Kline Township, Pa. (NewsNation) — Parents in a Pennsylvania district are questioning the safety of their kids in virtual learning after a kindergarten orientation was spammed with porn and threatening messages.
While parents and children waited for the orientation to begin at McAdoo-Kelayers Elementary School, they suddenly heard a male voice using racial slurs. Images of adult pornography then appeared on screen.
“My daughter was like ‘What’s going on mom why is my school doing that?’ I had to send her away,” Ariela Colon told NewsNation affiliate WBRE. “Then they started messaging us in the chat saying that he was going to rape our children and dropping the F-bomb and talking about Mexicans.”
Hazelton Area School District Superintendent Brian Uplinger called all the families and apologized for the incident. He said that during the 4 minute incident, 25-30 people were exposed to the obscene images and language.
“The damage was already done. The comments, the intolerable acts that these individuals perpetrated on kindergartners and kindergarteners’ parents is absolutely absurd,” Uplinger said.
Uplinger explained that the hackers hid behind a black screen and vulgar usernames, but police are investigating.
At a school board meeting about the incident, Colon expressed concern that the hackers might contact her daughter while she’s not there or that they may have access to the family’s personal information.
“He’s seeing us. So I don’t know if my daughter is safe when it’s time to go back to school,” Colon said.