September 27, 2020 – the following is a message that was sent to families regarding a suspicious email incident:
Dear Fairport Families:
We would like to make you aware of a situation that we are currently investigating that involves emails received by a small number of Minerva DeLand students from a fictitious person named “Gretta James.” This individual is posing as a Fairport student. The email address for this pseudo student is gretta232323@gmail.com.
The email messages usually reads:
“hi i just started 6th grade at JP, what grade are you in?” or “hi i just started 6th grade at MB, what grade are you in?”
This email address is not associated with our District. If your child(ren) receives emails from this address please contact your principal or forward the email to our Director of Technology, Tom Devitt, via email at: tdevitt@fairport.org. If your child(ren) receives an unusual email similar to this or any that you would like reviewed, please forward the suspicious email to Mr. Devitt.
The District’s email security system will continue to provide protections and alerts of any future attempts. We will also be working with law enforcement to further investigate these email messages.
In Fairport, we only allow emails from outside “@fairport.org” for students in grades 9-12. We recommend using this unfortunate situation as an opportunity to reinforce the need with your child(ren) to discuss appropriate social media expectations, ethics and Internet safety. As a district, we will continue to reiterate best practices in these realms with our students as well.
Here are resources to keep children safe online include:
- These resources help families start the online safety discussion with your child(ren) from the Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency
- Resources for children, teens and parents that offer guidance on navigating digital safety
While our District has taken measures to ensure the safety of our students, we also value our family participation to support Internet safety as we move forward. Thank you for your cooperation and partnership.
Sincerely,
Brett Provenzano
Superintendent of Schools