‘An awesome kid.’ Neighbors shocked at teen’s arrest in Miami schools’ cyberattacks

Neighbors of the 16-year-old South Miami High student charged with launching some of the cyberattacks that paralyzed Miami-Dade Schools’ online classes were stunned the teen was being characterized as a devious hacker.

They know him as a polite, intelligent boy who lives with his hardworking mother and likes to play basketball in the backyard and basketball video games on his computer.

“He’s always back there dribbling and studying,” said Ben Herrera, who lives next door in the Flagami neighborhood of working-class homes and duplexes. He fetched errant balls that flew over his fence and talked to the teen about family, school, gaming and the Miami Heat.

“He’s an awesome kid,’’ he said. “What saddens me is how he’s going to be portrayed, and we’ve got to realize with this pandemic that kids are bored, isolated, stuck with too much time on their hands and maybe they do something irresponsible. Maybe someone told him it would be fun and he didn’t understand how disruptive it would be. But no harm was intended, and now he is regretting it.”

The student, so far the only individual charged by police for a variety of cyberattacks that contributed to a chaotic opening week at the nation’s fourth-largest school district, is not being named by the Miami Herald because he is a juvenile.

Herrera’s wife, Mary, said the teen offered compassion when her mother was recently ill.

“He saw me crying and asked, ‘Are you, OK? What can I do to help?’ ” she said. “[He] is very respectful, not a troublemaker. Instead of pinning all the blame on him, they should be asking him, ‘How’d you do it so we can make the system better?’ They should hire him.”

Added Herrera: “I’d hate to see this permanently damage his record. He’s so smart he could work for the FBI someday.”

Herrera said his street was lined with police cars in the hours before the teen’s arrest at 2:43 a.m. Thursday.

“It looked like somebody killed the president,” he said. “I get out of my car and an officer comes up with his hand on his gun saying, ‘Is this your house? Which house are you going to?’ and followed me to my door.”

The student, who is accused of no fewer than eight cyberattacks against Miami-Dade County Public Schools, was booked and released after being charged with the felony of using a computer to attempt to defraud and the misdemeanor of interference with an educational institution.

Authorities are investigating the origins of at least 16 other cyberattacks that began on Monday morning, the first day of school, which is being conducted remotely for 275,000 students and 20,000 teachers to prevent the spread of coronavirus. Flaws in a new virtual learning platform widely panned by teachers, students and parents were the main cause of the crash of online classes, with the attacks adding to the havoc, School Board members said. The simple computer program police accuse the teen of using is easy to download, and the district’s network firewall should have been able to detect and disable the breach, cybersecurity experts said.

Northwest 59th Court was the scene of a media stakeout Thursday as TV reporters and cameramen set up on the front sidewalk to do live afternoon and evening standups.

But no one answered knocks on the front door, except when a woman yelled over a security intercom, “Get off my property. We are not talking to the press.”

Herrera said the teen was not in the house with his mother but was staying at his father’s house nearby. Another neighbor who did not want to give her name said she goes to school with him at South Miami High.

“I don’t know him but I think he’s a junior and he seems normal. Tall and skinny,” she said. “It’s a quiet house. You don’t see anyone hanging around there.”

At South Miami High, which was mostly empty Thursday afternoon, no one said they knew the student. A group of alumni planting flowers said they were surprised the school system was allegedly outwitted by a 16-year-old and wasn’t better prepared to thwart cyberattacks.

“This kid will probably end up with a good job in the cybersecurity or intelligence fields,” said one person who declined to give her name.

Miami Herald writer Erin Doherty contributed to this report.

This story was originally published September 3, 2020 at 9:29 PM.