#HackForTheFuture, 4 years later

November 3, 2019

Today marks the fourth anniversary since I was suspended from high school for exploiting a security vulnerability in macOS to gain admin privileges to my school-issued laptop. While these events are easy to forget and often overlooked as just things that happened in high school, I think it's a very formative event in my life that's taught me many lessons. I'd like to take a moment today to reflect over what happened and to encourage this from never happening again to innocent students.

A little bit of background behind what happened: my school district began to issue MacBook Airs to each student beginning with my class. I had this MacBook for a little less than a year before I became frustrated with how locked down it was. Along with some of my classmates in CS, I began to investigate how we could remove these barriers. Why? It wasn't because we were tired of the school firewall; we already found ways around that even without any unauthorized privilege escalation. I remember being extremely frustrated that I wasn't able to install basic software that I needed for my classes, such as the latest version of Microsoft Office, Eclipse, and Xcode.

Once a classmate found a security exploit in macOS that wasn't patched on our laptops, I immediately tried it out. Lo and behold, it worked! Now, I had a regular laptop and I could use it for whatever I needed, just like an adult. That is, until November 3, 2015, when the MacBook technician walked into my CS classroom and told me she needed to confiscate my laptop. Later that day, I complied with the investigation in the assistant principal's office, and as a reward for my compliance, I was given 2 days of in-school suspension instead of 1.

Needless to say, I was upset. What was surprising was what happened afterwards. I arrived home after being given two days of ISS, expecting to be scolded for hours on end by my mom. Instead, she told me something I'll never forget: "what you did was wrong, but it wasn't bad." In the midst of my Stockholm Syndrome, I realized she was right, and relieved she was on my side for once. (Asian parents usually aren't on your side, especially if you've been suspended by your high school.) She was right because I wasn't trying to change my grades. Ethically speaking, I broke the rules, and that was wrong. But morally, what I did had zero malicious intent. I was simply a naive student who was tired of having a locked down laptop.

After word got out, Twitter was filled with support from students in the high school, saying I shouldn't have been suspended. (See hashtags #FreeJeffWang and #HackForTheFuture.) The next day, my mother went to talk with the principal. Thankfully, my mom was technically competent, so she educated the principal on what I did and its ramifications. The principal realized that maybe my punishment of two days of ISS was too strict (that's usually given to people who start fights!), but claimed "since the punishment already began, it's too late to undo it now." (Bullshit, but okay.)

Thanks to the support of everyone I had around me, I realized that I shouldn't be sorry for my intentions. What I was trying to do was right, but unfortunately the execution clashed with the rules. I realized I should not be apologetic for trying to advance my education and my computer science skills. Today, I continue to believe this. Nothing that has happened after this incident made me regret what I did. In fact, it only confirmed how short-sighted the school's response was.

After this event happened, I was profoundly disturbed by the lack of awareness that school administrators had. To this day, no administrator involved in this incident has either addressed this nor apologized for their rash decision to interrupt my attendance in classes for enabling my ability to succeed as a student. They need to realize that I'm no longer angry I was given ISS, but rather the message this sends to students is very much the wrong message. Students should be encouraged to further their education, not be punished for fixing a shortcoming of the school's system.

Conversely, I saw the humanity from all of my teachers. None of them judged me for being suspended, for being a rebellious troublemaker, as I had feared. Instead, every single one of them supported me the best they could, even though I couldn't attend class. One teacher brought her entire class down to the ISS room so I could listen in - I will never forget her support, the symbolism of this, and how much my classmates stood by me.

But I realized my high school failed me. I could no longer stay. As a result, one of the key reasons why I decided to go to an early college high school in 11th grade was because I knew McKinney Boyd High School would not allow me to realize my full potential. That hurts to say, because all the teachers and students supported me, but the bureaucracy made it difficult to continue being a student.

Today, I'm studying at a nationally top 10 computer science program. Ironically, I just finished attending a hackathon, HackTX, where I'm rewarded for technological innovation, 4 years after I was punished for doing the same thing. I've been able to intern at a great tech company and learn. I've seen much more than my 10th grade self saw. If there's one thing I would tell Jeffrey in 2015, I would say: "it gets better, because in real life, these silly restrictions don't exist. What you did was justifiable in the face of the cards you were dealt. As an adult, you won't face any of this bullshit." I'm just thankful that this blemish did not affect me in my later life.

What did I learn from this incident and what were the consequences of this incident?

First lesson: don't blindly trust authorities expecting good things to happen to you. Sorry kids, the world isn't fair. Look out for yourself or people will screw you over, even if they're supposed to be the good guys.

Second lesson: there's genuinely people in life who will do the right thing even if it's not what the authority figures sponsors. That really revived my faith in humanity after it was crushed by an administration that refused to admit it made a mistake.

Third lesson: technology proficiency and understanding is still very limited among older generations and those in power. Key to increasing technological understanding is to be able to guide decision makers and leaders to make choices that respect the advancement of technology learners.

Fourth lesson (the most important): students, don't give up if you're trying to pursue tech but you're impeded upon by people who just don't get it. Push through. It is a struggle I vividly remember. I'm extremely thankful I no longer have to endure the ridiculous restrictions to which I was subjected in high school. They impeded upon my ability to learn; don't let it impede upon yours. Do whatever you can (legally) to mitigate lack of technological ability while not causing trouble. In a professional setting, these issues simply don't exist. My work laptop at my internship this summer gave me full administrative privileges so I could install whatever I needed to do my job. It's ridiculous this issue even exists in high school.

As a society, we need to do better. We should empower students to learn about technology, not punish them for experimenting and empowering themselves. When adults failed me, I was punished for fixing their incompetencies. We should never do this again. We need to reward and encourage future generations to make this world a better place by letting them empower themselves with their bright minds. Let the next generation #HackForTheFuture.

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