Fairfax Schools Distance Learning Was A Disaster, Board Says

FAIRFAX, VA — Overlapping blunders in teacher training, technology and security are being blamed for the disastrous rollout of the Fairfax County Public Schools distance learning system this week, which forced frustrating delays on consecutive days before the administrators finally decided to temporarily pull the plug on Wednesday. In an online school board meeting Thursday morning, board members and representatives from the Fairfax-based technology company Blackboard offered explanations and apologies — but frustration remains.

"We have fallen short in implementing this," said Superintendent Scott Brabrand, who acknowledged that the teachers and parents of the 189,000 students in the district "deserved and expected better" after multiple weeks of preparation.

"I want to personally apologize," Brabrand continued. "I'm committed to working with my leadership team to make this right."

During the meeting, multiple board members described the debacle as a failure of the district's training and leadership. But the problems went beyond the "unexpected technical challenges" referenced in the first messages sent Wednesday to parents from FCPS and Blackboard.

Along with the technical breakdown, there was also harassment and trolling. In some cases, users who logged in to classes found their virtual classrooms had anonymous profanity, racism and inappropriate photos. The environment horrified parents and students. In one German class, anonymous users who used "guest links" to join the class identified themselves as "I LOVE ADOLF HITLER" and "OVEN SURVIVOR #2," The Washington Post reported.

During the school board meeting, Maribeth Luftglass, the district assistant superintendent of the department of information technology, said that teachers and schools had been instructed to restrict class participants to specific student emails. However, using student emails required additional effort, and so that guidance was "never implemented."

She added that, "some folks just used the guest links not understanding that it had a significant security problems."

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Problems From The Start

Although distance learning through Blackboard's system officially kicked-off Monday, just hours later the district announced that "Blackboard is experiencing technical issues." The same thing happened Tuesday and Wednesday, with the district's successive Facebook announcements soon filling with hundreds of comments from parents and students who said they could not log in to their classes.

The issues came as a surprise to Blackboard.

Tim Tomlinson, Blackboard's chief product officer, told the school board Thursay that the same system had performed properly in the past for other education clients with a similar system load without being overwhelmed.

"We had no indications that these problems would occur," Tomlinson said. Instead, he described the breakdown as an aberration, and one that would be corrected by a software update.

"We absolutely apologize for the impact it's had, we own that. We are working hard to make sure the you are getting the service and stability that you deserve from us moving forward."

Tomlison and members of the district's technology staff said they are now aiming to relaunch distance learning through Blackboard on Monday — but they're also arranging a backup system in case of further disaster.

As for the offensive comments that disrupted virtual classrooms this week, it's not clear whether the trolls originated from the student body or if the material may have also come from non-students who used guest link access in order to crash the lessons. Fairfax Schools Chief Operating Officer Marty Smith told the board that the district's IT department has already confirmed the sources of some of the harassment by tracing the IP addresses belonging to students.

The IT department, Smith said, is "working with principals to refer those students for any additional discipline as necessary."

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