"NASTY" messages posted on Newcastle Grammar's Schoolbox platform to families, students and staff were the work of a former pupil, not a hacker.
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Head of School Erica Thomas confirmed a former student who is in year seven gained access earlier this month to the platform - which the school uses to communicate with its community - after they borrowed a current student's device.
She stressed it was "not any sort of IT breach".
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"The student had not logged out of his account and the past student accessed our learning management system where he wrote a nasty and untrue message about one student and wrote a nasty and untrue message about one member of staff," Ms Thomas said.
"He was also able to work out how to send these messages to parents, staff and students."
It is understood the messages were related to bullying.
Ms Thomas said the school investigated the incident, contacted the former student's current school and parents and "offered support to those who were impacted".
She said there was '"absolutely no [truth] whatsoever" to the messages.
She said the incident had been a "good reminder to students about not sharing devices, and logging off".
"The student had no access to any other part of the system, we don't believe there was an intent to go any further with it," she said.
"This was a 13 year old who really should now know better. These things are very hurtful for the people who are the victims and I hope it's a good lesson."
The school was the target of a ransomware attack in November 2020, which saw criminals encrypt and destroy part of its network.
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