On November 10th, Manassas City Public Schools suffered a cybersecurity risk as its systems were attacked, causing a huge shutdown of many of the materials Osbourn High School teachers use to instruct and teach their students. 

As a result of the attack that day, on Nov. 10th, all Manassas City Schools were closed for the day. On Wednesday of the same week, students were given a 2-hour delay to give staff a headstart to try and adapt. There were obviously Wi-Fi-related issues, though they were quick to realize that there were more problems than just that. 

There was more than just websites and Wi-Fi out of commission; teachers were unable to use their printers, which has greatly stunted their ability to teach. 

When the students arrived after the delay, the ramifications of the cyberattack were still in effect, as most of the needed websites were down. Students had some thoughts about the days back to school after the attack. Sophomore, Jayden Jaggers said, “It’s made it way harder, especially in my AP classes, specifically AP Seminar. AP Classroom was down, which was kind of essential for the class. I couldn’t do any research because of not having access to any of the databases I needed to look into for my class.” 

It didn’t affect just online work either; it even had an effect on more physical things, like paper. “I couldn’t learn anything for around a week because the printers were down,” said junior, Jesse Mendoza.

Teachers of Osbourn were able to go more in-depth about the struggles of the attack, as they were the ones primarily affected by the whole situation. Mr. Edwards, Creative Writing and English teacher, said, “Uh, in a lot of obvious ways it affected my classes. That first day back, I couldn’t use anything I had prepped. I imagine it affected all teachers in the same sort of way. For me specifically, I teach literary magazines/creative writing, and we’re in the process of developing/making a magazine, which has to be done entirely online. It threw a wrench into our process, which made it sort of impossible or extremely difficult to get done how it was intended.”

On the topic of the days off, Mr. Edwards had extra thoughts, “I definitely think we needed another day to get ready, that first day was very sketchy to say the least. Just with the lack of a clear attendance procedure, I think the admins did well, though, and adapted quickly. I was frustrated I didn’t have materials, but I still made it happen.”

Jayden Jaggers shared similar opinions on the first few days back, “For the first two days, we didn’t do much. When the copiers started working again, we started getting assignments like normal again, and being able to do stuff for my classes that didn’t use computers or technology, it was kind of the same. Though on the other hand, all the others that did use computers couldn’t do much about it, it was out of their hands.”

A photography teacher who had to also struggle with the attack, trying to keep up with the number of days that passed while she tried to teach her class, was Ms. Connors. “For me, the attack has affected me quite a lot. Students are not able to log into the Macs in my lab right now, so we have to pivot a lot on any editing components to assignments right now. With the internet access being initially a little spotty, I also had to do some pivoting, but it was all good! We were studying the history of photography and got to go more analog as a result! I got pretty good at adjusting my practices to suit the limitations of technology and students during the pandemic, so I have a lot of various resources that make these kinds of things manageable.”

Among all of the teachers affected was our own Journalism teacher, Ms. Miller, as her job entirely revolves around having access to Wi-Fi. On top of having to deal with teaching the Journalism classes, she had to instruct Broadcast and Yearbook students. All of those production classes require the internet, which led to Ms. Miller saying, “At first, I was all about having a day off…but as I slowly realized how much was affected, I was not amused. I was unable to access the yearbook website, and that meant I couldn’t access the pages we were working on. We could not create the morning show or access the journalism website either. I managed to keep my students busy, but it was stressful!”

Ms. Miller expanded on the effects that the catastrophe had on her, as the cyberattack had really affected her teaching substantially. “We are trying really hard to recover,” she expressed. “Yearbook editors are working with me during Nest each day, just so we can meet our deadlines.” 

Many teachers were shocked when the attack happened and had never experienced such a thing before. Mr. Edwards, however, compared it to his experience during the 2020 global pandemic. “It was an interruption to daily routines, like the attack. These events are definitely very different, but they still were able to show some types of similarity, like forcing people into adaptation, and improvisation. Quarantine hit me in my senior year of college, and it felt like the routine I had for years was stopped brutally, and all my classes became objectively worse.” He shared. “The difference being I definitely didn’t learn as much in that time. Kids right now are still learning to the best of their ability. COVID, and now there was no flare, just function. It wasn’t as engaging.” 

Will the Cyberattack harm the school year as a whole? Will there be any cramming in classes to catch up and make up for lost time? Mr. Edwards had a nuanced outlook, “Yes and no, I think some things will just have to be let go. But in general, I probably will be able to, just not the way I wanted. But that’s just how the job goes, kids will still learn and improve.”

Some classes didn’t have to think about their response, it was immediately positive for Mr. Scofield when he said “Absolutely nothing will have to be lost, part of the benefit of being a performing arts class/teacher is being able to get a lot of work done without using a computer, we can get up on our feet in class at any time and do stuff without the internet. It’ll be nice to get the full system, though. We have more capabilities compared to some of the core classes that rely heavily on Wi-Fi.”

It seems as though there isn’t much of a negative view for material lost, Ms. Connors said, “I’ve been rolling with the punches. Last year, all of my photo 1 classes fell behind, but it ended up being fine. It’ll have to be fine this year, too.”

How has the communication been between all the staff and MCPS on the topic of the attack? Mr. Scofield had a good amount of trust in his peers, as he said, “Dr. Chapman has kept us updated. I trust she updates us as soon as she knows anything. The general automated calls and emails that come out, those have been timely. She’s been telling us stuff in advance whenever anything would become an issue. At the moment, we’re just seeing how long it takes for the apps we’ve been using so far to be fixed. Unfortunately, we don’t have a map, but it’ll be fine. I understand it, as my background involves a little bit of IT.”

Ms. Connors said, “I think MCPS has been as transparent as they can be about the topic throughout. We had some regular communication at the start that was appreciated. At this point, a lot of the daily email blasts have tapered off, but we are kept updated on things we need to know as we move forward.”

Despite the challenges from the Cyberattack, teachers are hopeful about the return to our school’s regular functions. “2026 is looking pretty bright to me,” said Ms. Connors. “Hopefully, by our return from break, we will be ready to go!” 

“The students have been picking up the material quickly, so I don’t believe we have lost that much time,” said Mr. Newman.

Is there anything positive that could have come from the attack? Like learning how to improvise on your own, without technology, 24/7 access to the internet? Or being able to get closer with some of the people around you because of the lack of work from the teachers, most heavily affected? Mr Scofield said, “The cyberattack sort of baked into theatre as a lot of it is improvisation, going with the flow, just without internet. It was more challenging in some classes than others, but the students were more than willing to go along with everything, even without the constant access to the internet.”

 Junior Jesse Mendoza Fuentes said, “I learned more about my teachers because of not being able to do much during the classes.”

What may have happened? Mr. Scofield had speculation to share about what may have occurred.“A friend of mine who has worked in IT for decades suggested that we possibly weren’t even the target, that whoever was doing the attack could’ve been testing the system, as it’s similar to other targets. We could’ve just been a guinea pig. Though that’s just speculation.” 

Knowing something like this has happened to our schools, will there be a chance it will happen again? “I think MCPS is taking concerted steps to ensure that it never happens again. It may happen to other school divisions, but I would say that we are probably set for a while now in our vigilance,” said Ms. Connors.  

Mr. Edwards shared the same hopes when he said, “I really hope it doesn’t happen again. I also don’t think it will. I imagine there’ll be a desire for it to happen again, but we’ll be more prepared since we actually went through it and know what to expect and how to handle it.”

Others had a different view on the matter that was closer to the contrary side of things. “I mean, I hope not, but realistically, I know these attacks happen every day, and who knows if we’ll be the victim. This has definitely also happened to other school divisions in past years,” said Ms. Miller. 

Mr. Newman said, “In today’s digital age, I’m sure it will probably happen again, maybe affecting different things.”

What do the teachers hope will happen to prevent something like this from ever occurring again? Mr. Edwards said, “I mean, I don’t really know how to describe how they’d defend, as they haven’t given us too much information on what and how it happened. So I wouldn’t know how to begin putting into words how to defend us if I don’t even know what hit us. I just hope we put in the protection that’s needed.”

Ms. Connors said, “I really don’t know. I just hope that the security procedures they adopt are not too excessive, but I also hope that there are legal repercussions for the individuals who orchestrate this kind of attack.”

“Cyberattacks will probably continue to occur as technology advances, but hopefully those protecting technology systems are also advancing their technologies to better detect them in advance, which would help schools do a better job of preventing and, if they happen, reacting to cyberattacks,” said Mr. Newman.

As of December 17th (the attack occurring on November 10th), the substantial issues caused by the Cyberattack still prevail somewhat. Many teachers are still unable to print needed material. Students who possess Dell Windows laptops (mostly seniors) are unable to access the Lockdown Browser, and many websites are still blocked. However, teachers are finding their way around restrictions, and things are slowly returning to normal after the attack on MCPS systems and security.