A Millikan High School teacher is on leave today after students said he briefly browsed pornography during a virtual class session on Zoom.
Students saw the graphic material because the teacher was sharing his screen with the class, according to one student, who provided photos and a video showing a portion of what allegedly happened.
The 20-second clip shows a user named “Thomas Lind” scrolling through pornographic videos and then clicking on one.
The Long Beach Post is not sharing the video because it includes graphic material and identifying information of students.
Millikan teacher Thomas Lind was placed on paid administrative leave today while school officials investigate, according to Long Beach Unified School District spokesman Chris Eftychiou.
“Our school district received reports today that inappropriate material was shared on screen during a distance learning class period at Millikan High School,” Eftychiou said in an email. “The school district is notifying the school community by email that we are investigating the matter.”
Lind, who teaches the senior project class at Millikan’s magnet program, did not immediately respond to a message on Facebook, a voicemail left at a number listed for him or a message left with the teacher’s union.
Word of what happened spread quickly among students, according to a senior in one of Lind’s classes who did not witness the incident firsthand but quickly started getting messages about Lind allegedly looking at pornography.
The student, who asked not to be named for fear of being retaliated against, said some of Lind’s students confronted the teacher during a class later in the day.
In a Zoom chat with the class, Lind said he’d accidentally stumbled across the pornography, which someone else had left open among at least another dozen windows on the computer, according to a screenshot of the conversation.
Lind reportedly wrote: “I started moving windows around to find what I wanted, completely forgot screen share was on. When I saw that screen I was shocked and curious.”
“I was not planning to watch anything, but I had not seen anything like that in quite some time,” the screenshot shows Lind writing. “I am mortified and ashamed it was on here in the first place.”