Florida boy arrested for grade tampering
PORT ST. LUCIE, Florida (Reuters) -- An 11-year-old Florida schoolboy was arrested and charged with sneaking on to his teacher's computer during a lunch break to change some of his grades, authorities said Wednesday.
A St. Lucie County sheriff's report said the student at St. Lucie West Middle School was found by teachers to have sat down at his teacher's computer Monday and changed five of his grades for assignments.
The sixth-grade student was booked into the St. Lucie County jail on a charge of illegally altering data in a computer, a second-degree felony, and then released to his father.
The St. Lucie school district in southeast Florida lists "the changing, erasing, removing or otherwise manipulating computer data through unauthorized entry" as one of the most serious infractions in its code of conduct.
Such offenses call for an automatic 10-day suspension and recommendation for expulsion. They must be reported to the school administrator and "may result in immediate removal of the student from the school and referral to appropriate law enforcement agency," the code says.
School Principal Helen Roberts and officials of the school board were not immediately available for comment on the case.
Ellen Mancini, an assistant state attorney in the St. Lucie County juvenile division, was quoted by the Palm Beach Post as saying she would be comfortable prosecuting the case, noting the boy could face several years in a juvenile detention facility, if convicted.
Contacted Wednesday, Mancini said her comments had been distorted in media reports, and she declined to discuss the case.
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