ST. CHARLES COUNTY, Mo. — Late Wednesday afternoon, the Francis Howell School District confirmed that it's the latest victim of a cyber attack when malware was used to get information on computer systems. This comes after the district said it observed "unexpected activity" within its network on Monday.
Students will return to school tomorrow after having two days of remote learning. One parent said she received an email that her student's information may be compromised. When asked how many parents received that notice or how long the investigation would take, the district said it didn't have any new information at this time.
The district said it completed several safety checks on various systems. It also said schools will not have internet access for instructional purposes for at least the rest of the week.
"Over the last 48 hours, we have been working to check and confirm safety systems such as key fobs, building intercoms, exterior door intercoms, fire alarms, HVAC systems. (This ensures) all schools have access to emergency contact information, bus routes, IEP and 504 plans, student medical plans and other information necessary to safely hold in-person learning," district superintendent Dr. Kenneth Roumpos said.
Through the outage, it prompted one church to help their community.
United Methodist Church of the Shepard said roughly 40 district families came to their church Wednesday for free lunch.
"Why not offer and open up our church to for lunch?" lead pastor Michael Wondel said.
Wondel said church and community members made it all possible.
The free lunch initiative came after the district announced a network outage, moving nearly 17,000 students to remote learning on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Pamela Adkins-Zaske, co-director of missions for the church, helped out during the initiative.
"It's got to be tough when you're expecting to get in the car and go to work, have your kids go to school and you've got to stay home or make some arrangements to take care of them or feed them. We're excited to help them out in any way we can," Adkins-Zaske said.
Two single mothers who came to get free lunch said they had to miss work to be home with their children because of remote learning.
The strain affected students too. Rylee Riggs attends Francis Howell North High School and said remote learning causes her to have more homework.
It's an excessive amount of homework," Riggs said.
Riggs says she has missed socializing with friends during the last two days of remote learning.
"Not seeing my friends at school and everything," Riggs said.
Other students including Maahin Fatima, who also attends Francis Howell North High School, said the remote learning allowed her to work ahead.
"Our school was so good with sending out a whole Google document with every teachers name corresponding with online and print options," Fatima said.
St. Charles City-County Library waived printing fees for district families for the entire week. Computers and take-home laptops were available for students.
The district will return to in-person learning for the rest of the week, but Wondel said his church is always willing to help the community.
"Any time our leadership and schools need us we're happy to help," Wondel said.
Police are conducting an ongoing investigation into the source of the attack.