen or had experience with any hackers on my Zooms and the new policy will be helpful to stop anyone who is not a student at Miramonte from getting on the Zooms.”

So far this school year, Miramonte has not seen any cases of inappropriate Zoom bombing. However, there have been several reports of malicious hacking at other schools around the country.

“The new Zoom policy requires all users in our Zoom meetings to be ‘authenticated’  This means that they are using (an Acalanes district) email domain address.  Without this domain, they cannot even enter the waiting rooms of our classes,” Miramonte Principal Julie Parks said.