The start of the 2020-21 school year has been a bumpy one for New Palestine schools as officials with the Community School Corporation of Southern Hancock County had a positive Covid-19 case on the first day and are now dealing with a cyber attack.

According to district officials, many of the district's technological systems fell victim to the attack, impacting internet connectivity for teachers, students in classrooms, and students attending virtually. This has also impacted the functionality of some other district programs, including PowerSchool and Canvas.

District officials confirm that NineStar and the district's technological services provider, Five Star, are working quickly to restore connectivity to the district and mitigate the risk of future attacks.

Whoever is responsible will be prosecuted.

"Our administration has notified our law enforcement partners at the New Palestine Police Department, Hancock County Sheriff’s Department, and Indiana State Police. The district intends to pursue all available legal avenues related to this attack," superintendent Dr. Lisa Lantrip said. 

In addition, Lantrip said the district is taking the attack "very seriously."

"We sincerely apologize for any difficulties this has caused for your students and our teachers. We want to thank our teachers for keeping learning going both in-person and virtually during the outage. We know that everyone in the Southern Hancock community has worked diligently to support our students during these unfortunate circumstances," she said.