MIAMI (WSVN) - The first three days of virtual classes for students in the Miami-Dade County Public Schools system can be described as a nightmare for parents and students, as the district continues to be targeted by cyberattacks.
Amid the coronavirus pandemic, virtual school is the only option for students to attend school, so they expected all of the issues to be resolved by the third day.
“After day one, I can understand issues happening,” Seth Rios, a parent, said. “You know, first day, everything’s coming online, but day two and now day three, and it’s still becoming a complication, and the children are starting to get restless with the complications.”
While some students have logged into the system, others have not.
“He’s on. He sees his teacher. He sees his fellow classmates,” Mario Guzman, a parent, said. “Unfortunately, we have cyberattacks anywhere, but for Dade Schools systems, a big school system, to go through this is unbelievable.”
M-DCPS officials blame the problem on an issue with a third-party server, and on Tuesday, they revealed that cyberattacks occurred on both Monday and Tuesday. On Wednesday, school officials said the attacks had not stopped, and parents are frustrated.
The system has been inconsistent since the start of the school year, and it has been stressful for families who never expected so many technical difficulties during the first week of school.
“Today, Dade County kind of fixed the problem, as they said they were, but as the day went on, again, the sites just slowly, slowly diminished,” Rios said. “If this is the only option that we have, it has to work. I just believe that the system was not ready for the load of kids. Now, I don’t really believe the cyberattack issue. I just believe the workload on the system is too much.”
Parents said they want better directions, such as if they should be printing out worksheets, and they are wondering if the district has a backup plan.
“A little worried still because we don’t know what can still happen,” Guzman said.
“My expectations for the next few days? Hopefully the system starts to come back together,” Rios said.
They also credited the teachers who have shifted to other systems, such as Zoom.
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