Homecoming Queen Hacker to be Tried as an Adult

A teenager from Florida who allegedly hacked into the accounts of Pensacola high school students to cast fraudulent homecoming court votes for herself is facing felony charges.

Tate High School homecoming queen Emily Rose Grover allegedly teamed up with her mother, 50-year-old Laura Rose Carroll, to cast nearly 250 fake votes. Carroll works as an assistant principal at Bellview Elementary School in Escambia County. 

Agents with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) arrested Pensacola residents Carroll and Grover on March 15, 2021. 

Each defendant was charged with one count each of offenses against users of computers, computer systems, computer networks, and electronic devices (a third-degree felony), unlawful use of a two-way communications device (a third-degree felony), criminal use of personally identifiable information (a third-degree felony), and conspiracy to commit these offenses (a first-degree misdemeanor).   

An investigation into the homecoming election was instigated in November 2020 when the Escambia County School District contacted local police to report unauthorized access into hundreds of student accounts.

The investigation found that Carroll and her daughter had accessed 246 student FOCUS accounts. The accounts are part of the FOCUS program, the school district’s student information system, to which Carroll had district-level access.

"In October 2020, hundreds of votes for Tate High School’s Homecoming Court voting were flagged as fraudulent, with 117 votes originating from the same IP address within a short period of time," said a FDLE spokesperson. 

"Agents uncovered evidence of unauthorized access to FOCUS linked to Carroll’s cell ..

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