GALLATIN, Tenn. (WTVF) — Sumner County Schools students will stay home an extra week after district officials uncovered unauthorized access of the school network, and at least one local business is stepping up to help families bridge the gap.
Impact Martial Arts in Gallatin is launching a fifth summer camp session Aug. 3-7 — the same week students were originally supposed to return to classrooms.
Sumner County Schools discovered the unauthorized network access July 20, according to a district social media post. Students' first day back, originally set for Aug. 4, has been pushed back to Aug. 10. The district said it is working around the clock to address the situation.
Camp owner Righteous Stevenson said demand from parents drove the decision to add the extra session.
"They're coming around and kind of like, 'hey, I know this is your fourth camp. A lot of some things happening. Is there a fourth, fifth?'"
Stevenson said working parents needed a safe option for their children during the unexpected extension.
"Child care. Parents are working during the day times — they're looking for a safe place for the kids to go during their daytime."
Stevenson, who lives in Sumner County and has 5 kids of his own, said his family is not directly affected by the school delay.
"So my kids actually homeschooled."
But he said the investigation has still come up in conversations with camp families.
"I had a couple parents that kind of poked me about it, kind of see if I knew anything. And again, I knew just as much as they did for the most part as wel."
The central question many parents want answered is whether any personal information was compromised in the breach. The district said it is working around the clock to address the situation but has not provided additional details.
For Sumner County families, the challenge right now is twofold — finding answers about the security breach and finding somewhere for their kids to be in the meantime.
Are you a Sumner County parent navigating the school delay and looking for child care options — or do you have questions about the network security breach? We want to hear from you. Watch our full report and share your story with reporter Kim Rafferty at kim.rafferty@NewsChannel5.com.
In this article, we used artificial intelligence to help us convert a video news report originally written by Kim Rafferty. When using this tool, both Kim and the NewsChannel 5 editorial team verified all the facts in the article to make sure it is fair and accurate before we published it. We care about your trust in us and where you get your news, and using this tool allows us to convert our news coverage into different formats so we can quickly reach you where you like to consume information. It also lets our journalists spend more time looking into your story ideas, listening to you and digging into the stories that matter.
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