<p>I can’t imagine what these kids were thinking.</p>
<p>[FOXNews.com</a> - California Teenager Faces 38 Years in Prison for Hacking Into School Computer - Science News | Science & Technology | Technology News](<a href=“http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,368946,00.html]FOXNews.com”>http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,368946,00.html)</p>
<p>They weren’t thinking. It amazes me that people can be smart enough to do things like this, but not smart enough to know very basic ethics.</p>
<p>"County prosecutors allege Omar Khan, 18, of Coto de Caza, and Tanvir Singh, 18, of Ladera Ranch, broke into Tesoro High School in Las Flores to steal tests and change their own and others’ grades on the school computer network.</p>
<p>While Singh allegedly only tried doing it once, Khan apparently did it several times…</p>
<p>“The whole idea of one of our friends going to jail for 38 years scared everyone,” graduating senior Brooke Gibson, 18, who knew both Khan and Singh, told the Register. “That’s all anyone was talking about last night and today. When I first heard about it I thought, ‘How could this happen to two really good kids?’”</p>
<p>Khan allegedly was frustrated by the C’s and D’s he’d received in his Advanced Placement courses, figuring they’d lessen his chances of being admitted to the one of the campuses of the elite University of California system.</p>
<p>He used a stolen master key to get into the school after hours several times in January, April and May, the indictment says, and used stolen teacher IDs and passwords to log onto the school’s administrative computer system and change his grades to A’s."</p>
<p>Well, Ferris Bueller did it 20+ years ago. And got away with it, of course. There is nothing new under the sun.</p>
<p>Ferris Bueller changed his attendance record, not grades. (If that means anything, lol.)</p>
<p>It amazes me that someone has the energy and intelligence to pull a stunt like this, yet is only pulling C’s and D’s in school. </p>
<p>And I don’t think that he deserves 38 years in prison. That’s excessive.</p>
<p>Speaking of what were they thinking.</p>
<p>[wbztv.com</a> - Time Magazine Report: Gloucester High School Teens Had Pact To Get Pregnant](<a href=“http://wbztv.com/local/gloucester.high.school.2.751873.html]wbztv.com”>CBS Boston - Breaking News, Sports, Weather, I-Team Investigations)</p>
<p>I got caught doing that in eight grade, the administration freaked out, but no legal problem ever arose from it.</p>
<p>"GLOUCESTER (WBZ) ― There’s a stunning twist to the sudden rise in teen pregnancies at Gloucester High School. 17 students there are expecting and, according to a published report, most of them became that way on purpose. </p>
<p>Time Magazine is reporting that nearly half of the girls confessed to making a pact to get pregnant and raise their babies together. None of the girls is older than 16. </p>
<p>Principal Joseph Sullivan has not returned calls from WBZ to confirm the report.</p>
<p>Sullivan told the magazine that the pact wasn’t the only shocking incident. </p>
<p>“We found out one of the fathers is a 24-year-old homeless guy,” he told Time. </p>
<p>Last month, two top officials at the high school’s health center resigned in a fight over contraceptives distribution. </p>
<p>Medical Director Dr. Brian Orr and chief nurse practitioner Kim Daly support confidentially giving contraceptives to students. They were outraged about resistance from Addison Gilbert Hospital, which administers the state public health grant that funds the school clinic. …"</p>
<p>I would normally think that incidents like these are signs that our country is going to hell in a hand basket. But the teen pregnancy one is so bizarrely comical that I don’t know what to make of it.</p>
<p>Wow. there goes their future</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>How did the ancestors of these girls manage to thwart the processes of natural selection? I’m sure those girls’ potential children will turn into productive members of society…</p>
<p>I guess this is the type of thing that happens at a high school that shares its namesake with Richard III. </p>
<p>“Abortions, abortions! My kingdom for abortions for these girls!”</p>
<p>That pregnancy news deserves its own thread.</p>
<p>The hackers knew what they were doing was a malicious act. It was not just a one-time incident of hacking into the network so they could access their Facebook account online or something like that. The kids deserve to be punished, but 38 years is way too harsh if you asked me. DUI drivers killing others do not get that much.</p>
<p>“When I first heard about it I thought, ‘How could this happen to two really good kids?’”</p>
<p>The answer to that is that they weren’t actually really good kids.</p>
<p>Much larger case at UCLA a couple of years back </p>
<p>[UCLA</a> warns 800,000 of computer break-in - Security - MSNBC.com](<a href=“http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16169453/]UCLA”>http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16169453/)</p>
<p>Probation, etc. but no actual jail time from what I heard…</p>
<p>38 years of prison is a bit too harsh for cheating, isn’t it? I mean, his whole life shouldn’t be ruined for just one big really dumb mistake. Expulsion from high-school would be more fair… He’d probably never get into college, which is more than enough punishment.</p>
<p>Yes, I remember this well (the UCLA incident in post #13). By law, in California they must notify if you are one of those who may have been hacked and they must offer you extra services to prevent your identify being stolen in such a case. While I already had such protection through a different firm, one can imagine this may have cost UCLA a lot of money for those that took advantage of the offer.</p>
<p>I would not call it a “dumb mistake”. It was a planned criminal act (wouldn’t a HS student know that stealing is against the law?). But I still think 38 years is excessive. I doubt they’ll serve any time.</p>
<p>Although judging by their smiling mugshots (they are being photographed by cops and they are grinning?!), I have doubts the kids realize what they’ve done was a serious crime.</p>
<p>I guess he was getting C’s and D’s because he wasn’t doing the work. One of them said he had a test the next day and hadn’t read the book yet. Really dumb thing to do. I agree that 38 years is too much. There was a similar case at Dartmouth high school not too long ago. I seem to remember that the parents were outraged that it was treated as a felony because breaking and entering were involved.</p>
<p>In the preganancy case, if none of the girls is over 16 and the dad is 24, isnt’ that statutory rape?</p>
<p>The kids made a dumb mistake and maybe it has trespassed the limits of a mistake, but one has to agree that the punishment is way too harsh. Yeah they started small and later ‘broke in to the school’ (i dont consider it breaking in since the school was probably open). </p>
<p>38 years is way too harsh for this type of crime. It is not an assault or a murder, just the changing of grades to get into college. They should just be expelled and maybe serve a year in jail at the most which will obviously take away their privelege of going to college.</p>
<p>Students take studies way too seriously these days. Couple Cs and Ds in AP classes does not ruin your life and trying to cheat their way out, they have ruined their life. Pretty pathetic.</p>
<p>The funny thing is that this probably is occurring lots of other places, just these guys were the ones that got caught.</p>
<p>I too disagree that it is just a “dumb mistake”–it was a premeditated crime. You might as well call all crime “dumb mistakes” but to me, a dumb mistake is hitting the wrong button on a calculator.</p>
<p>that being said, with violent crimes rarely netting any sentences even fractionally as long as 38 years, I find this sentence shocking.</p>