Broken Arrow Schools Testing Issue Resolved After Hackers Strike

Students in Broken Arrow resumed state testing this week after we learned hackers tried to take down the school's computer network.

Administrators at Broken Arrow Schools say students would sit down to start taking the test, and then suddenly, everything stopped working.

Tina Blackmon's daughter goes to Broken Arrow High School. She says she was relieved to hear her daughter already finished her state test before the district started experiencing network issues.

"I did feel bad for the ones that had not done their testing yet,” Blackmon said.

School administrators say the whole thing started about two weeks ago when day after day, the school network would crash while students were taking their tests.

"We brought in the FBI Cyber Crimes Unit because it was very complex and we discovered that it was a denial of service attack and that it appeared to originate overseas,” BAPS Communications Director Shelli Holland-Handy said.

Some rumors speculated that students were behind the attack.

“She did say that she had thought, that she had heard that students had done it,” Blackmon said.

But administrators tell News On 6 they don't believe that's the case. As for parents like Tina, she says she was never too concerned.

“I felt like really whatever it was they'd get it resolved and make it right anyway,” she said.

The issue is now fixed and students have resumed testing.

And while the setback was frustrating, the school says all students will wrap up their state tests Friday as originally planned.