Students of schools exposed to graphic video in Zoom ‘prank’

From this week’s Galway City Tribune – Investigations are underway after children of two city secondary schools were exposed to pornographic content during class, the Galway City Tribune has learned.

The Tusla Child and Family Agency, and the Department of Education, as well as school authorities, are probing the incident which occurred during an online ‘subjects choice’ meeting on Wednesday.

Parents were told the matter had been referred to Galway Gardaí. A Garda spokesperson yesterday said they had not yet received a report about the incident.

Teenage boys from St Mary’s College and girls from Our Lady’s College were attending a virtual briefing about the fifth-year subjects that will be offered to them in September at the new Coláiste Muire Máthair, a co-ed amalgam of both schools with a Catholic ethos.

According to people familiar with the incident, pornographic content appeared on screen during the online meeting – to the horror of some of the participants, most aged about 16.

It’s understood that one of the images that appeared on screen was that of a man masturbating, with sexually explicit audio.

The man was not an employee of the schools and there is absolutely no suggestion that any of the teachers or staff involved in the online meeting were responsible or did anything untoward.

The entire meeting was shut down when it became apparent what was happening.

The investigations centre on whether the meeting was hacked by someone from outside the two schools.

A spokesperson for the Department of Education said: “Following an incident reported recently to the Department involving a school’s online meeting, we understand that the school has taken appropriate steps to address this incident and to prevent a recurrence.”
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