High School Homecoming Queen Accused of Rigging Election Through Mother's Account

On the day she was crowned homecoming queen, Emily Grover wore a sparkly silver dress, but her achievement crashed down around her: Prosecutors accused her and her mother, an assistant principal in the same school district, of casting hundreds of illicit votes to rig the election. Grover was expelled from her high school, and her mother, Laura Carroll, was suspended from her job. Carroll and Grover are charged with offenses against computer users, criminal use of personally identifiable information, unlawful use of a two-way communications device, and conspiracy to commit those offenses. Grover's attorney, Randall Etheridge, said Grover has also pleaded not guilty.

Key Takeaways:

• Emily Grover, a high school student, and her mother, Laura Carroll, an assistant principal in the same school district, are accused of rigging the homecoming election by casting hundreds of illicit votes using Carroll's account.
• The investigation found that Carroll had accessed the records of 372 high school students in the past year, 339 of which were from Grover's school, and had looked at every one of the 39 false homecoming queen votes in the month before the election.
• Carroll had allegedly connected the exploitation of her account to her daughter's actions, stating that "it is because of my negligence that she saw anything in FOCUS that she was unauthorized to view."
• Grover has written to the Superintendent that she had been suspended for 10 days for unauthorized use of technology, using her mom's password and looking at information she shouldn't have seen.
• The case has been transferred to adult court, allowing a judge to choose whether to impose adult or juvenile sanctions if Grover is found guilty.

Statistics:

• 372 high school students' records that Carroll had accessed in the past year.
• 339 high school students' records accessed solely from Grover's school.
• 212 high school students' records accessed by Carroll in October alone.
• 39 false homecoming queen votes.
• 117 votes flagged as suspicious, including 122 voted from the same IP address linked to Carroll and Grover's home and 124 votes entered from Carroll's phone.
• 10 days suspension for unauthorized use of technology by Grover.

Sources:

• The Washington Post
• NorthEscambia.com