PINELLAS COUNTY, Fla. - Students and teachers across Pinellas County encountered problems Monday, as the district began its virtual learning program amidst the coronavirus pandemic.

Eleventh-grader Fiona Lila sat down for day one of distance learning but said right away she ran into problems opening her assignments.

“Every time I try to open the document, it says no document available,” Lila said.

And it wasn’t just the students who had issues. Teacher Celeste Blanco said even logging on was difficult.

“I logged onto the computer today. I have the app on my computer as well as my phone,” Blanco said. “So I clicked on my first grade team and it just spun and spun and spun.”

Blanco said when she finally got into the program, she was greeted by even more issues.

“I started seeing messages from parents where they were completing the assignments but they weren’t able to turn them in,” Blanco said.  “They were getting an error message.”

We checked in with the Pinellas County School District and we were told officials are aware there have been issues.

"We realize some of our students and teachers are having trouble using Microsoft Teams, especially as it relates to speed, and receiving an error message when clicking on the Assignments tab," said Isabel Mascareñas, Public Information Officer for the district.

"This is a global issue with Microsoft as districts across the country are now logging on to this digital platform. Pinellas County Schools is working with Microsoft to resolve the issue as quickly as possible." 

In the meantime, Mascareñas said teachers are being told to post lessons and assignments in the already existing student portal called “Focus."