Virtual public participation in a Baltimore school board meeting ended abruptly after a pornographic video was played Tuesday night.

A “graphically offensive video was displayed to participants,” said an emailed statement from Baltimore City Public Schools spokesperson Sherry Christian. It’s unclear how the video got played during the public comment portion of the meeting, which included prerecorded videos.

A reporter watching the meeting from home only saw a frozen screen of Board Chair Robert Salley during that portion of the meeting. But those attending in person saw the video, according to the statement.

“The meeting was paused as soon as the video was detected,” Christian said. ”The meeting was recessed briefly while our team assessed the implications and determined the safest way to proceed."

Salley briefly returned to say that that the meeting livestream would be ended. He said the rest of the meeting would be taking place in person; some of the commissioners were participating via Microsoft Teams at the time of the disruption. The Teams meeting ended shortly after Salley’s announcement.

The rest of the meeting is being recorded and uploaded to City Schools TV on YouTube. Christian said Baltimore City Public Schools is “still assessing” the source of the disruption.

“We take this incident very seriously and are actively working with our technology team to prevent similar disruptions in the future,” Christian said.

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