Lindsay
There are only four years in a person’s life where homecoming actually matters. Four years. That is a fraction of our lived experiences. One presidential term. An insignificant amount of time compared to everything that has happened on this planet from its inception onward.
Except for Bellview Elementary School Assistant Principal Laura Rose Carroll — who seems to have been indoctrinated by school spirit for too long and thinks homecoming IS life.
Carroll recently took her school-spirit obsession straight to homecoming court, where she and her daughter collaborated to rig the outcome.
Yes, this 50-year-old woman taught her minor daughter not only how to commit fraud, but that you can get what you want by cheating. (Sounds like both may have been inspired by a certain former White House resident.)
Being a school administrator, Carroll had access to sensitive information, including the data system used to cast homecoming votes for October 2020 court.
She went in and added extra votes for her daughter, who ended up winning as a result of the fraud.
The two were caught and now both mother and daughter have been arrested, with Carrol being suspended from her position and her daughter being expelled from school.
Whoops, didn’t think that one through!
According to Florida Department of Law Enforcement’s findings, 117 votes were flagged as fraudulent. FDLE also reported that multiple students said the daughter told them about using her mother’s account. (Whoops again!)
“I recall times that [the teen] logged onto her mom’s FOCUS account and openly shared information, grades, schedules, etc., with others,” The Washington Post reports. “She did not seem like logging in was a big deal and was very comfortable with doing so.”
FDLE also discovered the unauthorized access went as far back as 2019, giving the daughter direct access to 372 high school records.
Jihra Smith, the rightful homecoming queen, still got to enjoy the experience and said how much it meant to her that she got to walk down the field with her uncle — even if another student was recognized as the winner.
“For me, it was a big moment because I got to walk down with my uncle, and that just made me feel happy and proud of myself that it was my last year at Tate,” Smith said. “It was just something I can remember and look back at. I actually cried when I was out there because it was just so sentimental to me.”
Never change, Florida.
