Two teenage girls posted a fake announcement on their school district's Web site that said school was closed for the day due to winter weather, police said.
The notice, posted Monday, confused many parents — snow was not in the forecast — and persuaded some students to stay home.
Edgewood City Schools Superintendent Tom York said he discovered the posting when he logged on to write his own announcement that school would be delayed for an hour because of an extreme cold snap.
"I didn't make that call, and I'm the guy who does, so I knew something was up," York said.
The two Edgewood High School students, whose names were not released, were charged in juvenile court on Friday and face expulsion. One of the girls, 16, was charged with delinquency by unauthorized use of a computer and by reason of records tampering. The other, 17, was charged with delinquency by reason of complicity, sheriff's Sgt. Monte Mayer said.
The company that runs the Web site, RCH Networks Inc., said the system was not hacked into because no security breach was detected. Administrators say the girls must have somehow gotten the password.
RCH helped the district track down the girls by supplying the identification numbers from computers that accessed the system, which authorities could then track to the girls' homes.
Trenton is about 25 miles north of Cincinnati.