Santa Fe Standard

After the New Mexico Public Regulation Commission (PRC) had to cut a Zoom meeting short when someone burst onto the online platform with offensive language and a loud mix of talking and noises this month, Santa Fe and Albuquerque public school districts are telling students and teachers to instead use Google Meet for virtual learning sessions. 

“Steps were already taken to prevent it from happening in the future and the Commission was able to reconvene and finish the open meeting including all agenda items,” Manabat said in an email to the NM Political Report. “Additional administrative features were utilized such as requiring participants to register, restricting audio access, disabling the chat feature, etc. to prevent any incident of this kind from happening in the future.”

Public Education Department spokeswoman Nancy Martira, who calls Zoom bombing “a weird and disturbing trend,” said her agency “is working on guidance memos for schools about best practices for keeping online meetings safe for students and staff.”

Albuquerque Public Schools have already warned its communities to stick with Google platforms. 

“We support the use of Google Meet for schools, which requires an APS-sponsored Google account, so outside individuals are not able to join without permission, and all participants must be identified and accountable,” APS spokeswoman Monica Armenta told the NM Political Report.

Santa Fe Public Schools are taking a similar tact and also are warning teachers to be on the lookout for anyone joining an online class who shouldn't be there.

“If you find an uninvited guest continues to join the session, instruct all students to leave the session, or remove each student one by one,” a "best practices" document for teachers that was provided to the NM Political Report stated.