Des Moines Public Schools cancel class after cyberattack
Rachel Schilke
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The Des Moines Independent Community School District has canceled its classes for Tuesday after discovering that there was a cyberattack on its technology network.
The school district, which is the largest in Iowa, announced on Monday that classes would be canceled for the next day, according to a news release per KCRG. The school district has 33,000 students and nearly 5,000 teachers and staff across its over 60 schools.
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The school’s internet and network services, including the school website, are down and offline while the district assesses the situation, according to the release.
“Because many technology tools that support both classroom learning as well as the management and operation of the school district are not available at this time, the prudent decision is to close the district for the day,” the district wrote in the release.
Sports and other extracurricular activities can proceed as normal, according to school spokesman Phil Roeder, per ABC News.
Roeder said the district will determine on Tuesday afternoon whether to hold classes on Wednesday.
The school district is one of many Iowa schools and organizations that have been victims of cybersecurity attacks in recent years, according to the Des Moines Register. The Des Moines Area Community College suffered an attack in 2021, as did MercyOne hospital facilities after a breach at CommonSpirit Health in October 2022.
“Lack of internet impacts teaching and learning at a high level in a way that it hasn’t, maybe historically,” said Josh Brown, Des Moines Education Association president. “But our classrooms rely more and more on technology that is internet-based or connected to our network in some way.”
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The disruption of classes also interfered with new teacher orientation, which affects about 30 people, Brown said.
“Unfortunately, we had to change the plans because we weren’t able to get computers and we weren’t able to give them their badges and stuff,” he said.