Student suspended for forging grades

12th grader in Ashkelon hacked into high school’s grading site and increased his grades by 10 to 15 points.

By DANIELLE ZIRI
Man with computer 370 (photo credit: REUTERS/Thomas Peter)
Man with computer 370
(photo credit: REUTERS/Thomas Peter)
A high school student in Ashkelon was suspended from classes this week after he had hacked into the school’s grading site, which is usually reserved exclusively for the teaching staff, and increased his grades by 10 to 15 points.
The case came to light after one of the teachers realized that the scores displayed in the computer system did not match those she had in hard copy.
In order to blur the evidence, the student, who is in 12th grade, also modified some of his classmates’ scores.
“The teacher sent a letter to all students and explained what happened,” one of the classmates said in an interview with Ynet on Wednesday.
“She was angry. They did not mention the name of the student, but hinted at who it was.”
The Education Ministry described the incident as “a very serious case.”
“The school held talks with the students about the seriousness of the case, to prevent [student] involvement in such activities,” the ministry wrote in a statement on Thursday.
The Ashkelon Municipality issued a statement saying that it views the incident with much severity and compared it to “burglary, deception and fraud.”
The municipality added that the school had been “on the trail of the case” before.
The school has filed a police complaint against the student, who will not return to school until further notice, and issued a circular to all parents informing them of the incident and asking them to pay more attention to, and provide more supervision of, their children’s activities.