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Top Student Charged With Fixing Grades For Cash
alphadogg writes "A Nevada student who gave the opening address at his high school graduation last year has been charged with breaking into his school district's computer system and bumping up his classmates' grades for a fee. Police say Tyler Coyner, 19, was the ringleader in a group of 13 students who have been charged with conspiracy, theft and computer intrusion in connection with the case. Last year, Coyner somehow obtained a password to the Pahrump Valley High School's grade system and, over the course of two semesters, offered to change grades in return for cash payments, police say."
You mean he forgot that his institution probably had a weighted grading scheme where honors and other high-level classes were scaled to a 5.0 GPA whereas regular classes were scaled to a 4.0 GPA? No, he seems to have had that pretty well down.
was the password on a piece of paper in the office and he just know where it was stored it?
"password", mmm, no. "123456" Oh, hey -- we're in!
Caveat Utilitor
doing it for free is not the same as doing it for cash.
If you do it for free maybe you get a F or get kicked out but for cash may mean doing some time.
We need to come down hard on miscreants like this. Sure, right now he's stealing passwords from the school office and changing grades, but soon that won't be enough for him, and before long he'll be wardialing military contractors with his IMSAI 8080 and acoustocoupler modem.
> "password", mmm, no. "123456"
Remind me to change the combination on my luggage.
-- IANAL, this isn't legal advice, and definitely isn't legal advice for you. Also, Squee!
I guess we'll know when defcon changes to something other then the current 5
New things are always on the horizon
Was he really the top student, or did he fix his own grades too?
MABASPLOOM!
In the Pahrump Valley Times profile, Coyner says he dreamed of attending an Ivy league school like Harvard and that he wanted to become a hedge fund trader.
Wow. A lying, cheating, bastard dreams of being a hedge fund trader. I'm sure that the guild of hedge fund traders will bar him preemptively from joining them, thereby preventing everyone's pristine reputation as ethical and trustworthy human beings from being sullied by association.
Those who can, do. Those who can't, sue.
After college, he will probably get tapped by a rating agency right away. Standards & Poors, Fitch, whatever.
lucky brat. then he will be able to fix grades all he wants, and will be paid for and applauded for it.
Read radical news here
Morgan Stanley, JP Morgan Chase, McKenzy etc are all at awe by the precocious ability shown by this young man. Mr Werobam Erica, spokesman for the Cleptolegit Institute, a think tank where finance managers of the top companies exchange ideas about how to rake in millions of dollars and amending the laws post-facto to make it legal, said that this man is CEO material and predicted great things in store for him.
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
Even basic things, like fairly well established 'net conventions have not penetrated very far. For example, many local Gov. officials send all caps emails (but then so does a fairly large % of the local populace).
Nevada in general, and Pahrump in particular, are among the nations lowest ranked in education. The Nevada educational systems are in desperate need of overhaul.
It is also worth noting that when arrested in his University of Nevada, Reno dorm, he had a stolen TV and equipment for making counterfeit drivers' licenses.
Here's a link to the local paper, with pictures and local comments; http://pvtimes.com/news/grade-change-scandal-rocks-pvhs/
A quote from the comments by "3rd year Engineering Student":
I think "3rd year Engineering Student" may need to check some definitions himself... but the pathetic part is that no one questions his expertise, or the definitions he offers.
Pahrump is a nice place in many ways, but it's also a lot like stepping back in time in many ways. The population is about 35,000, and it's about 50 miles from Las Vegas.