Zoom glitches, briefly grinding US schools to a halt

NEW YORK (AP) — Teachers and parents got a brief glimpse of a new kind of pandemic-era nightmare Monday when Zoom — the video-conferencing service that powers everything from distance learning to business meetings to casual, socially distant get-togethers — abruptly went dead.

For roughly two-and-a-half hours Monday morning, many users were unable to load the Zoom website; others could neither host nor join scheduled meetings.

Zoom fixed the problem by 11:30 a.m. ET, the company reported on its status page.

The timing was less than ideal, since many schools across the US were just starting online instruction after a summer surge in the coronavirus pandemic scotched many plans to reopen classes with students present in the flesh.

“Today was horrible,” said Jacqueline Donovan, a professor at Broward College in Broward County, Florida.

Her 12-year-old daughter Michaela and 14-year-old son Jayden were trying to log onto Zoom classes, but unable to.

“They were both panic stricken and anxious,” she said.

Meanwhile, Donovan herself was trying to hold her first class, an introduction to business, and getting frantic emails from her own students.

Her class was eventually cancelled.

“You become so accustomed to the software working, then (when it doesn’t) you realise how dependent you are on the software and it’s a little scary,” she said.

Zoom did not disclose the cause of the problem, which appeared to hit both coasts of the U.S. especially hard. Its shares fell less than 3% during regular trading.

Grade schools, high schools and universities are relying on Zoom and competing technologies like Microsoft Teams to teach remotely and reduce the chance of infection during the pandemic.

Schools began opening over the past month with a wide array of in-person, hybrid and online schooling plans.

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