14 DAY TRIAL // Seven students from Iredell County, North Carolina, attending classes in Lake Norman High School in the Iredell Statesville School System, have been officially charged with hacking into the school's computer network.
The incident took place on August 31 when one of the students managed to crack one of the schools' IT administrative passwords.
Investigators say the student shared his finding with his friends, and then went on to access the various computers in the school's network for the next two days. The illegally accessed computers were operated by both teachers and other students.
School personnel eventually caught on, and notified authorities. Local law enforcement arrested the kids between September 24 and 25, and charged them with a minor misdemeanor for accessing computers without authorization.
School authorities also said that no grades, test scores or other information was modified during the time students had access to the network.
According to police, students were able to access the school network only while on campus, and when doing so, they went on to only play jokes on other students by moving their mouse around and activating their webcam.
Charged students have ages ranging from 14 to 18 and are set to appear in court on November 10. All children are back into their parents' custody after being released on a $1,500 bond.
In the meantime, the school suspended the students and changed its passwords.