Government & Public Sector

Compliance & Regulatory Framework

Hack Club takes compliance extremely seriously. We comply with everything we are required to comply with, which is mostly Mrs. Henderson's rules for Room 204.

• Mrs. Henderson's Acceptable Use Policy: No food near the computers. No running. No "hacking" (she put it in quotes, we're not sure what she thinks we do). Chairs must be pushed in at the end of the meeting. We are fully compliant with this framework. Mostly.
• School District Policy 4.7.2: All extracurricular clubs must have a faculty advisor. Ours is Mr. Rodriguez. He teaches AP History. He does not know what we do. He has never attended a meeting. He signed a form once. We are in full compliance.
• FERPA: We think this is about student records. We don't have student records. We have a Google Doc with everyone's name and their preferred pizza topping. If this constitutes a record, we are probably not FERPA compliant. We are choosing not to investigate further.
• GDPR: We have been told this is a European thing. None of our 7 members are in Europe. If you are in Europe and reading this, please stop. We are not equipped for international compliance. We barely handle domestic compliance. Thank you.

Security Clearance

Our team maintains multiple levels of security clearance within the Lincoln High School ecosystem:

• Hall Pass (Level 1): All members are authorized to traverse school hallways during club hours. This clearance is granted by Mrs. Henderson and is revocable at any time for any reason, including but not limited to "being too loud in the hallway."
• Computer Lab Access (Level 2): We have a key to Room 204. Well, the janitor has the key. We have the janitor's phone number. His name is Dave. Dave is the most important person in our security infrastructure.
• Admin Password (Level 3 — TOP SECRET): Kevin knows the admin password for the school's Windows computers. He is not supposed to. He figured it out by watching Mr. Peterson type it in. It is "lincoln2019." We should not be publishing this. Mr. Peterson, if you're reading this, we're sorry. Again.
• Roof Access (Level 4 — CLASSIFIED): We do not have roof access. This is listed here to make our clearance levels seem more impressive. There is no Level 4. Please disregard.

Case Study: The School Website Incident

In March 2025, the Lincoln High School website had a broken link on the "Athletics" page. The "Fall Sports Schedule" linked to a 404 error. This had been broken for 7 months. Here's how we resolved it:

• Discovery: Kevin noticed the broken link while trying to check the basketball schedule. He reported it to Mr. Peterson in IT. Mr. Peterson said "we'll look into it." Three months passed.
• Escalation: Kevin emailed Mr. Peterson again. Mr. Peterson said the website was "managed by the district" and there was "nothing he could do." Kevin said "I can fix it in 5 minutes." Mr. Peterson said "absolutely not."
• Resolution: Kevin fixed it anyway during a free period. He changed one line of HTML. The link worked. The principal noticed and called us "the IT kids" in the morning announcements. Mr. Peterson has not spoken to us since.
• Aftermath: The principal asked if we could "redesign the whole website." We said yes. We should not have said yes. We are 4 months into a redesign that was supposed to take 2 weeks. The current version is worse than the original. We are in too deep to stop.

"They fixed a link. I did not authorize this. I have filed a report." — Mr. Peterson, IT Department (1 person)

Procurement Process

We understand that government procurement can be complex. Ours is not. Here's how it works:

• Step 1: Show up to the computer lab on Wednesday after school.
• Step 2: There is no Step 2.
• RFP Required? No. We don't know what an RFP is. We looked it up. "Request for Proposal." You don't need to propose anything. Just come in and sit down. The bar for entry is literally a functioning pair of legs and a vague interest in computers.
• Sole Source Justification: We are the only coding club at Lincoln High School. The Chess Club tried to pivot to coding once but they couldn't figure out VS Code and went back to chess. We are the sole source by default.
• Contract Vehicle: We do not have a contract vehicle. We do not have a contract. We do not have a vehicle. Kevin has a learner's permit but that's not relevant here.
• Payment Terms: Net Never. Payment is not accepted, expected, or possible. If you try to pay us, we will be confused and possibly frightened.