It took three days but after issuing a non-statement Tuesday, April 29, concerning an investigation into students having “violated the district’s acceptable use policy regarding the use of district computers and other resources,” Fort Bend ISD issued a second statement on Friday saying that the investigation was into student hacking and some grade changes made at Hightower High School.

The Friday statement from the district said, “After questioning approximately 30 students at Hightower High School this week, the district discovered that grade changes were made that impacted approximately 60 students. It is important to know that we have audited all student grades and the district is confident that all grades are accurate.

“This investigation is ongoing and the district is continuing to work with law enforcement. At the conclusion of the investigation, appropriate disciplinary and/or legal action will be taken with any students involved. No further comment will be made at this time,” wrote Mary Ann Simpson, chief communications officer for the district.

By Wednesday, the parents of some Hightower students who were questioned Tuesday by investigators were as hacked (off) as the district’s computers had been. The parents, who requested anonymity because they fear their children might pay, are not angry at the district for investigating the serious incident but are angry about the way it was done.

One mother said on Tuesday her daughter was taken out of a TAKS test “by a man she’d never met before and had no idea who he was. He introduced himself as somebody from the school district and began asking her questions. ‘Did you change your grade, did you ask somebody or pay somebody to change your grade? Do you know somebody who changed a grade?’”

The angry mother said her daughter asked the man if she could call her mother and he said no, that he would call her mother later. “The interview went on about an hour, the mother said, and when it was over the interrogator told the student she “could not talk to anybody about this otherwise he will press maximum charges against her. She’s scared and crying and is all upset.

“She went back to class crying and all her friends were asking ‘what’s wrong?’ and she couldn’t tell anybody. The man took her cell phone away so she couldn’t call me. She waited until she got home and told me, so I called the school right away,” the mother said. The principal’s secretary answered and said there was no one there for the parent to talk to but the mother said, “You find somebody because I need to talk to somebody immediately.”

The mom said she kept her cell phone in her pocket all Tuesday evening waiting for the call that never came, so on Wednesday morning she and her husband were at Hightower High School at 7 a.m. to meet with the principal who wouldn’t. After waiting for an hour and a half, the mother said an assistant principal agreed to talk to her and her husband and two other parents.

The girl’s mother said while the parents talked “he took some notes and said, ‘I can’t do anything about it now. I can’t help you.’ He told us to go to the administration and make a complaint.”

On Friday, May 2, her husband sent an e-mail to Superintendent Tim Jenney and Mike McKie, assistant superintendent of high schools, saying the same thing. In his letter he said, “Don’t we are parents have the right to be there for such an interrogation of our children? Does the school have the right to take and keep these students’ cell phones and all the private information on these devices?

“I for one am very upset with the way this investigation was handled and how we were treated after the fact. I would like to know why this was done during TAKS and why the parents of these students were not notified when this happened.” He also said he’s upset about the district keeping his daughter’s cell phone because she works after school and not having a phone to call in case of an emergency compromises her safety.

“I believe my daughter is owed an apology by the school’s administration. This experience has been very upsetting to her and, I believe, completely uncalled for,” the father wrote.

The mother of a sophomore boy who was also questioned on Tuesday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. in the school’s assistant principal’s office is equally angry. The mother said her son was accused of paying somebody to change his grades and when he denied doing it, she said the assistant principal “began yelling” at her son and “told him to ‘take his BS and throw it out the window.’”

The mother also said her son was not allowed to eat lunch, was escorted to and from the restroom, denied a call to his parents and also had his call phone and iPod taken and kept. “When he got home and we found this out, we e-mailed the principal, superintendent and assistant principal and demanded to see them at 7 a.m. Wednesday.”

The parents said they all gave their names and phone numbers to the assistant principal and called again Friday morning but “nobody has called us back,” the mother of the boy said. “We made our son write down everything that happened Tuesday and the assistant principal has a copy of what my son wrote and I have the original,” she said.