Almost a dozen students have been expelled from a school in California for allegedly hacking into their teachers' computers and changing their grades, the BBC reported.
The 11 students were expelled from Corona del Mar High School in southern California last Tuesday on suspicion of installing key logger devices onto computers that gave them access to password-protected information.
School officials from the Newport-Mesa Unified School District say the suspension is a step towards solving the cheating scandal.
"It is our sincere hope that the speculations and rumors regarding student discipline matters can now be put to rest and for the sake of the school community and all involved, these student discipline matters are considered resolved," Board of Education President Karen Yesley said in a statement obtained by NBC News.
The scandal was first detected in June 2013 when Kim Rapp, a science teacher, informed school officials that someone might have hacked into her computer to change their grades.
Investigators believe that a private tutor, 28-year-old Timothy Lai, provided the students with the key loggers, a device that can record the computer activity and keyboard stokes of a user.
Lai "assisted the students in compromising school computers and manipulating grades," the BCC reported.
Parents of the expelled students claim Lai was working with up to 150 students, NBC News reported. Police have searched for Lai for questioning, however he has been missing since December.
The scope of the cheating scandal is not officially known. The high school will examine 750 grade entries from the past year to determine if more students were involved, NBC News reported.
One security expert said that as education technology advances, students will come up with ways to access private information.
"Kids are endlessly inquisitive so it will always be a challenge to keep them out of things they want to pry into, but it shouldn't be beyond our capabilities," said John Hawes, a consultant for the blog Naked Security, the BBC reported.
