“Today my kid was taking a test and started panicking. I looked over and everything was frozen and nothing worked. We ended up restarting the computer and he was able to get back in. I’m hearing this is happening a lot; families are reaching out to me and teachers are reaching out to me,” School Board member Kathryn Haines said during Monday’s work session.

School Board Chairwoman Debbie Bailey and fellow member Ryan Harter made comments Monday about hearing from families about interruptions during class, primarily through Google Meet, a video communication service.

“No one has gotten into a Google Meet that wasn’t supposed to be there, that wasn’t a CCPS student. Is that correct?” Bailey asked during Monday’s work session.

Brian Jones, executive director of technology, replied, “No, that wouldn’t be correct. There have been instances especially in the beginning, first day or two, where someone would call in and the teacher would accept and we don’t know if that was a CCPS student or not.”

To rectify the situation, the phone number option to join a Google Meet was eliminated and that guidance will continue to be provided to school staff on whom they should allow into the video sessions, Jones said.

During the first week of school the district had already been made aware of “a limited number of instances” where students joined the wrong virtual class, creating a distraction, and where a family member joined a class and also caused a disruption, schools spokesman Tim Bullis wrote in an email to families on Sept. 10.