By Charlie Kadlec and Scott Smyers
The first “Zoom bombing” incident happened on 17 December 2020 when insulting, vulgar and racist comments were posted on the meeting “Chat Box”. The comments were noticed by Superintendent Light, who then explained what was happening. A second, similar incident happened during the 7 January 2021 School Committee meeting.
Acton Forum obtained copies of the two Acton Police Department (APD) reports for the incidents (2020-27503 and 2021-443) which describe the investigation in detail. From these reports we now know that the APD very quickly identified the source of the “Zoom bombings” as an Internet account belonging to a family in Gilbert, AZ. The Gilbert Police Department assisted the ADP, interviewed the family and during these interviews the family’s 14-year-old son (aka “the JUVENILE”) readily admitted that the offensive Chat Box comments were his. There is no indication in the APD reports of any doubt about this admission or of any challenge by the parents. Furthermore, we now know that he explained that his choice of the AB School Committee meeting as a target was random (see top of page 4 of 2021-443), that he had no connection to Acton or Boxborough.
We know all this now but the APD has known it for more than 2 months. On 13 January 2021, after the interviews with the juvenile by the Gilbert police, the APD published a report that does not mention that the juvenile admitted that the offensive comments were his and leaves out other details contained in the internal reports, allowing some of our elected officials and top administrators predisposed to believe that the Zoom bombings were somehow done, encouraged, or motivated by the supporters of the Colonial mascot (with NO EVIDENCE) to continue to fuel the divisiveness and ill-will taking root in our communities. We encourage everyone to read the internal APD reports and decide whether there is any doubt about who was responsible for Zoom bombings and consider this when casting your vote in upcoming elections.
Based on the official Police Reports, it seems obvious that the investigation to identify the culprit has been successfully concluded, however this has not been confirmed by any town officials even after being asked directly.
Therefore, we have submitted the following question to Acton Chief of Police Burrows.
Is this investigation ongoing? If so, what is the purpose of continuing the investigation?
Acton Forum will publish the Chief’s reply when it is received.*
*On March 22, we received a response from Chief Burrows who said, the investigation is not ongoing at this time.
Sign up for our Acton Forum email list here
Please follow Acton Forum on Facebook here
Leave a Reply