Class president at Cooper City High charged with changing grades of 19 students
Thursday December 14 2006 @ 8:50 am by Vermont Woodchuck
Where do we meet to protest this youngster’s unjust arrest? Start making the placards and wear your solidarity ribbons.
Cooper City High School’s senior class president was arrested Tuesday and charged in a grade-tampering scandal that has rocked the campus.
Ryan C. Shrouder, 18, of Cooper City, was taken to jail from school and charged with two counts of computer crime with intent to defraud, a second-degree felony, according to a Broward Sheriff’s Office report. He was released from jail on bail, has been suspended from school and will be recommended for expulsion, said Joe Melita, head of the Broward County School District’s investigative unit.
Shrouder serves as the alternate student advisor to the Broward School Board. He often sits in on board meetings and was issued a school district laptop computer. Sheriff’s Office investigators say Shrouder took advantage of that access and used an employee password to access the district’s network and change the grades of 19 students. It’s unclear whether authorities think he changed his own grades.
Shrouder was considered the main suspect, but other students could be punished for being involved, Melita said.
Shrouder’s attorney said his client will plead not guilty and that he is being unfairly singled out: “To charge a kid with a computer crime is absurd,” said Fort Lauderdale attorney Fred Haddad. “There’s plenty of ways to handle this besides charging a felony.”
Shrouder had been elected leader of his sophomore, junior and senior classes at Cooper City High and recently was voted “most likely to be president” of the United States.
Obviously, he is a victim. Therefore, this raises so many questions.
Since he is being unfairly singled out, who should be singled out: the computer maker, the school board, or perhaps the non-judgmental value educational system?
The Sheriff’s office for investigating this “prank?”
Were the grades changed Citizenship and Ethics scores?
When he runs for federal office, which party should he choose for affiliation?
One has to love a liberal outcome based education; it produces such guilt-free individuals.
I guess it all depends on what the meaning of Is is.