Parents adjusting after cyber attack

New information tonight -- huntsville city schools are closed to students for the rest of the week after a cyber attack.

Distict officials are asking students, faculty and staff to make sure their school issued devices are off!

This is a story we've been following for you all day.

Tonight -- we're hearing from parents about how they're handling the surprise cancellation.

We'll tell you how the department of education is helping.

Plus -- how this isn't the only cyber attack alabama school districts have faced.

We kick things off with waay 31's megan reyna.

She's live outside the district's main office.

Megan -- how are parents adjusting to yet another curveball this semester?

Parents have definitely had to be flexible this school year -- with the on-going pandemic -- and now -- what appears to be a cyber attack.

Shapiro says: "my first thought was, well that's extremely 2020."

Benjamin shapiro has a sixth and seventh grader in huntsville city schools-- both learning virtually this year.

Shapiro's frustration isn't with the district... shapiro says: "i'm upset that someone would take advantage of an already chaotic situation with something like this, well we're kinda in the point, where it is what it is."

However -- mother of three torie serkez is concerned about how this is impacting her kids.

Especially her first grader -- who is autistic.

Serkez says: "even from the thanksgiving break, my son has suffered, my son suffers if he's out of school from more than a day."

All three have been learning in-person since the district welcomed students back.

And while serkez is working from home -- she says when her son is thrown off his routine -- his behavior becomes an issue.

Serkez says: "it causes chaos in my house."

Serkez says: "they can't expect him to learn paper and pencil, even virtual, he can't do it, so he has to have that in- person."

Right now, the district is asking parents to avoid logging into any huntsville city schools platforms... as authorities investigate this threat.

Both parents hoping classes will resume next week.

Serkez says:"you know our children with special needs, you know ten years from now, we don't know what that's going to look like because these are detrimental times for them, so we're just kind of playing it by ear and hoping for the best at this point."

Shapiro says: "this is just one more road bump, speed bump in the road and we'll just kind of deal with it as we go and catch them back up when we can."

Right now, it's unclear if anyone's information has been compromised from this threat.

The district did say today -- they are hoping students will resume class sometime next week.

Reporting live in hsv mr waay 31 news