Pittsburgh school board member forgets to turn off camera before showering during virtual meeting

PITTSBURGH — A Pittsburgh Public Schools board member learned the hard way on Wednesday what can go wrong in virtual meetings.

According to Channel 11 News’ exchange partners at TribLIVE, Veronica Edwards was accidentally seen disrobing and stepping into the shower during the district’s agenda review meeting, which was streamed live.

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“Hopefully someone can learn from my experience and turn the camera off when you need to!” she said in a written statement to The Trib on Friday. “During the pandemic, I have experienced an increase of virtual meeting hours … more than ever before. The demand on my time has caused me to attempt to multi-task when some meetings are proceeding.

"Like many women and caregivers across the country, this has been a challenging time to achieve work-life balance, it’s been nearly impossible for me.”

The incident happened about an hour-and-a-half into the meeting, and The Trib reported within 13 minutes after entering the shower, Edwards was back asking a question about a possible language learning software the district is interested in.

Edwards was elected to a four-year term on the board in 2017. School board members in Pa. don’t get paid, and the city school board meets at least five times per month, in addition to separate committee meetings, district solicitor Ira Weiss told TribLIVE.

“My public commitment and duties as an elected official have never been more sound with decency and integrity,” Edwards said in her statement. “My record is strong and my support of our district and our students is my priority. While I regret the incident, I remain committed, resolved and focused on my responsibilities to educate all children even when I make a personal and private mistake.”

A video of the full meeting, which was broadcast live on Zoom, is posted on Vimeo. The showering incident has been edited out.

Weiss told TribLIVE the board got calls from the public who saw the showering incident live during the meeting. He didn’t know how many people viewed the incident.

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