![Hosting the SCLA Casptone Mentor Dinner outside allowed for more attendees on September 27, 2021 at Silver Creek. This event would’ve usually been held inside. According to Lauren Kohn, a SCLA 12 teacher, “If we have a higher number of people, as long as we can host the event outside, then that seems to be keeping every[one] safe”.](https://schsnews.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/sxMAIGbSYGodZkqmrvTi5YWcJ1ssWA08ApkeMLpp-900x675.jpeg)
On October 22, 2025, a phishing scam hit the St. Vrain Valley School District, impacting over 1,000 students and staff.
“Your email has been disabled and you need to reset your password,” the email read, along with a link. When victims click on this link, information from their email, and other emails associated with that account, are stolen.
“Bad actors [hackers] are always trying to get in, so one of the ways that the bad actors try to get into the school system is by sending out phishing emails to students, hoping that the students will click on the link,” Kristin Holtz, librarian and media clerk for Silver Creek High School, said.
When individuals click on this link, it sends computer code to the hacker, and they copy information from the affected computer, like an email password. After they get access to the email and then they use it and spam others with the link.
Eddie Crotser, a sophomore at Silver Creek High School, was a student who was impacted by the phishing email.
“I thought it was an email from a friend reminding me to reset my password, and you had to click on the link and fill out a form to get a new password, but it turns out it was a phishing scam,” Crotser said.
Not only was Crotser’s school email compromised, but his Innovation Center work email was also taken over by the hackers, his bank account was associated with his work email, leading him to put a freeze on his account.
Crotser, after his accounts were compromised, had to get new passwords for both of his emails.
“The reason for all of the security that our district has is to protect us from these types of attacks, " Holtz said. “So we might complain about the security that our district has, but there’s a reason for it.”
If the St. Vrain Valley School District didn’t have this much security over their school accounts, either for students or staff, this situation could have been way worse.
Ethan Gregory, a junior at Silver Creek High School, was also impacted by this phishing attack.
”The email was from a staff member who worked with the district, and that made me trust it more,” Gregory said. The email said that on a certain date, your email would be deleted because it was a part of the email deletion of the class of 2026 emails.”
This email was sent out to many people at a time, and this led to people clicking on the link and getting their accounts compromised. The district has improved its security by allowing people to send emails to only 25 people at a time, changing the previous amount from 100.
The St. Vrain Valley School District is also constantly monitoring if there has been a suspicious number of login attempts on a school account, and they will close that account until further action is taken either by the student who was impacted or the school itself. The district is also trying to educate teachers and put them through a cybersecurity training course to prevent these sorts of attacks in the future.
