There’s nothing quite like grade school grade grubbing — your friends think you’re annoying, your teachers hate you, and you eventually grow up to be one of those jerks who gun their hand up at every question in college (and everyone hates you then). But, perhaps there is sympathy to be had for kids like that. Maybe it wasn’t their fault they turned out to be so irritating, maybe we have parents like Catherine Venusto, a mother who hacked into her children’s school computer to change her son’s 98 to a 99, to thank for the world’s try-hards.
Venusto currently faces six felony charges for not only hacking into her children’s school computer system to change their grades, but also reading school official’s e-mails. According to ABC News, she has been accused of changing her daughter’s failing grade from an F to an M for “medical” in 2010, and then changing her son’s 98 to a 99 in February 2012. Venusto was arraigned this week on three counts of unlawful use of a computer and three counts of computer trespassing and altering data.
Venusto, who worked for her children’s school district from 2008 through April 2011, managed to hack into the school’s records 110 times before anyone caught on, which is pretty commendable even though she was using her powers for evil. Jennifer Holman, Northwestern Lehigh School District’s assistant superintendent, said that once a teacher noticed that Superintendent Mary Ann Wright was in their grade book, administrators and state police began looking for whoever had managed to snatch Wright’s password.
Considering that Venusto could face up to 42 years in prison or a $90,000 fine if convicted, let’s all take this as a lesson that hacking into school computers to change grades not only doesn’t pay, it also makes you and your mom look like a total jerk. I mean, honestly, what the hell was the difference between a 98 and a 99?
(via Time.)
Published: Jul 23, 2012 11:08 am