Four people bombed a North class Zoom call and used a racial slur during the intrusion, Thursday, May 7 according to an email sent out by principal Henry Turner. 

The anonymous intruders said the n-word, and drew male genitalia using the whiteboard tool. They did not have Newton Public School (NPS) emails, but it is possible they are students, according to Turner.

The intrusion took place during a freshman physics class and has been reported to Newton Police and the Anti-Defamation League (ADL).

“I was just heartbroken for our community, given what’s happened at Newton South. I thought our students and community could take a lesson from what’s happened there, and be compassionate. We’re in a pandemic, and we should be coming together,” said English teacher Michele Leong, one of the DLS Directors. 

“If we’re posting these lovely posters that say #NewtonTogether, what does that actually mean? What are we doing to make this a reality that we are all together?” Leong added.

Turner said there is little evidence of the perpetrators so far.

“At this point there’s not a lot of information that we have,” Turner said. “It’s hard to investigate this incident because it was an anonymous person, or group of people, that was let into the classroom. We’re not sure we’re going to be able to identify who the people were, but we’re trying. We’ve been talking to students.”

 The Zoom link for the class was a repeating link, which is against the advice of North’s IT Department, according to Turner.

“I think there were some steps that were not taken in this situation, and therefore we do want to encourage all staff to make sure that they are only accepting students who are using NPS emails and that they are following the procedures that were outlined by the Newton Public Schools IT department,” Turner added.

North also hosted a webinar regarding the incident Monday, May 11.