The Hudson County Prosecutor’s Office is investigating an incident at Washington Middle School in Harrison that has called internal IT security into question.
Office spokesman Gene Rubino said that Harrison PD alerted the office to the April 10 incident in which a 14-year-old student at the school “breached and accessed” the school computer system.
Rubino declined to elaborate but one school administrator familiar with the situation said that the student managed to access “a couple of teachers’ personal emails” and that police have searched the student’s home for possible electronic evidence.
“This is a case of middle school prankishness,” the school official said. Still, the student faces disciplinary action.
School administrators are likely concerned, given that the Harrison school district has scheduled a trial run of the new state-mandated PARCC test for this spring.
“We have interviewed school employees,” Rubino said.
Asked whether prosecutor’s staff have impounded any physical evidence as part of their investigation, Rubino declined to answer.
At this point, he said, no other “outside agencies” have been called into the case.
“No charges have been brought at this time,” Rubino said last week. “The investigation is ongoing.”
– Ron Leir
