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Former Tate High Homecoming Queen Will Now Be Tried As Adult In Vote Scandal
May 2, 2021
A Tate High School homecoming queen accused in a vote scandal is now charged as an adult, and a misdemeanor charge against her and her mother has been upgraded to a felony.
Emily Rose Grover was 17-year old juvenile at the time of her arrest in April by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. She turned 18 just a few days later, and will now be tried as an adult.
Grover and her mother Laura Carroll, former assistant principal at Bellview Elementary School, were charged by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement with one count each of felony offenses against users of computers, computer systems, computer networks, and electronic devices; felony unlawful use of a two-way communications device, felony criminal use of personally identifiable information, and conspiracy to commit these offenses. The misdemeanor conspiracy charge against both has been upgraded by prosecutors to a felony count.
Carroll remains free on a $6,000 bond. Grover was booked into the Escambia County Jail last week and released on a $2,000 bond.
Grover was named Tate High School’s 2020 homecoming queen..
The investigation began in November 2020 when the Escambia County School District contacted FDLE to report unauthorized access into hundreds of student accounts. The investigation found that Carroll, an assistant principal at Bellview Elementary School, and Grover, a student at Tate High School, had accessed student FOCUS accounts. Carroll had district level access of the school board’s FOCUS program which is the school district’s student information system. FOCUS users are required to change their password every 45 days and Carroll’s annual training for the “Staff Responsible Use of Guidelines for Technology” was up to date.
In October 2020, hundreds of votes for Tate High School’s Homecoming Court voting were flagged as fraudulent, with 117 votes originating from the same IP address within a short period of time. Agents uncovered evidence of unauthorized access to FOCUS linked to Carroll’s cellphone as well as computers associated with their residence, with a total of 246 votes cast for the homecoming court. Multiple students reported that the Grover described using her mother’s FOCUS account to cast votes. The investigation also found that beginning August 2019, Carroll’s FOCUS account accessed 372 high school records and 339 of those were of Tate High School students.
Arrest affidavits obtained by NorthEscambia.com provide more details into the allegations.
When two FDLE special agents responded to Carroll and Grover’s residence in Cantonment to interview them, Carroll immediately stated that she would defer any questions to her attorney, FDLE said.
FDLE received nine statements from students and a teacher that all stated Grover spoke about accessing Carroll’s FOCUS account or they have seen her access it for almost four years.
“I have known that Emily Grover logs into her moms school account in order to access grades and test scores since freshman year when we became friends,” one student said in a statement to FDLE. “She has looked up [redacted] student ID before to [redacted]. She also knows that if she logs into her moms account at Tate it will ping that Laura Grover signed in at Tate High School. She looks up all of our group of friends grades and makes comments about how she can find out our test scores all of the time.”
“When Emily Grover was a sophomore [redacted] class, I recall times that she logged onto her moms focus account and openly shared information, grades, schedules, etc. with others. She did not seem like logging in was a big deal and was very comfortable with doing so,” another statement written by a witness said.
According to FDLE, the Escambia County School District FOCUS program contains grades, medical history, test scores, attendance, disciplinary actions, personnel information, emergency contacts, schedules, exceptional student education (ESE) information, student picture and student identification number. Teachers and staff members are able to view student profiles or more depending on access level.
The school district uses an application called Election Runner to perform activities such as homecoming court voting. FDLE was notified that Election Runner contacted the school district regarding over 100 flagged votes and an ethics complaint involving the Tate High School homecoming voting.
Carroll contested Grover’s expulsion from Tate High School that stemmed from the incident. An administrative hearing was held, and Grover’s expulsion was upheld.
Pictured above and below: Laura Rose Carroll, Bellview Elementary Facebook and Escambia County Jail; Emily Rose Grover, Tate High School’s 2020 homecoming queen, NorthEscambia.com photos.
Comments
40 Responses to “Former Tate High Homecoming Queen Will Now Be Tried As Adult In Vote Scandal”
Busted. From the Queen of the Prom, to the Queen of Cell Block H. And deservedly so…and Mama can run Cell Block K. Good riddance to the self entitled pair !!
You have it all wrong when you say “she’s pretty white girl and nothing will happen.” Personally, I don’t think the daughter should be in the kind of trouble that will jeopardize her future. Teenagers make very dumb decisions and it’s in their nature to building their “status.” The mom was supposed to be the smart one and it should all be on her. However, we now live in a country that enjoys taking a white person and making them the scapegoat without looking at the facts. Therefore, given the daughter is a “pretty white girl” the public will make sure she gets the Max sentencing possible. No teenager in this situation should have legal trouble. It’s silly.
The loss of job and expellsion is more than enough being that prom queen is usually given to the least who deserve it all graduates should be prom queen. Please don’t make a mountain out of a molehill. Personally I don’t believe school is doing any of our youn people any good. Sorry she felt so strong about winning something so trivial.
She was pretty enough to win without cheating.
Don’t do the crime if you can’t do the time.
Looks like someone is going to be crowned Queen of Cell Block D.
You should also be asking about the integrity of the system escambia county operates. Nobody can deny that something nefarious took place on behalf of the mother and daughter, however you should also ask how it was not systematically prevented by the software and why is the county not doing its due diligence in securing students data. I recommend common sense data walls which would have kept the administrator of a elementary school from viewing records of students at a high school, there is not many official cases that can be made for someone having district wide access like this. Next they need to setup the appropriate audit logging, such as sending a daily log of student records accessed to a privacy team which would then come around and validate reasons for accessing student data. I don’t want to assume the mother was freely giving her daughter the password, but more than likely was writing it down in the same place and the daughter knew where to find it. The fix for this is tying everything to 2fa, using device trust and killing sessions every 8 hours. This would have limited the student data from only being viewable from the official school computer. The final improvement they really should implement is behavioral analytics, which I guess would have caught this bad behavior with in the first week of abuse.
FWIW, I know these things work because I use them in my day job (information security).
Years of unauthorized system access and hundreds of alleged Privacy Act violations are “real crimes”. Serious crimes. Multiple felonies with potential life-long consequences. There may also be undiscovered acts of identity theft by one or both charged individuals. The cost of auditing the system and criminal investigation was substantial.
The intangible costs of violating trust (including by an assistant principal!) and denying other students meaningful experiences is also real.
Someone mentioned the godly fabric of society. How does your God view stealing, lying, envy and the false god of a homecoming crown?
Well, then who REALLY won? Cant they determine who the real winner is and give her the recognition that was taken from her by these two greedy fools?
How insecure can you get? . How much attention do you need?. Good grief, some people. Just don’t understand why they can be so stupid. idiots, ignorant. that they wont be caught. Like wonder what else they have have fixed, changed, and cheated others out of , took there moment of glory, WAY to ruin an entire school year of memories.. So much going to school. or reunions now, or even havin friends, WHO can trust them. How low can people go to just get noticed, attention, be some thing. They made there bed, they made the choice, NOW SUFFER.
They were abusing a system that contains Personal health and other info that could be used against a student. I wonder if anyone was bullied or embarrassed by any info that was divulged. I am a firm believer in making an example out of someone, especially due to the ongoing cavalier way they abused the school computer system.
REGARDING:
“I dont understand why anyone on here is saying anything…we have a court system!!!!”
Consider why you said something and you will be half way there.
David for introspection
This isn’t just about voting fraud and homecoming queen elections. This is about a mother who gave her daughter access to thousands of student’s information by allowing her to login using her credentials. She’s been doing for years which means every time mom changed her employee password, she gave it to her daughter. When doing so, I’m sure she told her not tell anyone.
As a mother of a Tate graduate, one that is an upcoming senior and another an incoming freshman, I’m livid that she gave her snot nosed brat of a daughter access to MY child’s records! I feel as violated as I would if she worked in the medial field and violated HIPAA!
Every single student in public school in Escambia County has records housed in the Focus portal. The idea that this girl gained access is appalling.
It has been a few years since I graduated high school. I don’t remember who the home coming queen was. I cannot speak for most people, but if I was going to go through all the trouble and risk, I would have made it for something a bit more meaningful.
I dont understand why anyone on here is saying anything…we have a court system!!!!
I hear all this, but if this had been a law enforcement officer abusing their community trust to do such a thing most hear would be singing off with both of their heads. She had a certain position which allowed her to access and alter records and she and her daughter abused the trust of school officials and classmates. Who knows what all they have done during this breach, the mother should be billed for every minute for this investigation and fined on top, don’t know why they are now charging her as an adult seeing how she was a minor at the time and she probably doesn’t have a criminal history.
Y’all really act like she’s gonna do her whole sentence, which she deserves, she KNEW exactly what she was doing, look at that smile in the mugshot! . She’s a young white female, she’s not doing her max, chill out.
Mother could have handled the complete problem by upholding her responsibilities with the school board and not giving her password to her daughter.
Do not worry all of you this will be pleaded down to a misdemeanour and they will get a fine and community service, which is deserving.
No matter whos lead she was following, she was old enough to know better.
Mother could have handled the complete problem by upholding her responsibilities with the school board and not giving her password to her daughter
Darn this was a pretty nice looking Tate Homecoming Queen….but once you see how she got the crown makes her look sorta sketchy….It takes more than looks to win this kind of title and she really didn’t have the other part it’s called being a good and honest person so sorry young lady the court will decide how to deal with you situation!
I go along with Rasheed as well. As bad as this was charging the girl as an adult when she wasn’t so you can stack felony charges on her and ruin her whole life seems extreme. No one will remember this in 5 years. It’s not like she killed someone. She did wrong but she was following her mother’s lead, who as a school official certainly abused her position. She should pay for this, but the girl should not be judged as harshly, in my opinion. Community service picking up trash and working at the animal shelter seems more fitting. Maybe probation as an added incentive to not mess up. Living with the shame of it all lasts a long time as well. She should get a second chance. You can bet if one of the prosecutor’s kids did this at 17 and someone tried to charge them as an adult they’d be screaming from the mountain top how they were 17 and it isn’t right to do this because at the time they were a minor.. Bank on that.
Neither one of them have or will spend 1 second in a jail cell esp the daughter. They didn’t even get put in a holding cell and were bailed before those mugs were taken. At most, they will get probation and community service via a plea deal BUT I would take this to trial bc even if they lose all they will get is probation and community service with an extra fine added for court costs and their “trial tax.” I know which lawyer to call but you’ll need to figure that out for yourselves and he’s not one of those good ole boys but he would most likely get this dismissed or win in court. FIGHT IT! Let the cops and courts deal with all the thugs victimizing people in Escambia.
I do not agree with the daughter being charged as an adult. Yes, what she did was wrong. We can all agree on that. However, her future should not be ruined over a mistake she made for homecoming Queen. Her mother gave her access. I’m sure as a freshman she assumed there was nothing wrong with having access. We have drug dealers, trafficking, rapist among many other felons walking the streets who we should be more focused on. Give her community service, have her make a public apology. There are many things she can do other than serving time or carrying a felony charge at 18.
Dishonesty is not a trait a homecoming queen should aspire to, and the mother should never be in a position of public trust ever again – like the man said you can’t fix stupidity, but you can give it a court date.
The MOTHER should be charged to the max on ALL CHARGES ! Yes , the daughter does as well to learn a lesson here , but her mother is to blame for allowing her access to FOCUS ! What a horrible parent. She should be ashamed of herself. I’m sure she’s not. People like her just apparently don’t care about anything but themselves!
NO…
We got 18-19 and 20 year olds out there shooting and causing all kinds of hate and they get tried as children and get nothing but slap on wrist,
If I was on the jury they will never get a guilty verdict. Even if she was guilty of the crime. The justice system is out for blood as they trying to make a example.
WELL DO THAT WITH THE DRUG DEALING, MURDERING, monsters out there.
This is of almost no crime at all. She should have the title stripped and made to pay for publishing the correct winners name and having her name struck from the record. BUT CRIMINAL
There must be punishment for the crime but with this world as screwed up as it is, it isn’t worth the amount of time, energy and money that could be spent better prosecuting crimes that are more harmful to the godly fabric this country was founded on.
The daughter was old enough to know better, but was pulled into this situation for winning that special moment .. a Crown .. then ruins her life.. not too special after all. It most likely felt like a fun thing to do per the daughter. Not realizing the ways a person can get caught cheating the system. If that wasn’t enough, the daughter proceeds further to access records of friends and whoever at Tate High for the purpose of looking at their grades, test scores and personal data. This is where you draw the line and the daughter got busted too.
I believe the mother played a major role with cheating to get the votes, but the daughter decided she could continue on with her adventures by accessing students’ records. A stupid act and a juvenile telling friends about it for 4 years. Not just a few months, but 4 years. WOOWEE! Eat up with dishonesty.
Personal cell phones, computers at Bellview Elementary and Tate High along with personal home computers were used to access the records according to the FDLE.
Big Brother is always watching!
I don’t understand why some of are making excuses for this young lady, we all learn right from wrong way before high school. She knew exactly what she was doing, she just didn’t think she was going to get caught!!! Parents allowing or encouraging this type of behavior is part of the problem today as well as those whom would excuse or make excuses for this behavior!!!
What Rasheed said makes sense.
I hope the school board has learned from this. They need check to others who have access to our children’s records an see who else is abusing the system.
Sorry I just can’t agree with charging the daughter as an adult. She would not have been able to access the records had her mother not given her access to her passwords. Yes she did wrong but in her mind she was justified because her mother gave her access. Could she have changed votes without her mother’s help? NO! Was she under the legal control of her mother? Yes! Was her mother aware of what she was doing? Yes and because of this I personally feel she should be tried as a minor. The felony charges should fall squarely on the mother. The mother deserves whatever punishment is allowed for these charges.
Each state’s laws vary concerning parental criminal liability issues involving certain unlawful computer and internet activities committed by a minor, such as hacking into data bases without permission. In this case she didn’t hack into the system but was given access by her mother.
Maybe the mother should be charged with contributing to the delinquency of a minor.
Don’t worry..I am sure your cell mates will vote you their Queen…dumb.dumb .Dumb..
It looks like they are going to be made an example of. Girls had better start doing push ups.
Is that her mugshot next to her mom’s? If so, she’s pretty smug and deserves some judicial spanking.
This is appalling! I’m appalled!
My thoughts are that the embarrassment and ridicule these two have experienced because of this whole episode is punishment enough. With all the tons of real crimes against citizens, why tie up our judicial system with this. Also, would incarcerating them benefit the tax payers of this county? I do not know either of them, but enough is enough.
Well well well…sad right here. We’ve all made the jokes about this but it’s very sad. Was this a “mutual” crime committed or was it a momma pushing her own failures at that age through her daughter? The mother should have been a better parent than trying to be her “friend” we all, at that age, are products of our raising. Just the flagrant openness displayed by the daughter throughout her High School years of logging on the FOCUS account was just one way she showed no care…she was just raised that way to be arrogant and entitled. A lesson needs to be taught and learned from this case and I hope the punishment is enough to stop anyone else from doing such as this.I’ve heard many different stories about this but the most I’ve heard was the girl would have won regardless. Now, both of their lives have been ruined over something that wouldn’t even matter in 20 years…lives ruined for a $10 Plastic Crown…. hope it was worth it and you now will face the repercussions of your stupidity…SMH