PENSACOLA, Fla. (AP) — An assistant principal is accused of accessing the school district’s internal system to cast fraudulent votes for her daughter, who was elected homecoming queen.
The Florida Department of Law Enforcement says 50-year-old Laura Rose Carroll and her 17-year-old daughter were arrested Monday. Both are facing multiple felony charges, as well as a misdemeanor.
The allegations stem from the homecoming court vote at Pensacola's Tate High School in October.
In November, the school district reported unauthorized access into hundreds of student accounts.
Investigators found hundreds of votes were flagged as fraudulent. There were 117 votes from the same IP address connected to Carroll's home within a short period of time.
Officials say agents uncovered evidence of unauthorized access to the school district’s student information system linked to Carroll’s phone as well as computers associated with their home, with a total of 246 votes cast for the homecoming court.
Additionally, multiple students reported that the daughter described using her mother’s account to cast votes.
Carroll was booked into the Escambia County Jail, with a bond set at $8,500. Her daughter was taken into custody and transferred to the Escambia Regional Juvenile Detention Center.
