Uninvited students made insensitive remarks and bullied the professors and students through Zoom conferences over a snow day at Saint Louis University. 

After school was called off on Monday, Jan. 22, 2024, many classes were either canceled or moved to Zoom. 

The snow day Zoom lectures were supposed to run smoothly but turned south quickly after uninvited students who entered a General Chemistry 1 and General Biology 2 class took advantage of being behind a screen and disrupted the class with heinous remarks. As of now, it is unclear if it was the same student interrupting the two lectures. 

In the General Chemistry 1 class at 10:00 a.m., the professor, Paul Brachner, gave editing permission to the students so that they could solve a practice problem. That’s when an anonymous person took this opportunity to write different insensitive remarks ranging from the n-word to “F**k Palestine”. 

(Provided by Sophia Brummond)

Students in the class said they didn’t know how to react. Freshman Reagan Gerber feels as if this outburst could, unfortunately, tarnish the chemistry class’s reputation. 

“I was taken aback at first, I didn’t even know what to think,” Gerber said. “I just felt immense guilt, not even for just being there, but because that could become a representation of what our class is like and that’s terrible.”

This action was not only shocking to the students on the Zoom call but also to the professor. Brachner stated that nothing like this had ever happened before during a lecture or a Zoom. 

“My initial reaction was one of shock, I’ve never experienced something as blatantly objectable at SLU as this, it was my first experience ever with this and it was an absolute slap in the face,” Brachner said. 

A similar incident occurred in a General Biology 2 Zoom lecture at 11:00 a.m. the same day when a student joined with the username “Mike Oxe”. He started asking inappropriate questions and gesturing with illegal substances before the teacher, Associate Professor of Biology Elena Bray Speth, removed the student from the Zoom.  

(Provided by Sophia Brummond)

“I didn’t see it when it first happened and then other people in the (Zoom) room started typing in the chat and suddenly a guy was coming on and off vaping and yelling at the teacher,” freshman Olivia Kostenski said. “Everyone was so confused and no one knew what was happening, the professor was trying to kick him out but I guess she wasn’t able to and he came back in.” 

Shortly after the student was removed, the student came back into the Zoom and began to verbally harass Dr. Bray Speth yelling “F**k me in the a**” and remarks about how the teacher could not kick him out since he “paid to be in this class.” 

“Dr. Bray Speth was apologizing to us and I felt terrible because it wasn’t even her fault, the person just kept coming back into the Zoom and unmuting himself, she had no control over it because she was so confused on how he kept coming back to the zoom after she had kicked him out,” freshman Yasheta Naik said. 

These events have left teachers astounded and curious about what the University has done or could do to prevent events such as these in the future.

Rochelle Smith, vice president of diversity and innovative community engagement at SLU expressed her distress concerning these events.

“We commend the faculty for how they responded when these incidents occurred and for the great care and concern they have demonstrated for their students,” Smith said. “ We share their commitment to ensuring that every classroom at SLU — whether in-person or online — remains a safe space to learn and grow, free from harm and harassment.”

JJ Janulis, director of the office of student responsibility and community standard, states that IT has been notified of the situation and is working to find information about who the students are and how this incident occurred. 

“The University takes the incidents very seriously and is endeavoring to hold those responsible accountable,” Janulis said. “At this time no referral has been made to OSRCS [Office of Student Responsibility & Community Standards] as efforts are still ongoing to identify a SLU student believed to be responsible or involved.” 

Many of the faculty are in disbelief over these events since they said it does not represent the values SLU was built upon. 

“I would hope most people, even members outside of the SLU community, are interested in helping the world because that’s the biggest thing I love about SLU, how active in community service the student body is, how they want to better themselves, that’s a hallmark of what SLU is,” Dr. Brachner said. “Even if you’re not someone who wants to make the world a better place I think people can agree it’s better not to make the world a worse place and there’s nothing those comments did to help that.”