Two Dozen Highline H.S. Students In Hot Water For Falsifying Grades

[InfoSec News <isn () c4i org>]

http://www.komotv.com/stories/18162.htm

May 1, 2002 
By Emily Langlie 

BURIEN - They were smart enough to hack into a computer system, but
foolish enough to leave a clue behind.

Now, more than two dozen students at Highline High School are in
trouble after hackers changed their grades.

In some cases, those phony grades were sent to colleges.

Highline High School is proud of its high-tech learning center where
kids become computer experts.

But now some of those expert students are in trouble. They hacked into
a school computer system and improved their grades.

Students have been talking about it for weeks. But they didn't get
away with it, only because a teacher discovered an inappropriate
comment of a foul nature left in the system.

The teacher noticed the comment when she was entering grades the last
week in January. The school district's computer experts were called
in, and for three months, they investigated grade changes.

Last week, letters went home to 26 students with various levels of
involvement.

Those who hacked into the system and changed grades are suspended for
the rest of the year.

Those who got the altered transcripts and didn't tell the district are
suspended for 10 days.

Some who knew about the grade changes after the fact got no
discipline.

Colleges that received the phony grades got a letter with a correct
transcript. They weren't told who was responsible for the fraud.

But the problems for these students at Highline aren't over yet. The
district's full investigation is being turned over to Burien Police
for possible charges of computer trespass.

Some of the students are appealing their discipline.

The school district doesn't know if any of the students have lost
scholarships or been rejected from colleges because of the falsified
transcripts.



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