GMIT has apologised for a “data breach” after two lecturers forgot to turn off their cameras and microphones at the end of an online presentation and were heard using abusive and insulting language towards students.
While grading the students’ business presentations, one lecturer said they wanted to ‘get a drill’ and start drilling their teeth as they found one of the students to be ‘so painful to be listening to’.
A number of students are identified by name in the videos which have been circulating on social media since yesterday evening and in an email sent to students today, GMIT apologised for a “data breach”.
At a certain point in the shocking conversation between the two lecturers, one asks whether a female student has ‘something wrong with her’. The other replies that they were ‘thinking that’.
“Before I make a decision on voice and body language, she was so slow speaking that I was wondering… I thought I’d better check Access to see if she is on the list some place for something,” the lecturer said.
In the email sent to students today, GMIT President Dr Orla Flynn said sorry for the “data breach that has caused such deep hurt and dismay”.
She added that apologies are being issued to the students directly affected by the incident.
