By Jordyn Haime, Granite State News Collaborative
A recent Zoom-bombing of Hooksett Memorial School’s introduction to the third grade has at least one parent wondering how racism will be handled by schools in a digital learning environment.
Miriam Kovacs is a step-parent of a Hooksett third grader. She attended the school’s parent information session for third graders via Zoom on Aug. 31 when the meeting was interrupted by drawings of a phallus and swastikas on the screen.
“It’s hard for me to gloss over it because it’s a very powerful symbol. When you don’t acknowledge it and you hope it takes care of itself on its own … it’s not going to curb itself. It’s going to keep growing, it’s going to keep infecting,” said Kovacs, who is Jewish.
Administrators immediately shut down the meeting and then restarted it, later sending an email to parents acknowledging the incident and explaining that it was reported to local police.
A Hooksett Memorial School meeting for parents was hijacked last week. Screenshot courtesy of Rachel LaVergne.
“Our Hooksett community is one of inclusion and we do not condone the sentiments or actions of the person who hijacked our presentation in any way. We have alerted both our SAU office and the Hooksett Police Department. We’d also like to say thank you to the HPD for supporting us and doing all they are doing to help us with this situation,” the email read, signed by Hooksett Memorial School Principal Stephen Harrises.
While the event was advertised for parents, Kovacs said her stepson attended, as did other children. She said she was hoping for a stronger response from the school to better educate children and families on the implications of hate symbols, especially given widely publicized police shootings of black people, followed by Black Lives Matter protests that have carried on throughout the summer.
Harrises said the situation was dealt with properly when it was handed over to police.
“At this point I have no other comment,” Harrises said. “We sent the community a message that kind of denounced what happened. … There are educational components that happen in our guidance curriculum about diversity and civil rights, and we’ve been doing that for many years.”
Zoom-bombing is an issue that educators across the country have been grappling with since March, when schools quickly made the switch to remote learning. That month, the FBI reported incidents in Massachusetts of individuals dialing into classrooms and displaying swastika tattoos or yelling profanity at educators.
State education leaders from the New Hampshire Association of School Principals and New Hampshire’s National Education Association chapter say they haven’t heard of any Zoom-bombing incidents this school year. That might be due to guidance issued by the Department of Education on how to protect private meetings from uninvited guests.
“The issue that happened last week is the first issue we’ve had. We’ve been doing this since March and we’ve not had any Zoom-bombing incidents throughout the process,” said William J. Rearick, superintendent of SAU 15, the district encompassing Hooksett, Auburn and Candia.
According to Rearick, the event was shared as a meeting rather than a webinar, which could have led to uninvited guests accessing the room. He said educators know not to post meetings this way in the future and have safety protocols should strangers somehow get in and cause a disturbance, but he said he could not share what those protocols are.
“Our older students have been told how to handle issues online in general from our guidance counselors about cyber bullying and things like that, and our kids have been told to report it,” Rearick added.
Across New Hampshire, conversations around race in schools are changing. For many districts, that has meant demanding new sports mascots to replace those depicting Native Americans; for others it means updating the education system. On the Seacoast, after racist incidents in Dover and Durham schools, a newly formed group called Seacoast Educators for Equity has worked to incorporate more conversations about race into the classroom, starting this year.
“I really think the school has a moral obligation to have an impact on these children,” Kovacs said. “Since the email is going out to parents I think they could have used proper language detailing what exactly happened. … I think school can give parents that dialogue to say this is a symbol that symbolizes hateful things. Just to begin a dialogue.”
But not all parents agree with Kovacs’ sentiment. In a private Facebook group for Hooksett parents, some said the responsibility to educate children about hate symbols should lie with parents, not the school.
“I feel that it was handled as best as they could, and feel the involvement of the police is overkill for a prank,” said Rachel LaVernge, a parent of a Hollis third grader. “I do not think we should teach about hate symbols as it keeps hate alive.”
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