To me, this is just a poor decision made hastily by a single student who apparently wasn't patient enough to sort out some computer issues. I think there are different options to consider - Asking for help at a computer lab at the college (it was a Technical College, after all), calling Verizon to help out with her Internet connection, even going to illegal route and getting a pirated version of Windows (not that I'm supporting that kind of activity). To me there's something more to this story than what's reported.