Mom Hacked Student Accounts To Secure Homecoming Queen Crown For Her Daughter

A Florida mother and her teenage daughter were arrested Monday, after conspiring to hack a computer-based student vote for homecoming queen at her daughter’s high school. Laura Rose Caroll, 50, an assistant principal at Bellview Elementary School in Escambia County, allegedly rigged an in-house school computer system to acquire votes in her daughter’s favor who was crowned homecoming queen October 2020 at Tate High School.

According to authorities from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE), the 17-year-old senior and her mom are now facing multiple criminal charges after the school district reported unauthorized access into hundreds of student accounts that were flagged as fraudulent.

The district used a third-party vendor called Election Runner where students could vote for homecoming king and queen.

During the investigation, agents discovered that hundreds of votes came from an IP address that had unauthorized access to the school district’s FOCUS student information network in a short period of time. The IP address was linked and traced to Carroll’s cellphone as well as computers associated with their residence.

In total, the mother and daughter are accused of casting 246 hacked votes.

Multiple students also reported that the daughter described using her mother's FOCUS account to cast votes," FDLE said in a press release.

Upon further investigation, FDLE also said that Caroll’s FOCUS account was used as far back as August 2019 to access 372 high school records — 339 of which belonged to Tate High School students.

One student told investigators:

"I recall times that [the teen] logged onto her mom's FOCUS account and openly shared information, grades, schedules, etc., with others. She did not seem like logging in was a big deal and was very comfortable with doing so”, The Washington Post wrote.

In a written statement, another student told investigators:

"She looks up all of our group of friends' grades and makes comments about how she can find our test scores all the time."

Carroll has been suspended from her position as assistant principal while her daughter has been expelled from Tate High School, Escambia County School District Superintendent Tim Smith said.

Carroll was booked into Escambia County Jail and released after she posted a $6,000 bond. Her daughter was arrested and taken to the Escambia Regional Juvenile Detention Center.

It's unclear if the daughter will be prosecuted as an adult.