Some Orange County families experience technical issues on first day of virtual classes

All Orange County students, including those who chose in-person learning, started classes online Monday through the district’s LaunchEd@Home program.

Wekiva High School tweeted about problems on the first day. The school said storms from the night before had a “profound electrical impact” on the school and that staff was having trouble with LaunchEd.

The Wagstaff family in Winter Garden also had trouble with the program. 11th-grader TJay tried to log on for his second-period class and found out his teacher was having technical issues.

“The teachers are also having problems, too, I guess,” TJay Wagstaff said. “So, it’s not really their fault, so I don’t really blame them.”

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TJay’s first class of the morning was woodshop. His mother has concerns about how the class will be taught.

“I’m surprised that we didn’t know that some of the teachers wouldn’t be live,” Carmen Wagstaff said. “That they would just show videos instead of live classes. I’m just surprised that the district would try to do a LaunchEd for woodshop.”

FOX 35 was with the family throughout the morning as three of the family's five children tried to figure out LaunchEd. The kids wrestled with the technology but were able to make it online for a few classes. Their mom is hoping things get easier.

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“Some of them are a little anxious, so this is stressful,” Carmen Wagstaff said. “They had a hard time sleeping last night. But, they’re for the most part, pretty flexible. Being in a family of five children, you have to be flexible.”

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