MLA Special Bulletin
September 13, 2020
Zoom Security Update
Dear MLA Families,
We hope this letter finds you well.
We are writing to share important information with you about keeping your children safe on zoom calls. As you know, virtual learning is still a relatively new world for many of us, and we are learning, reflecting, and improving as we go. Your childrens’ safety is very important to us, so we are committed to continuing to revise and tighten our safety measures as changes become necessary.
We are sharing the information below with you to help you understand what safety precautions are already being taken, what new safety precautions are being added, and why these new precautions are being added. Finally we will share the steps families and students will need to take in order to access their zoom classes, given these new safety measures.
What are our current safety measures?
In alignment with OUSD’s “Best Practices for Zoom Security,” we have the following safety measures in place on Zoom calls:
Waiting Rooms are Enabled: Participants wait in the waiting room before the teacher lets them enter the meeting by checking their names.
Zoom links are shared via secure platforms: Teachers share their zoom links via google calendar, google classroom, talkingpoints, and directly to parent emails.
Meeting links require passwords: Many of our meeting links require that students enter a password to join.
Teacher as Host: As hosts, our teachers are able to remove participants from the rooms, leave participants in waiting rooms, disable the chat, mute all participants, and disable screen sharing.
What new safety precautions are being added/requested?
Due to recent safety concerns (see below), we are adding the following safety measures:
User Authentication: We are asking TEACHERS to turn “user authentication” on for each of their calls. By doing so, this ensures that participants can only enter the call if they have a valid OUSD email account and password. This also allows our administrators to pull a report of which email accounts entered each call, so we can follow up with incidents by tracking which students entered each call.
Camera background checks: We are asking FAMILIES to please ensure that your child has a secure location to place their computer in which there is NO risk of the camera exposing anything inappropriate to their classmates.
Real Names/Real Photos: We are asking STUDENTS to please change their names permanently to their real name “First Name - Last Name” on their zoom accounts and to never change them for any reason. We are also asking students to leave their background photo blank or to add a school-appropriate photo of their face. This will ensure that the students in their call are not exposed to inappropriate images. Any student who does not follow these guidelines will be removed from calls immediately.
Why the new safety precautions?
Over the last 5 weeks, we have had extraordinarily high rates of participation in our classes, and our calls have been overwhelmingly safe and positive. That said, we have experienced a few incidents that lead us to believe additional security measures are necessary at this time.
Incident 1: In a middle school class, a user entered the call using the name of an MLA student. Instead of projecting their photo or a blank screen, the user projected an image of Donald Trump’s floating head. The teacher immediately kicked the user out of the call.
Incident 2: In an elementary school class, students viewed inappropriate content displayed on a wall behind the child’s head.
Incident 3: In an elementary school class, a child got up to walk away from the computer momentarily, leaving their computer open and their camera on. The child’s classmates witnessed inappropriate content as a result.
Incident 4: In a middle school class, a teacher was dropped from the call due to challenges with her internet. Upon returning to the call a couple of minutes later, the teacher realized that a new participant had entered the call and was shouting racial slurs into the room. The teacher immediately removed the participant from the call, checked in with kids, and informed all families.
We recognize that these events are extremely upsetting and that it is our responsibility to ensure we take whatever precautions necessary to ensure they don’t happen again. At MLA, we have zero tolerance for racial attacks and identity-based bullying. We are deeply sorry for any negative impact these events may have had on you or your children.
Next Steps:
Logging in to Zoom:
Please watch this video to learn how to support your child with logging into Zoom. Due to the new security measures, your child will need to log in with their OUSD account by clicking on “sign in with google” on the Zoom login page. Teachers will also teach students how to log in early this week.
User Authentication will be turned on for the entire school on Wednesday, September 16.
Ensure your child has an appropriate image, name, and setting for their zoom call.
As always, please reach out to us with any questions.
In community,
Bri and Daniel
Daniel: daniel.pastrana@ousd.org
Melrose Leadership Academy
Email: mlaschoolquestions@gmail.com
Website: www.melroseleadershipacademy.org
Location: 4730 Fleming Avenue, Oakland, CA, USA
Phone: (510)535-3832
Facebook: facebook.com/melroseleadershipacademy