Former Orange County student convicted of breaking into high school to steal tests

A former Orange County high school student was convicted Monday of breaking into his school to steal Advanced Placement tests and alter his official college-transcript grades.

Omar Shahid Khan, 21, of Coto de Caza was charged with entering classrooms and administrative offices at Tesoro High School on several occasions between January and May 2008, the Orange County district attorney’s office said.

Khan stole AP course tests and used the password and user name of his physics instructor to sign on to a school computer to change his transcript grades, prosecutors said. He had obtained the password and user name after installing spyware on several school computers.

Khan was also charged with changing transcript grades of other students.

In April 2008, a teacher caught Khan cheating on an AP statistics test. Afterward, Khan broke into the assistant principal’s office and stole the test to destroy evidence that he had cheated, prosecutors said.

Another defendant, Tanvir Singh, 21, pleaded guilty in September 2008 to a felony count and a misdemeanor count in connection with the case, prosecutors said. He was sentenced to 200 hours of community service and three years of formal probation.

Khan is scheduled to be sentenced Aug. 26.

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