Irish lecturers overheard insulting students on video call

The 2020 curse of the video meeting has struck again after two Irish lecturers forgot to switch off their cameras while heaping scorn on students who had just given virtual presentations.

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“I thought I’d have to get a drill and start drilling my teeth they were so painful, to be listening to him,” said one of the Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology tutors in the west of Ireland.

Her colleague had her own scathing verdict on the students. “I couldn’t take much more of them anyway, I was exhausted.”

The unnamed lecturers apparently believed it was a private discussion and that the connection to the students had ended. In fact, some were still watching and at least one recorded the exchange.

It was posted on social media, triggering widespread criticism of the lecturers and an apology from the college president, Orla Flynn.

“I would like to wholeheartedly apologise to our students for the data breach that has caused such deep hurt and dismay,” she said in a statement. “GMIT is known as a student-centred institute and some of the comments made by our staff do not reflect the values to which we aspire.”

The incident reportedly happened last week after business students completed online presentations. The lecturers vented disdain while discussing the students’ work and allocating marks. “He’s sick, that lad … eventually I said I have to do something, and he still didn’t stop,” said one.

Her colleague said one student “wasn’t too bad”, unlike a particular classmate who made her want to drill her own teeth.

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One wondered if another student had “something wrong with her”, an apparent reference to disability. “Funny, I was thinking that,” the other replied. “I was saying, before I make a decision on voice and body language, she was so slow speaking … I thought I’d better check Access to see if she’s on the list someplace for something.”

Students called the exchange shocking and insulting.

Failure to turn off computer cameras or mute audio have caught out others since the Covid-19 pandemic made video meetings a way of life.

A film director was overheard critiquing the “shoebox” apartment of an auditioning actor. The New Yorker fired Jeffrey Toobin after the legal affairs commentator allegedly masturbated during a Zoom work call. Luke “Ming” Flanagan, an Irish MEP, beamed into a parliamentary discussion unaware everyone could see he had no trousers.