BOCA RATON , FL ( BocaNewsNow.com ) — The Palm Beach County School District is in the midst of a massive computer security crisis that draws into question the authenticity of every assignment completed by every student since “ distance learning ” began , after BocaNewsNow.com learned that an elementary school student hacked the school district ’s password system . Exclusive We are not revealing the password convention that is used in the school district , but the second grader ’s — you are reading that correctly , the second grader ’s — hacking resulted in an emergency login change for “ live ” morning meetings in several elementary schools last week . It did not result — yet — in a district - wide reassignment of student passwords for the School District ’s “ Portal ” which provides access to Google Classroom . It is unclear if teachers and administrators were aware that the second grader ’s hack potentially impacted the entire 176,000 student school district . Every Palm Beach County School District student is now utilizing “ Google Classroom ” during “ distance learning . ” The system is used for email , classroom work assignments , live communication with teachers , and tests . The hack potentially lets any student log into any other student ’s Google Classroom account . Monday , a 10 - year - old proved to BocaNewsNow.com that he was able to log into an unrelated 6 - year - old ’s account with the permission of that student ’s parent . The 10 - year - old was given nothing but the name of the student in another grade . That 10 - year - old — using the hack widely shared among students — needed less than two minutes to find the 6 - year - old ’s account and enough identifying information to log in as the 6 - year - old . All of the identifying information was located on the Palm Beach County School District ’s computer network . Once logged in , the 10 - year - old had complete access to the 6 - year - old ’s school work , teacher emails , “ chats , ” and classroom “ live video stream . ” BocaNewsNow.com alerted the Palm Beach County School District ’s media relations department of the hack at 6:45 p.m. Monday and promised that this story would not publish until 7 a.m. Tuesday , giving the District ample time to force mandatory password changes District - wide . A Spokesperson said that the information was being forwarded — immediately — to the District ’s I.T. Department . At 8:30 p.m. , a School District representative told BocaNewsNow.com that students are instructed to change their password regularly , but students and teachers told BocaNewsNow.com that this is NOT permitted — at least at the elementary level . Later Monday evening , the School District confirmed that elementary school students are not permitted to change their passwords . A spokesperson said that may change this week as a result of the massive password compromise . Google Classroom is — at its core — an education version of professional “ GSuite “ which is used by major companies worldwide . The security protocols available under professional “ GSuite ” accounts , however , are not accessible at the student level for users of Google Classroom . A password switch has to be initiated — and approved — by the Palm Beach County School District — at least for students in elementary school . That leaves all elementary school accounts — as well as every account where students have n’t changed passwords on their own — accessible . The flaw is n’t Google ’s — it ’s the School District ’s . Students use their School District “ Portal ” login information to access Google Classroom . Before March , Palm Beach County School District students primary used Google Classroom in the presence of a teacher — there was no reason to access the system remotely . Distance learning , however , made it the center of online schooling . The School District ’s I.T. department apparently never imagined that its simple default password naming convention could impact the accuracy , authenticity and online safety of every student in the Palm Beach County School District . ;