MEMPHIS, Tenn. — In just the second week of in-person learning for some Shelby County students, WREG has learned the district’s virtual learning system crashed for those students still learning at home.
Allowing students to return to in-person learning was supposed to be a good thing. Elementary students who elected to come back returned last week, followed by middle and high school student this week.
Shelby County Schools felt momentum was heading in the right direction.
WREG has learned the district’s virtual learning system crashed Wednesday morning. Multiple sources even told us the system has struggled since the in-person and virtual hybrid system was implemented.
One school even gave parents tips on how to deal with the computer problems as early as last Friday.
“Now that half of them are back in the building, the system can’t handle the data streams,” said one teacher who wished to remain anonymous.
SCS said Wednesday’s outage lasted about 15 minutes.
“Microsoft has recently experienced intermittent TEAMS issues nationwide that may have affected access and performance. Microsoft confirms that issue has been resolved. This morning’s connectivity outage (approx. 15 minutes) briefly interrupted our normal schedules, however it is being reviewed as we work to optimize network traffic within SCS buildings,” the district said in a statement.
The district estimates around 35 percent of students district-wide opted to come back to in-person lessons. With close to two-thirds of students learning from home, a system failure means thousands of students are inactive and not learning.
It leads some to ask if the hybrid system is a step in the right direction.
“This did not happen when we were working from home,” said one teacher. “It’s an exercise in futility. And you just feel like you’re a part of the problem.”
The district’s back and forth with state officials over in-person learning is not lost on employees. Some feel SCS was under pressure to offer an in-person learning plan. There is concern now that the district is not addressing the issue, with months to go in the current school year.
“What I do not appreciate though, is feeling like now this is happening and it’s not being acknowledged by the district,” said the teacher.