MIAMI (WSVN) - After a rough start to the first three days of virtual classes, Miami-Dade County Public School changed the systems being used for some students.
On Wednesday night, officials suspended the K-12 platform for students between the sixth and 12th grades after the program they were using was hit by ongoing cyberattacks and encountered other issues.
Seth Rios, a parent of an M-DCPS student, said the program has improved on Thursday, and his 5-year-old son can start completing his assignments for the new school year.
“Today it’s been a lot better,” said Rios. “My son has been able to login since day one. However, it was only him and two other students with his teacher. My son right now is actually able to catch up on his classes right now on K-12, from what he’s been missing the last few days.”
By Thursday morning, the Miami-Dade School Police Department announced the arrest of David Oliveros, a 16-year-old junior at South Miami Senior High, after he admitted to orchestrating eight cyber attacks on the virtual school system.
Now, students between the sixth and 12th grades will be using programs such as Microsoft Teams, Zoom through Microsoft Teams or other systems. Those students enrolled in pre-K through fifth grade will continue to use the K-12 platform because it has been successful for them.
“I’m satisfied with the way the teachers are handling it, but with the platform, not satisfied,” Rios said.
Rios said the school day would start off fine but then problems would occur as the day went on.
“It has also become frustrating because the teachers starting to lose connections and it’s also become like, ‘Which direction do we go?'” Rios said.
Kessa Murray’s youngest daughter was not able to learn virtually on Thursday, despite her other two children being able to log on.
“She’s not able to have any type of contact with the teacher, classmates and work,” she said. “I’m hoping and praying that next week will be better.”
Amid the setback, she said Thursday ran smoother because of the changes the district implemented to free up the K-12 platform.
“Even though we did see some glitches, they were very individualized, but the system performed significantly better than the first three days of the week,” M-DCPS Superintendent Alberto Carvalho said.
District officials said by Sept. 11, they will make a decision as to whether they will bring back the K-12 program for sixth through 12th graders or if they will continue to use other platforms.
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