Students Experience Suspicious Computer Activity

McKay says the situation is being investigated

Each student at AHS has a designated computer for school use. On Wednesday, many students computers were remotely accessed by unknown persons.

Each student at AHS has a designated computer for school use. On Wednesday, many students’ computers were remotely accessed by unknown persons.

by Mary Hayes, Tanner Mauk, and Bailey Schildberg

Today, shortly before 1 pm, technology director Roger Warne was notified of an issue with students’ computers being controlled from a remote location.

“Somebody got a little sneaky with it and is planning on getting themselves in trouble,” said Warne. 

Sophomore Bailey Schildberg was one of the students who experienced the unusual incident.  Schildberg explained that while she was working, she lost control of the mouse, which then scrolled across her dock and opened an application. During sixth and seventh period today, other students also reported similar happenings.  

Another victim of this strange situation was sophomore Stephanie Sandbothe. Sandbothe was in seventh period when her computer was also taken out of her control. Sandbothe said, “They closed out all of my apps and opened up my photo booth and started looking through my pictures.” She then shut off her computer to make it stop.

“First I heard about it was 20 minutes ago,” said Warne when discussing the situation with the seventh period journalism class.

Warne made it clear that he was in an information-gathering mode. “We have some leads,” he said.

He recommends that if students see similar activity to “close the lid.” Warne said that if the network connection is broken, no one should be able to access the computer.

Principal Heather McKay said students should contact the tech department or front office if they have concerns or experience issues similar to those described above.