The system had passwords so the IT department had done its job.
From the original article, it appears someone left their password written out on a piece of paper and the student was able to find it. Perhaps that particular worker shouldn't have written the password down. It still appears the student had to rifle the desk; it wasn't as if the password was prominently posted on a bulletin board.
Some organizations change their passwords regularly. This makes it hard for people to keep remembering them and IMHO actually makes things worse by encouraging written passwords.
As an aside, speaking of passwords and schools ...
Back in junior high we had two lockers, a hall locker and a gym locker, with two combination locks. (Even with high tech it appears the very same locks are in use today). For our hall locker it was easy to write down the combination until it was memorized. But the gym locker on the first time at gym presented a problem. We had to take showers and there was no way or place to write down the number (humans aren't equipped with pockets).
I understand schools have done away with showers after gym these days and that's fine by me. It was embarassing for both boys and girls. (I think that was the point -- to "toughen" us up.)