Mount Greylock Shares Details On Zoom Bombing

Mount Greylock Regional Superintendent Jason McCandless told the School Committee on Thursday that the district had concluded its investigation into a January "Zoom bombing" incident and promised that the district will.

"move forward better and wiser as a school community and a community in general. Whether this particular incident was based on racism or not racism is very real. The bias is very real. It exists in our communities and in every school and in every community across the nation.

Iberkshires.com reports that McCandless revealed that the person who intruded in a high school virtual classroom and played racially offensive music was "a young person of color," he also noted that the perpetrator's intent was less relevant than the impact it had on the victims.

"The investigation into this incident suggests that the incident was perhaps not racially motivated. I certainly do not know what was in [the perpetrators'] mind. I do know that we must continue to work to help the young people who are close to us and young people, in general, understand that, in the end, an individual's motivation sometimes doesn't matter. What actually matters is how the victim of the incident perceived the motivation and the event."

McCandless said the school district continues to communicate with the student who appeared to be the primary target of the incident and their family.

And he revealed for the first time that there were two perpetrators involved in the events of Jan. 21, the student who trespassed in the virtual classroom and another student who allowed it to happen. The primary perpetrator was a student from a different school district.

McCandless thanked the administration at the middle-high school and the Williamstown Police Department for their roles in completing the investigation into an incident that touched off numerous conversations in the school community and the community at large.

 "No matter what the ultimate outcome of this investigation was nor in the end what the motivation was, we continue to approach our work knowing full well that hate is real, bias is real, racism is real it's present in every community everywhere, in every school across the country."

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