Edit - http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/11/02/teen_hack_suspect_charged/
Now here is an interesting question. Is this over reaction or not?
From reading the comments apparently the kid had tried to let the school board know that the security was horrible before multiple times and got no response.
I don't think it's an overreaction to charge him with something; breaking into someone else's computer
should be a crime, shouldn't it? This is the computer equivalent of breaking into a house and saying you committed no crime because you only looked around and didn't take anything, but left a note on the coffee table saying that they need new locks. The fact that he did it for what he sees as a good reason doesn't change the fact that he did it.
So no problem charging him, but the important question is how serious the charges are (serious) and what kind of alternatives he's offered for a plea bargain (or alternately what kind of punishment the prosecution seeks). It should be very light, probation for a year or two I'd say, compared to what he could get for the offense (10 years), for two reasons. First of all, he seems to have done this for a good reason, and does not seem to have messed around with anything. That should weigh heavily in his favor. Second of all, the crimes he's charged with are serious, probably because in the vast majority of cases the invasion of the computer system is the damage whether the person messes around or not, like when a person who sees, but does not alter, credit card numbers. So while he violated laws, those laws are aimed at a different kind of perpetrator.
