Most parents only want what’s best for their kids, and will do just about anything, within reason hopefully, to help them succeed. But this mother from Pennsylvania went above and beyond what’s reasonable in order to help her kids educational standing, and she now faces six felony counts because of it.
Catherine Venusto of New Tripoli was charged with three counts of unlawful use of a computer and three counts of computer trespassing and altering data after she was found to have hacked into her kids school’s computer and manually changed their grades. Venusto, who used to work for the Northwestern Lehigh School District, was accused of changing her daughter’s F to an M, which stands for medical exception, which is deceptive but somewhat understandable, as a failing grade may come back to haunt her daughter in her academic future. But she also allegedly hacked into the school’s computer system to change her son’s mark…from a 98 to a 99.
Now that just seems a tad excessive, doesn’t it?
From ABC News…
Catherine Venusto, 45, of New Tripoli, worked for the Northwestern Lehigh School District from 2008 through April 2011 and has at least two children in the district, according to the District Attorney’s office.
She has been accused of changing her daughter’s failing grade from an F to an M for “medical” in June 2010, and then changing her son’s 98 to a 99 in February 2012, nearly a year after she quit her job as an administrative office secretary to work at another school district.
Venusto is facing a sentence of maximum 42 years in prison, or a $90,000 fine. I’m sure she’s hoping for the latter, but if she does end up in prison, I’m sure she’ll be able to access the court computer system and lower her prison sentence to a more manageable length.
