Unjust school suspension and penalties

[AmuletOfNight]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Michigan

Hello FreeAdvice.com people! I seem to have myself quite an interesting situation here at my (high) school that I have gotten myself into. So allow me to explain:

My school gives us (students) each our own individual login for the computers at the school and clearly announces that it reserves the right to remove or disable a users login for breaking the code of conduct or abusing the computers. They have recently removed and disabled my login for what seems like an unjust reason, the situaton is as follows:

I was in my AP Java class one day and I had got done with my assignment early and had nothing to do, and our teacher instructed us that if we were to get done early, we may do something productive in terms of programming. So I did just that: I made a program in Java that simply generated a few random numbers and threw you into a random directory in Windows Explorer on the local computer or the network (keep in mind, this was random and I had no way of choosing where I would be), and after running it a couple times, it threw me into a network directory on the school network, in particular the drive that appears to be responsible for the schools "main" system (it had the websites title). The program put me into a directory in that drive that contained some batch files. There were two of them, one of them was unreadable to me as a student (Couldn't copy, open, etc), but the other one contained the username and password that the antivirus used to update itself, and as such had Administrative privileges. I took this and I logged in with it and I navigated back to this directory (I saved it) and my curiosity got the best of me. I opened the other batch file which turned out to be yet another Administrator password. I took both of these and went about my day. I used them both at least once throughout the day to UPDATE the computers (In my case, I only ran the java updates) since they neglect to do it and it wasn't going to do any damage to update them. None of my teachers had a problem up until my last hour teacher who reported me even though I realized at that point that I should go turn these Administrative privileges into the proper people and have it taken care of so that nobody could abuse them. And that I did.

Unfortunately, when I went to the Office the next day and turned these usernames and passwords in and told them about the situation and how exactly it occurred, they treated me as a criminal and suspended me for three days out of school, and 13 hours of in school suspension (with no outside communication, must be escorted everywhere, etc) despite that I did nothing wrong and there was no damage to the computers.

They have since then taken away my login, which is causing my grade in THREE classes to drop rapidly as I am not able to complete any of the work assigned to me due to my restrictions. I am not allowed to even approach a computer linked to the school network, or I will be suspended again, and all my teachers have been told to strictly enforce it until they can figure out if they're going to give my login back. But my question is, why am I being punished when I did nothing wrong, and what actions am I allowed to take legally to get my login back? They are taking away my educational resources unjustly and won't give them back despite that I have pleaded with them and told them all of this.

What should I do? I don't have much time before the damage to my grade becomes irreversible, and I cannot go another week without my computer privileges.

They also appear to be stalling on the decision, as they wont tell me anything and won't communicate with me.

 

[sandyclaus]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Michigan

Hello FreeAdvice.com people! I seem to have myself quite an interesting situation here at my (high) school that I have gotten myself into. So allow me to explain:

My school gives us (students) each our own individual login for the computers at the school and clearly announces that it reserves the right to remove or disable a users login for breaking the code of conduct or abusing the computers. They have recently removed and disabled my login for what seems like an unjust reason, the situaton is as follows:

I was in my AP Java class one day and I had got done with my assignment early and had nothing to do, and our teacher instructed us that if we were to get done early, we may do something productive in terms of programming. So I did just that: I made a program in Java that simply generated a few random numbers and threw you into a random directory in Windows Explorer on the local computer or the network (keep in mind, this was random and I had no way of choosing where I would be), and after running it a couple times, it threw me into a network directory on the school network, in particular the drive that appears to be responsible for the schools "main" system (it had the websites title). The program put me into a directory in that drive that contained some batch files. There were two of them, one of them was unreadable to me as a student (Couldn't copy, open, etc), but the other one contained the username and password that the antivirus used to update itself, and as such had Administrative privileges. I took this and I logged in with it and I navigated back to this directory (I saved it) and my curiosity got the best of me. I opened the other batch file which turned out to be yet another Administrator password. I took both of these and went about my day. I used them both at least once throughout the day to UPDATE the computers (In my case, I only ran the java updates) since they neglect to do it and it wasn't going to do any damage to update them. None of my teachers had a problem up until my last hour teacher who reported me even though I realized at that point that I should go turn these Administrative privileges into the proper people and have it taken care of so that nobody could abuse them. And that I did.

Unfortunately, when I went to the Office the next day and turned these usernames and passwords in and told them about the situation and how exactly it occurred, they treated me as a criminal and suspended me for three days out of school, and 13 hours of in school suspension (with no outside communication, must be escorted everywhere, etc) despite that I did nothing wrong and there was no damage to the computers.

They have since then taken away my login, which is causing my grade in THREE classes to drop rapidly as I am not able to complete any of the work assigned to me due to my restrictions. I am not allowed to even approach a computer linked to the school network, or I will be suspended again, and all my teachers have been told to strictly enforce it until they can figure out if they're going to give my login back. But my question is, why am I being punished when I did nothing wrong, and what actions am I allowed to take legally to get my login back? They are taking away my educational resources unjustly and won't give them back despite that I have pleaded with them and told them all of this.

What should I do? I don't have much time before the damage to my grade becomes irreversible, and I cannot go another week without my computer privileges.

They also appear to be stalling on the decision, as they wont tell me anything and won't communicate with me.

So, when you discovered these batch files, instead of stopping and notifying the teacher, you decided to continue using the improperly obtained information and hack into the system with it. You, a person with no administrative privileges, and someone who would be more likely to harm the system than do any good due to your lack of skill and knowledge. And you are surprised that the school suspended your access to the school computer system?

You went where you were not authorized to go. You put the school's entire computer system at risk. While you may not think it's fair because you are only looking at what's in front of you, the school is looking at the bigger picture. They have no idea what you did in there, or if you shared your ill-gained access with someone who could do real damage to the school resources.

You made a big mistake out of curiosity, and your consequences are more than fair and appropriate. If your actions are as innocuous as you would seem to imply, they will figure it out soon enough and give you back your access. Until then, you're going to have to suffer the consequences of your choices.

 

[AmuletOfNight]

So, when you discovered these batch files, instead of stopping and notifying the teacher, you decided to continue using the improperly obtained information and hack into the system with it. You, a person with no administrative privileges, and someone who would be more likely to harm the system than do any good due to your lack of skill and knowledge. And you are surprised that the school suspended your access to the school computer system?

You went where you were not authorized to go. You put the school's entire computer system at risk. While you may not think it's fair because you are only looking at what's in front of you, the school is looking at the bigger picture. They have no idea what you did in there, or if you shared your ill-gained access with someone who could do real damage to the school resources.

You made a big mistake out of curiosity, and your consequences are more than fair and appropriate. If your actions are as innocuous as you would seem to imply, they will figure it out soon enough and give you back your access. Until then, you're going to have to suffer the consequences of your choices.

Hack is the improper term. I'm pretty sure I'm more qualified then the technicians even at the school...I do not like you saying that I have no skill or knowledge, because I have more SKILL and KNOWLEDGE about computers than anybody that's qualified to work at that school. I did not share my access, and I didn't want the access anyways, which is why I turned it in. Shouldn't turning myself in say something? They found no problems, and all the computers are still fully functional.

 

[tranquility]

While some argument can be made, " I took this and I logged in with it and I navigated back to this directory (I saved it) and my curiosity got the best of me. I opened the other batch file which turned out to be yet another Administrator password" will almost assuredly be a violation of state and federal law and be a violation of school code.

Accept your minor punishment.

 

[xylene]

I made a program in Java that simply generated a few random numbers and threw you into a random directory in Windows Explorer on the local computer or the network

This action alone was more than reason to terminate your computer privileges, even if you did not further explore or exploit what you found.

You are a smart enough person to know that trying to pick lock, even at random, would be a serious matter. The metaphor applies here perfectly. Forget lock picking - If you went around the school trying door handles and were seen, you bet your butt you would be in deep AP.

You should consider yourself lucky that this did not escalate to a criminal investigation, given today's security climate.

I really don't doubt that you are smarter than the schools sysadmins. But you are too smart by half. Your intrusion, however white hat, is probably now costing school a mint, at least in manpower. You don't think that would get them more than a little p.o.ed at you? They didn't ask you to probe security on your free period.

Are you a minor? If so What do your parents have to say - because their input and action will be critical to any legal response you could make.

Lastly, high school grades don't mean a thing. Especially to a person with talent like yours.

 

[AmuletOfNight]

This action alone was more than reason to terminate your computer privileges, even if you did not further explore or exploit what you found.

You are a smart enough person to know that trying to pick lock, even at random, would be a serious matter. The metaphor applies here perfectly. Forget lock picking - If you went around the school trying door handles and were seen, you bet your butt you would be in deep AP.

You should consider yourself lucky that this did not escalate to a criminal investigation, given today's security climate.

I really don't doubt that you are smarter than the schools sysadmins. But you are too smart by half. Your intrusion, however white hat, is probably now costing school a mint, at least in manpower. You don't think that would get them more than a little p.o.ed at you? They didn't ask you to probe security on your free period.

Are you a minor? If so What do your parents have to say - because their input and action will be critical to any legal response you could make.

Lastly, high school grades don't mean a thing. Especially to a person with talent like yours.

Yes, I am a minor, I am 17. My parents input is encouragement and that the school is overdoing their punishment and that I am being wrongly punished despite no damage being done. I can see where the school is coming from, but I never expected any of this to happen. Do you think I wanted to be banned? Not really (not that it would stop me from getting in...).

 

[cbg]

Where did you or your parents get the idea that there had to be damage before you could rightfully be punished? No, my friend, the school is right and you are wrong. You had no business being there and the fact that you don't even recognize why what you did was wrong only underlines why your privileges have been suspended.

 

[AmuletOfNight]

Where did you or your parents get the idea that there had to be damage before you could rightfully be punished? No, my friend, the school is right and you are wrong. You had no business being there and the fact that you don't even recognize why what you did was wrong only underlines why your privileges have been suspended.

No, I do understand why what I did was wrong, I got into unauthorized content that I had no right to see. But MY point is that I do not believe there should be punishment for what I did about the situation, which is turn it in and do no damage to the computers. That is what puzzles me.

 

[cbg]

Yes, I realize that you don't believe you should be punished. That's kind of the point. The fact that you don't understand why, I mean

To most of the rest of us, the reason why is so glaringly obvious that I think a lot of us are sitting here with stunned expressions, trying to pick our jaws up off the floor in disbelief as we try very hard not to say, What do you MEAN, you don't understand why the school is punishing you? Are you completely devoid of moral understanding or just mostly?

 

[xylene]

No, I do understand why what I did was wrong, I got into unauthorized content that I had no right to see. But MY point is that I do not believe there should be punishment for what I did about the situation, which is turn it in and do no damage to the computers. That is what puzzles me.

No, you are understanding this wrong.

The java exploit program you wrote and used is the problem, seeing the password file (and using it) just cooked your goose.

 

[LdiJ]

No, I do understand why what I did was wrong, I got into unauthorized content that I had no right to see. But MY point is that I do not believe there should be punishment for what I did about the situation, which is turn it in and do no damage to the computers. That is what puzzles me.

It should not puzzle you at all if you as tech savy as you claim. You got in there once, there is no guarantee that you won't get in there again, and possibly do serious damage, until they can figure out how you did it and how to stop you from doing it again. They have to protect the school's systems.

 

[OHRoadwarrior]

You appear to not understand the line in this situation. My son has discovered similar vulnerabilities in his schools network. He immediately contacts the sys admin, teacher or principal and advises them of the vulnerability and solution. He does not explore system functions he is not permitted to access. I suggest you discuss your error with the principal and explain that you understand the line.

 

[xylene]

You appear to not understand the line in this situation. My son has discovered similar vulnerabilities in his schools network. He immediately contacts the sys admin, teacher or principal and advises them of the vulnerability and solution. He does not explore system functions he is not permitted to access. I suggest you discuss your error with the principal and explain that you understand the line

I certainly hope your son is not creating and running programs designed to exploit known weaknesses in multi-user environments, as the OP did, without explicit permission.

 

[TheGeekess]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Michigan

Hello FreeAdvice.com people! I seem to have myself quite an interesting situation here at my (high) school that I have gotten myself into. So allow me to explain:

My school gives us (students) each our own individual login for the computers at the school and clearly announces that it reserves the right to remove or disable a users login for breaking the code of conduct or abusing the computers. They have recently removed and disabled my login for what seems like an unjust reason, the situaton is as follows:

I was in my AP Java class one day and I had got done with my assignment early and had nothing to do, and our teacher instructed us that if we were to get done early, we may do something productive in terms of programming. So I did just that: I made a program in Java that simply generated a few random numbers and threw you into a random directory in Windows Explorer on the local computer or the network (keep in mind, this was random and I had no way of choosing where I would be), and after running it a couple times, it threw me into a network directory on the school network, in particular the drive that appears to be responsible for the schools "main" system (it had the websites title). The program put me into a directory in that drive that contained some batch files. There were two of them, one of them was unreadable to me as a student (Couldn't copy, open, etc), but the other one contained the username and password that the antivirus used to update itself, and as such had Administrative privileges. I took this and I logged in with it and I navigated back to this directory (I saved it) and my curiosity got the best of me. I opened the other batch file which turned out to be yet another Administrator password. I took both of these and went about my day. I used them both at least once throughout the day to UPDATE the computers (In my case, I only ran the java updates) since they neglect to do it and it wasn't going to do any damage to update them. None of my teachers had a problem up until my last hour teacher who reported me even though I realized at that point that I should go turn these Administrative privileges into the proper people and have it taken care of so that nobody could abuse them. And that I did.

Unfortunately, when I went to the Office the next day and turned these usernames and passwords in and told them about the situation and how exactly it occurred, they treated me as a criminal and suspended me for three days out of school, and 13 hours of in school suspension (with no outside communication, must be escorted everywhere, etc) despite that I did nothing wrong and there was no damage to the computers.

They have since then taken away my login, which is causing my grade in THREE classes to drop rapidly as I am not able to complete any of the work assigned to me due to my restrictions. I am not allowed to even approach a computer linked to the school network, or I will be suspended again, and all my teachers have been told to strictly enforce it until they can figure out if they're going to give my login back. But my question is, why am I being punished when I did nothing wrong, and what actions am I allowed to take legally to get my login back? They are taking away my educational resources unjustly and won't give them back despite that I have pleaded with them and told them all of this.

What should I do? I don't have much time before the damage to my grade becomes irreversible, and I cannot go another week without my computer privileges.

They also appear to be stalling on the decision, as they wont tell me anything and won't communicate with me.

I'm willing to bet you and your parents signed a little slip of paper that came with the school's policies/procedures/rules and returned it to the school.

 

[I'mTheFather]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Michigan

They also appear to be stalling on the decision, as they wont tell me anything and won't communicate with me.

They may be waiting on the next board meeting to see if they can proceed with expulsion.