Vorlin: your arguments are excellent and they would hold against a person who has a basic understanding about computers and how they work. But it's not the case here. You said it yourself that the sys admin is the person who knows a little more than the others, and he has already proven to be a clueless neophyte. What do you think the highschool's director thinks about it? Who do you think s/he will trust? A *kid* being accused of having "heavily" damaged four computers or their beloved sys admin whom they employed? IMHO NetSyn's suggestion would work, though: get the evil mother do the talking!