ONLINE ONLY: Red Oak High School responds to second computer security breach this year

RED OAK — Red Oak High School has still not reached closure following a four-hour lockdown Monday morning after an anonymous threatening note was found on a school printer.  

After extensive student interviews, Red Oak Superintendent Terry Schmidt said the school’s administration have not been able to identify the author of the threatening note. He added at this point, they’ve exhausted their search means and finding the author will likely only be possible if someone comes forward with more information.

“Each day that goes by, the search becomes less effective,” he said. 

The note, which implied a person, who Schmidt said he assumes is a student, was upset with someone else and threatened to hurt both parties with some type of weapon, was found Monday morning and led to a law enforcement search of the entire building along with all the lockers. No weapons were found, but the police remained on campus the rest of the day without incident. 

Schmidt said since the note was printed early Monday morning, not all of the nearly 400 students with laptop access to the network had signed on yet. They have conducted interviews with all the students who were on the network by tracing their computer’s IP address. These students’ computers were also examined, and Schmidt said it is possible that the information on the computer could have been erased prior to the search. 

School staff also met with the students who were absent Monday morning and responded to tips from parents. Other students who have been involved in recent disciplinary matters were involved in the interviews as well.

“Every day you deal with issues in school, not usually computer threats like this, but discipline issues,” Schmidt said. “Kids are not perfect; they get into trouble. We have been searching to see if any of that carried over into this matter.” 

While the school does have the technology to monitor network access, Schmidt said they weren’t able to trace what computer sent the note to one of the few designated printing stations in the building. 

He added the technology and knowledge exists to work around the network restrictions, allowing someone to potentially bypass the school’s monitoring system. 

This is the second incident involving computer security issues since the One-to-One laptop program began this school year. 

In late September, two computers in the school office were used with a hacked staff member's account, and a keyword search for objectionable material triggered an automation notification to the district's technology director.    

Since these incidents, Schmidt said they have taken more steps to monitor computer access, with tools to strengthen the district’s software and hardware security systems. 

“We feel comfortable that we’ve done everything we can,” Schmidt said. “We do hope that we’ve created the kind of environment where people feel comfortable to tell us any other information they know. Right now, though, we’re working on moving on.”