<p>Ditto, I’ve only read the OP but wow, 38 years just for hacking? That’s like basically 2/3 of their life, maybe more when he gets out of prison…</p>
<p>Remember that the 38 years is POSSIBLE, not a fait acomplie. As to whether or not anyone over 25 should be able to pass judgment on these kids, ethics have been around since time immemorial, and just because computers weren’t used “in the day” doesn’t change the ethical situation here. This is tantamount to forging/tampering with official state records. That is a felony. With all the excuses being made for these kids such as the admissions system and the pressure kids are under, it is no wonder that they are smiling. They are the victims of the system, not the perpetrators! No excuses. What is wrong is wrong. These are not just high school pranks. These “kids” are adults under the law and they knew it was wrong. Time to take their punishment, but not 38 years.
As to the pregnancy pact, these girls knew that there was free day care at the school, but where they miscalculated is the number of slots available - 7. This means a bunch of the girls will be without the service. The homeless guy could be charged with statutory rape, but it appears the girls don’t want to testify. No complaining witness, no rape charge. The girls kept going to the school nurse for pregnancy tests, and when they were negative, they were upset. The school is scrambling trying to determine a way to keep these girls in school, and to stop this from happening again. All I have read about and heard is the school trying to do something about this. Nothing from the parents. Where are the parents in all this?</p>
<p>At the time the photos were taken they didn’t know they were facing over 30 years of prison. The shots were probably taken right after they got caught.</p>
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I don’t know if anyone has already addressed this (I don’t have time to read through the whole thread right now), but he’s facing 38 years not simply for “cheating”, but for (felony counts of) altering a public record, stealing and secreting a public record, computer access and fraud, burglary, identity theft, altering a book of records, receiving stolen property, conspiracy, and attempted altering of a public record… I say “lock him up”-maybe they can make an example of him to deter other students from cheating (or at least encourage them to be more crafty in their practices :p).</p>
<p>guys, it’s the number of counts that’s making his sentance so high, not just waht the did. if he did it once, he’d be facing 3 years like the other kid. </p>
<p>still, excessive. but that’s why</p>
<p>It’s also important to realize that it was the police and the legal system that determined their charges. The charges – which were based on the students’ actions – determined what the potential legal penalties could be.</p>
<p>It’s not that people are out to get some relatively innocent pranksters. It’s that some teens chose to do things that are criminal, and now face the potential penalties. </p>
<p>I would bet money that the teens will have good lawyers that will allow them to plea bargain and get a much lesser sentence than 38 years, and that would be appropriate. I doubt that anyone wants to lock up first time offenders of nonviolent crimes for 38 years. What a waste of resources that would be!</p>
<p>Anyone, however, who would grin while having their mug shot taken needs to be taught a lesson. Even if arrested for something relatively trivial, I don’t think that most people would think that an arrest would be a grin-worthy occasion.</p>
<p>Something similar happened at my son’s school this spring. The school does not release class rank, just decile information, and a top senior student gained access to the system via a teachers account (he was an aide) and then hacked into the student information and copied information on class ranks and test scores. He did not change anything and in fact it was March so all applications for college were in. He was curious and egged on by other kids to find out their class ranks as well. He was caught and basically expelled although allowed to finish out his classwork outside of school. He was not allowed to participate in graduation or any other senior events and talk is that all but one of his college acceptances was rescinded. The school turned it over to local authorities as well and he was recently indicted on criminal counts. By most all accounts this boy was a well-respected, smart kid who did what others had done before him (why he knew circumvent the security measures). Many teachers and parents lobbied on his behalf but the school decided to make an example and really threw the book at him. My opinion is that they went way overboard, especially when drinking, drugs and cheating is dealt with much less harshly.</p>
<p>how smart must those kids be to first get a copy of a master key, obtain teachers passwords and users names and then to hack into the system with out been caught till know…that is just impressive and they get c’s and d’s because they are able to change their grade or so they thought… why study when you can change your grade later… amazing amazing this kids will be recruited by CIA or some other organization to use them as security consultants watch…if they did it wit out permission imagine what they would be able to do with permission and high tech tools…</p>
<p>If they didn’t write a program, it’s called cracking. -_-</p>
<p>lol jrod its so much easier than it looks…anyone can do this with basic research…its just having the guts to risk something like this…i give made props to those kids for that</p>
<p>The article doesn’t shed too much light on whether these “hackers” were actually a bunch of script kiddies. </p>
<p>My own school’s network has a bad security flaw though – one of my friends (not a particularly close one) basically installed a backdoor program on a regular terminal, gained access to the central hash file through SMP protocol, brute forced the passwords and tada – instant access.</p>
<p>(He told me my password was the only one he couldn’t brute force lol – it was so long. :D) </p>
<p>He wanted to set porn as the desktop background of every computer in the school as a senior prank. Thankfully, I dissuaded him. Better to be content with your power – too ambitious and you just might lose it – after all, the password was still mighty useful for bypassing school filters.</p>
<p>Sounds like A.J., Tony Soprano’s son. Where do we draw the line between mischief and criminal behavior?</p>
<p>Here’s a newspaper story on the hacking:
[News:</a> Students, parents aghast at Tesoro High cheating allegations | students, graduating, school, khan, singh - OCRegister.com](<a href=“http://www.ocregister.com/articles/students-graduating-school-2071946-khan-singh]News:”>http://www.ocregister.com/articles/students-graduating-school-2071946-khan-singh)</p>
<p>One of our local high schools busted some graduating seniors for something similar. The not so bright students accidentally left their USB still plugged into the computer. You can imagine the dismay of the teacher upon its discovery. It was used to change grades as well as download test exams. It was in the local news but quickly handled with discretion. Some students were expelled or suspended. I also heard some college offers were rescinded. The crime is those students who were bumped because of their acceptances to those colleges. Especially, if those grades were unearned. Unfortunately,it is an unfair reflection of the hard work of other R.B Graduates.</p>
<p>it is prolly to set an example for future kids who even think of emulating what goes on in the movies lol
tho it does seem harsh</p>
<p>im sure its prevalent anywhere theres computer savy students, it happened at international accademy a few years back and there were expulsions but no legal problems…</p>
<p>and i do think it was ferus beuller changing attendance =]</p>
<p>It was the movie War Games where M. Broderick’s character change the grades></p>
<p>“The charges – which were based on the students’ actions – determined what the potential legal penalties could be.”</p>
<p>Most prosecutors’ offices have almost unlimited discretion to decide where to use their resources and how to charge a particular defendant. If they had wanted to charge these kids with misdemeanors, they likely could have.</p>
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<p>Aww, you parents. 
</p>
<p>If they were actual hackers (and not script kiddies), they would have taken proper measures to ensure they didn’t get caught.</p>
<p>My first thought was being 18 (vs 17) sucks when you get arrested. Most kids in juvenile hall live by that rule. Lots of kids in juvenile hall end up in “the system” for things like truancy & running way from “home”. Is that worse than what these kids did? There’s pressure for them too. Nothing as understandable as “prestigious schools”; just not getting your butt kicked everyday. Granted juvenile hall is not jail or prison, but it’s a big step on the path there. I think these two will bounce back (and won’t get 38 years). Lots of kids won’t have futures as good as theirs.</p>
<p>a “friend” at my school hacked into the system and changed grades, including my own (i did not want him to)
anwyay his acceptance into the umd honors gemstone program wasnt even revoked</p>