- Professor John Peng Zhang recently shared his screen with his business class over
Zoom during a lecture. - Students in the class spotted a bookmark on his browser titled "busty college girl," a popular niche of pornography, the
University of Miami student newspaper reported. - A TikTok that published screen grabs of the bookmark went viral and Zhang never returned to class.
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If you're sharing your screen with workmates or students, it's best to make sure you've wiped any incriminating or embarrassing tabs from your browser first.
University of
One of the first students who spotted the bookmark, which bared the name of a popular niche of
A TikTok video of Zhang's screen, which has since been removed, garnered more than 800,000 views in only a few hours, according to The Hurricane.
By the next day, it had spread to notable Instagram pages Fifthyear, Barstool, and others, reaching millions of followers.
"I had friends sharing it with me from other schools who saw it," Ethan Hartz, a freshman business student who was in the business analytics class, told Hurricane reporter Jesse Lieberman.
Lieberman reported that Zhang addressed the issues with his class in the next meeting.
"I don't know how it happened," he said, according to Lieberman. "I didn't see it, I'm pretty sure everybody else did…My apologies to the class."
Zhang then sent out an email to the class saying he was "investigating" encouraged students not to share images of the link.
The professor's name has since been removed from the university webpage and other professors started taking over his classes, according to The Miami Hurricane.
Some students told the paper they were unhappy that they were never given an explanation about what happened to Zhang, and that other professors with different teaching styles have been assigned to their classes so late in the semester.
In a statement to The Hurricane, the university acknowledged that the incident was investigated, but didn't comment on the results.
"The University of Miami aggressively investigates all complaints of inappropriate behavior or sexual harassment. After receiving a complaint through the University's ethics hotline, the incident was investigated by the Office of the Provost, Title IX investigator and Miami Herbert Business School," the statement to the university paper said.
A spokesperson for the University of Miami didn't immediately return a request for comment from Insider. Attempts to contact Zhang were not immediately successful.
Some university students told The Hurricane they didn't believe it warranted Zhang lose his livelihood because of the bookmark, but others were concerned about the kind of content it was apparently describing.
"It was the fact he is a college professor and saved a video to his bookmarks describing college girls," one student, Samantha Hill, told the college paper. "A video to watch over and over again."
"It's hard not to think he's looking at you like that," she added. "I wouldn't turn my camera on…I don't want him to look at me."