A 16-year-old Lehigh Acres youth was arrested Monday after officials say he hacked into the school district’s computer system and sent a threatening message to more than 1,800 parents and students.
Pedro Diaz, 16, of 817 Casper Yost St., was charged with two counts of an offense against intellectual property/modify without authority computer support document, each a third degree felony, and three counts of an offense against computer users/computer crime/interrupt or impair a governmental operation or public communication, each a second degree felony in connection with the incident.
The Lee County Sheriff’s Office first received a call about a threatening phone message at 5:37 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 18. The caller was the first of several identical complaints received that evening. Each of the audio messages said “It is a good day to die; but the day is not yet over.” The end of the message directed the recipient to contact East Lee County High School if they had any questions.
A detective assigned to the Youth Services Section of the Lee County Sheriff’s Office was immediately assigned to continue the investigation. Lee County School District administrators were contacted and it was discovered their “ParentLink” server had been compromised. The same phone message was sent to more than 1,800 parents and students of the high school before it was successfully interrupted by School District technical support.
As the investigation continued, a suspect was identified and a search warrant obtained. Detectives executed the search warrant at 817 Casper Yost Street East on Monday and questioned Diaz. The youth was subsequently charged with two counts of an offense against intellectual property/modify without authority computer support document, each a third degree felony, and three counts of an offense against computer users/computer crime/interrupt or impair a governmental operation or public communication, each a second degree felony in connection with the incident.
The investigation reveals Diaz successfully obtained user names and passwords of administrators, teachers and students while attending school, officials said. From his home, he was able to access the Pinacle server of the school district. This allowed him to breach the “ParentLink” server and begin sending the messages. He attempted to stop the messages about halfway through, but was unsuccessful, according to the Lee County Sheriff’s Office.
Diaz also changed some of his grades and those of some other students, officials said adding he also modified the “ParentLink” accounts of three school administrators.
He was taken to the Juvenile Assessment Center for processing.

Source: Lee County Sheriff’s Office