Gwinnett student challenges suspension over ‘Zoom bombing’ allegations

Malachi Battle had been doing well in the sixth grade since he started going in person to Couch Middle School. But one day in February, the 11-year-old Grayson area student stayed home sick and attended classes virtually via Zoom.

Strange things started happening. In one class, Malachi said he heard an unknown person yell a racial slur. Teachers said other unidentified people were trying to get into their virtual classrooms.

Two days later, Malachi was suspended, accused of repeatedly trying to log into Zoom classes with threatening phrases and racial slurs in lieu of his name, according to documents that his family’s lawyers provided to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Malachi’s lawyers say Gwinnett County Public Schools accused him based on an inaccurate list of students’ Internet Protocol addresses from Zoom, a problem that could repeat elsewhere since the company’s online sessions are replacing classrooms for millions of students amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Malachi was suspended through the end of the school year, exactly three months. The Gwinnett County Board of Education on Thursday rejected his appeal of the suspension.

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