Student hacks school computers to stream racist content during Jim Crow lesson: report

A California middle school student "hijacked" technology in several classrooms and projected racist content to classmates – and parents say that's not the first time, according to a report.

The Brentwood Union School District confirmed to KGO-TV that the student hacked into projectors in classrooms overseen by three different teachers to display racist images and inappropriate video involving animals while some of the students were learning about Jim Crow laws.

"I would've never thought, 'let me hack the teacher's computer,'" said one parent whose daughter attends the school. "It is things you hear about in the movies, you don't actually think it's going to happen in real life."

The teachers reacted immediately and were able to quickly shut off the projections, and the school principal tasked the information technology department with investigating and preventing the same thing from happening again, the report said.

However, this incident was the latest in a series of similar cases at the school, including one recent hack where a student broadcast pornography in class, KGO-TV said. The projectors are connected to Chromecast, which allows anyone to stream content from their electronic devices.

"You just have to be on the same Wi-Fi," said Ahmed Banafa, a tech expert and engineering professor at San Jose State University.

"[They should] have some restrictions on who will join the Wi-Fi by defining the devices. For example, if someone wants to join and start casting they have to have a certain pin number and that pin number is only given to certain people. Also, you can cancel the universal plug-and-play, making it impossible for anyone to join the network unless they have permission."