so, about a week ago there was a bomb threat at our school. It was sent in VIA email.
Now, i've made a bit of a name for myself at school. They gave me four course credits for designing their network, and I set up all of the routers and switches as well as ordering/building/installing their server and the database software that keeps track of users.
so a few days after the bomb threat the principle calls me to the office. I find out that they couldn't trace the email and they're running out of ways to figure out who sent in the threat. Now they decide that since it's untraceable, that i'm a big suspect because of my ability with computers. They ask me if they can search my home computers, and they tell me that it will clear my name. So I do, and they go in and search through all my files. They tell me that they couldn't find anything, and that i'm free to take my computers back.
once I get home I find out that they deleted all of my music. I brought it up and they said that they could have sued me for piracy, wich I think is bullsh!t because i'm trying to be the good guy here.
but the story doesn't end here. I find out at school on friday that they've cut off my computer access at school AND they took my dads computer to search it. This is completely ridiculous. I told them they could search MY computers, not my parents. My dad needs this computer for work, wich he didn't get to do all weekend because the police had it. He's getting it back today
The final part of this story is that on sunday the school board wants me to come in and have ANOTHER interview with the school board saying that I didn't send the bomb threat. I basically told them that unless they have a solid reason to believe that I would do it then they can leave me alone.
so basically, i'm at a total loss as to what to do. I've done everything I can to show them that i'm not the guy their looking for, and they just keep dragging me back and asking the same damned questions. what should I do?
UPDATE:
so heres whats been going on today. I went down at lunch to the government building and asked to speak to a lawyer. I now have somebody who is going to give me advice for free for as long as this thing goes on. For now i'm not supposed to say anything to the principle or the police about this until I speak with him first. I'm meeting with him tomorrow to go over the entire situation. He did say that at this point it is probably not a good idea to sue right now because most of this could have been prevented if I had handled things differently, but he said that if things continued to go the way they were I should definately take some legal action and that they would probably be included in my case.
also, I do know I screwed up. I know I shouldn't have let them search my computers. I think that they used me, though, because when I first went in there the basic idea they gave me was that I was a suspect in the bomb threat, and if I volunteered my computers they could clear my name. I figured they'd have the cops search through my files and when they didn't find anything I would be scott free.
I also checked my computer for any keyloggers, and nothing was found. I did a search on all files modified after the day I gave over my computers and nothing of interest was found. One thing I thought was a little interesting was that they copied a document I did for english class earlier this year about my dislike for the way the schooling system is run.
I also want to mention that I use cipher on my drives regularly to overwrite the empty space with garbage that makes data unrecoverable for the most part, but that is about it for security on my end aside from passwords.
**UPDATE 2**
okay, as per adcive of forums members I'm going to stop posting in this topic. However, I AM going to clear a few things up first:
1) I can't ****** afford a lawer.
2) I DID get my music back, I had a backup
3) NoShangriLa: you are awesome for posting that link.
if you really want to ask me something you can msg me and i'll reply at my discrtion. I will still read this topic if it stays around.
oh, and I dont' use cypher to hide anything. Just habit I guess.
Now, i've made a bit of a name for myself at school. They gave me four course credits for designing their network, and I set up all of the routers and switches as well as ordering/building/installing their server and the database software that keeps track of users.
so a few days after the bomb threat the principle calls me to the office. I find out that they couldn't trace the email and they're running out of ways to figure out who sent in the threat. Now they decide that since it's untraceable, that i'm a big suspect because of my ability with computers. They ask me if they can search my home computers, and they tell me that it will clear my name. So I do, and they go in and search through all my files. They tell me that they couldn't find anything, and that i'm free to take my computers back.
once I get home I find out that they deleted all of my music. I brought it up and they said that they could have sued me for piracy, wich I think is bullsh!t because i'm trying to be the good guy here.
but the story doesn't end here. I find out at school on friday that they've cut off my computer access at school AND they took my dads computer to search it. This is completely ridiculous. I told them they could search MY computers, not my parents. My dad needs this computer for work, wich he didn't get to do all weekend because the police had it. He's getting it back today
The final part of this story is that on sunday the school board wants me to come in and have ANOTHER interview with the school board saying that I didn't send the bomb threat. I basically told them that unless they have a solid reason to believe that I would do it then they can leave me alone.
so basically, i'm at a total loss as to what to do. I've done everything I can to show them that i'm not the guy their looking for, and they just keep dragging me back and asking the same damned questions. what should I do?
UPDATE:
so heres whats been going on today. I went down at lunch to the government building and asked to speak to a lawyer. I now have somebody who is going to give me advice for free for as long as this thing goes on. For now i'm not supposed to say anything to the principle or the police about this until I speak with him first. I'm meeting with him tomorrow to go over the entire situation. He did say that at this point it is probably not a good idea to sue right now because most of this could have been prevented if I had handled things differently, but he said that if things continued to go the way they were I should definately take some legal action and that they would probably be included in my case.
also, I do know I screwed up. I know I shouldn't have let them search my computers. I think that they used me, though, because when I first went in there the basic idea they gave me was that I was a suspect in the bomb threat, and if I volunteered my computers they could clear my name. I figured they'd have the cops search through my files and when they didn't find anything I would be scott free.
I also checked my computer for any keyloggers, and nothing was found. I did a search on all files modified after the day I gave over my computers and nothing of interest was found. One thing I thought was a little interesting was that they copied a document I did for english class earlier this year about my dislike for the way the schooling system is run.
I also want to mention that I use cipher on my drives regularly to overwrite the empty space with garbage that makes data unrecoverable for the most part, but that is about it for security on my end aside from passwords.
**UPDATE 2**
okay, as per adcive of forums members I'm going to stop posting in this topic. However, I AM going to clear a few things up first:
1) I can't ****** afford a lawer.
2) I DID get my music back, I had a backup
3) NoShangriLa: you are awesome for posting that link.
if you really want to ask me something you can msg me and i'll reply at my discrtion. I will still read this topic if it stays around.
oh, and I dont' use cypher to hide anything. Just habit I guess.
Facebook
Twitter