The hack started small, in 7th grade, when they bypassed their middle school’s internet filters to watch YouTube during lunch.

But by the time Jeremy Currier and Seth Stephens were caught, more than two years later, their exploits had given them extraordinary reign over the computer network of the Rochester Community Schools, a well-to-do suburban district about 45 minutes outside Detroit.

The teens had access to the logins, passwords, phone numbers, locker combinations, lunch balances, and grades of all 15,000 of their classmates.