Photos from Tate High School’s welcoming ball last October show the prom queen posing on the football field with a glamorous sparkling crown over her blond curls, a black sash over her cream sequined dress declaring her the winner.
On Monday, 17-year-old teenager Floria was arrested, along with her mother, for breaking into the high school system and defrauding the election to ensure she won the title, officials said.
Her mother, Laura Rose Carroll, 50, is an assistant principal at Bellview Elementary School in Pensacola and her work has given her access to the entire school district’s FOCUS student information system, officials said. His account allegedly accessed hundreds of high school records from Tate High School students, and 246 votes for the Tate High School Homecoming Court were obtained from his cell phone and family home computers.
Media reports show pictures of Carroll’s daughter earning the title of Queen of Homecoming at Tate High School on October 31, 2020, and wearing the crown. The runner-up did not respond to BuzzFeed News’s request for comment.
The Florida Police Department (FDLE) said in an arrest statement that nine people told investigators that Carroll’s daughter boasted of her ability to access confidential school records.
“I knew that [she] log in to your mother’s school account to access grades and test results from the first year, when we became friends, ”said a student to the FDLE, according to the statement. “She looks up all the notes from our group of friends and comments on how she can find out our test scores all the time.”
Another said he saw it when she was a sophomore. “I remember times when she signed in to her mother’s FOCUS account and openly shared information, notes, times, etc. with other people. She didn’t look like logging in was a big deal and was very comfortable with it, ”they told investigators.
The investigation began in November, after the school alerted authorities that hundreds of votes in the homecoming court were flagged as fraudulent. A total of 117 of them came from the same IP address in a short period of time. After a school investigation, Carroll’s daughter was expelled.
According to prison records, Carroll was charged at Escambia County Prison on Monday and released 30 minutes later on $ 6,000 bail. Her daughter was transferred to the Regional Detention Center for Children in Escambia.
Both now face four charges, including fraud and property crimes. Three of the charges are crimes.
Carroll’s lawyer, Randall J. Etheridge, told BuzzFeed News: “They welcome the opportunity, when the case is over, to tell their side of the story.”