GREENFIELD — The principal of Greenfield-Central High School says a high school student posed as multiple staff members and sent out “vague” threats to students Sunday evening.
Jason Cary, G-C principal, said the email threat was not a “hack” as authorities had previously reported. The high school student, a teenage boy who does not currently take classes within the high school building, did not hack into the school’s online system, Cary said. The student instead used a foreign website that allows a person to use another person’s email address as a disguise in order to send out messages.
The student used Cary’s email address and Google profile photo, as well as those belonging to other school staff members, and sent out a “vague” threat, he said, to students on Sunday evening. It read: “Boom. Boom,” and included a time after school hours. Cary said the technology team first noticed the suspicious email around 6 p.m. on Sunday. The student then used other staff members’ email addresses to send out additional emails.
The emails went to all students in the high school but not faculty members or staff.
Within hours of the incident, between Sunday night and Monday morning, Cary said the school’s tech team found the source of the emails and determined the person who sent them. He said school officials knew the student’s identity and met with him before school began on Monday morning.
Cary said the school is determining the discipline for the student through the school’s handbook procedures. He sent out an email to parents on Monday letting them know the school’s system was not hacked and no sensitive information was seen or compromised.
One of the purported emails said school would be closed on Monday. Officials picked up on them fairly quickly.
“We are aware of the spam email that was sent to high school students. It is inaccurate,” Harold Olin, superintendent of Greenfield-Central Schools, said on Twitter at 7 p.m. “Any alterations to the school calendar (delays, closures or early releases) would be sent through the Instant Messenger system and would also be duplicated on the corporation’s website.”
G-C’s school resource officer, Josh Mullins, notified Greenfield Police Department about the incident on Monday morning. Randy Ratliff, a detective with the police department, told the Daily Reporter that officers are continuing to look into the situation, but the department has no new information to share with the public. The school’s tech team is working with Google to discover more about the false emails, Cary said.
The student conducted a cyber attack similar to phishing, defined as “the fraudulent practice of sending emails purporting to be from reputable companies in order to induce individuals to reveal personal information, such as passwords and credit card numbers.”