We understand the pandemic has led to a build up of many different kinds of tensions.
Zoom is a format many are still trying to master. And, boy, do those video calls drag on!
Still, there’s no excuse for some of the “inappropriate behavior” that Crazy America has chronicled in recent months.
A teacher’s aide in Maryland has become the latest unfortunate entrant into that rogue’s gallery.
The man admitted this week that he masturbated during a Zoom call with eighth-graders — but insisted he thought the online lesson had ended.
Marc Schack, an assistant for special education students at Shady Grove Middle School in Gaithersburg, told Bethesda Beat that he was unaware his act of self-love had been captured on the video call until some time later.
A 13-second clip — later posted on social media – shows Schack gaze at his screen before standing up, taking a few steps away and beginning to pleasure himself.
Schack’s name appeared on the screen as the host of the Zoom call. Seconds later, another name appeared, replacing him as the moderator.
The educator, who has worked for over 20 years in Montgomery County Public Schools, also runs Pirate Magic, a business that throws pirate-themed events for children in which he plays a character called “Captain Silly Bones”.
Schack has now been placed on administrative leave but insisted that his actions were “just a mistake.”
“I’m only human,” he told Bethesda Beat. “It was my bad.”
“I’m not a pervert or anything like that, you know,” he continued. “You gotta believe me on that … I thought I was in the privacy of my own home. I had no clue.”
A district spokeswoman confirmed that a staffer had been put on leave pending an investigation into “inappropriate behavior that was sexual in nature”.
“Per our procedures, we do not release the names of staff members that are under investigation,” spokeswoman Gboyinde Onijala said in a statement. “Local authorities were informed and are investigating as well.”
Schack’s unfortunate lapse follows a number of other disturbing recent incidents.
Earlier this month, Georgina elementary school teacher Amelia Ressler was arrested after she allegedly filmed herself masturbating in front of her second-grade class.
Also this month, a man was caught pleasuring himself in a Walmart parking lot. Kyle Weiss admitted to arresting officers that he was “lonely.”
However, the prize for the most high profile self-love fail goes to former New Yorker honcho Jeffrey Toobin.
The popular writer and legal analyst was also caught exposing himself on a Zoom call with colleagues and eventually fired by the storied publication.