MOM ARRESTED AFTER HACKING SCHOOL COMPUTERS TO CHANGE KIDS’ GRADES
45 year old Catherine Venusto, of New Tripoli, worked for the Northwestern Lehigh School District from 2008 through April 2011 and has at least two children in the district, according to the District Attorney’s office.
She has been accused of changing her daughter’s failing grade from an F to an M for “medical” in June 2010, and then changing her son’s 98 to a 99 in February 2012, nearly a year after she quit her job as an administrative office secretary to work at another school district.
When ABCNews.com attempted to contact Venusto at her current job as an event coordinator at Lehigh University, a school employee said her employment ended Wednesday.
A school administrator said she first realized something was wrong when a teacher asked why Superintendent Mary Ann Wright was in that teacher’s online grade book. Once Wright explained she was never in the grade book, administrators and state police began looking for whoever used Wright’s username and password without permission.
State police discovered Venusto used Wright’s username and password 110 times to access the district’s online grading system, according to the District Attorney’s office. Venusto also allegedly accessed nine other faculty members’ email accounts without permission, and accessed the human resources “H-drive” to view “thousands of files associated with district policy, contract information, employee reports and personnel issues.”
Venusto could face a maximum of 42 years in prison or a $90,000 fine, according to District Attorney’s office spokeswoman Debbie Garlicki, who said the maximum penalty on each count is seven years or a $15,000.
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SCOOP: ABC
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