A Brampton mother is in disbelief after her 17-year-old daughter was sent an email from the school with a link to pornography.
“My mind is absolutely blown that this could happen and, you know, I just pray that nobody else’s kids have seen this link,” said an exasperated Colleen Schulze.
The mother of five said her daughter had not yet registered for classes and did not have her timetable so they called the Peel Alternative School North on Thursday to ask for more information. Schulze said the school emailed them within 10 minutes with links to forms for the student to fill out.
“We didn’t look at them right away. Yesterday, my daughter opened them while I was out, and she called me in a panic saying that they had sent her porn,” said Schulze.
She drove home and had a look herself and promptly called the school.
The person who answered agreed it was pornography, Schulze said. She also called the Peel District School Board and left a message before posting a warning on social media telling other parents with children at the school not to open the link.
Schulze said the principal called her daughter Thursday night to apologize and told her police might be calling, but the principal, Schulze said, never asked if her mother was home nor reached out to her in a separate call.
On Friday morning, a letter was emailed home to parents saying the incident was being investigated by the board’s cybersecurity teams.
“It’s quite upsetting that even to now I haven’t received a phone call or an apology from the school itself,” Schulze said.
Peel District School Board spokesperson Ryan Reyes sent a statement to Global News on Friday afternoon which said that inappropriate content was inadvertently shared through an email link that was sent to students at Peel Alternative School North.
Peel Police media spokesperson Const. Akhil Mooken told Global News that the Peel District School Board IT department contacted them but there is no offence in sharing pornography.
“The school board is investigating to determine if they were hacked or if there was an error distributing a link,” said Mooken.
Police say they do not investigate cybersecurity breaches.
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