Guajome Park Academy seeks to expand lawsuit

By: SCOTT MARSHALL - Staff Writer | Monday, November 6, 2006 11:54 PM PST

VISTA -- The Guajome Park Academy charter school is asking a federal judge for permission to expand a lawsuit in which the school alleges that a student's grades were accessed improperly through the school's computer system and were posted on a Web site that is critical of the school.


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Originally filed March 24, the school's lawsuit alleged that grade information was wrongly obtained by Beau Duperry, a former student, and David McCulloch, a former school employee, to try to prove an allegation that a student's grade was changed improperly. In the lawsuit, the school called the grade-change allegation false.

In documents filed Friday, the school asks to amend its lawsuit to add four people alleged to have been involved with the Web site, www.guajomeunderground.org, as defendants in the case, in which the school is seeking an unspecified amount of money in damages.

The proposed amended lawsuit would add allegations that Craig and Lisa James of Escondido, Teri Gerent of Vista, and Ed Brown of Oceanside conspired with Duperry to violate the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. Duperry and McCulloch were alleged to have violated that law in the original lawsuit.

Echoing statements the school's chief business officer, Carla Skaggs, has made in response to previous inquiries about the lawsuit, Mark Leonard, the school's attorney, said Monday that the school and its officials will not comment on pending litigation and that the documents filed on behalf of the school "speak for themselves."

Duperry agreed in July to accept a civil judgment against him, to pay the school $11,000, and to "fully and unconditionally cooperate" with the school's investigation of the alleged computer breach, court documents stated.

McCulloch filed a document in July in which he described the allegations against him as groundless and alleged that a person could infer that Guajome Park Academy filed the lawsuit as a " 'red herring' designed to distract public attention from criticism" of the school, including the grade-change allegation.

Craig James provided a written statement Monday in response to questions about the school trying to add he and his wife to the lawsuit.

"My only 'crime' was to exercise my first-amendment rights by publicizing opinions about (school Superintendent) Penny Harrison's poor leadership, strikingly high teacher turnover, and student dissatisfaction at Guajome Park Academy," Craig James wrote. "I'm sadly looking forward to my day in court, when I hope these allegations will be shown as nothing more than an attempt to silence whistleblowers using the taxpayer's money."

Attempts Monday to reach Gerent and Brown were unsuccessful.

The proposed amended lawsuit alleges that Duperry said in a deposition that he used a server owned by McCulloch to access the school's computer database without authorization, reviewed confidential grade information, and posted a student's grade information on a restricted portion of the guajomeunderground.org site.

The proposed amended lawsuit alleges that it can be inferred that Craig and Lisa James, Gerent, and Brown agreed with Duperry's "unlawful actions and intended that such actions be committed" based on messages posted on a "restricted forum" section of the web site and other statements attributed to them.

-- Contact staff writer Scott Marshall at (760) 631-6623 or smarshall@nctimes.com. Comment at nctimes.com.

On the Net:

http://www.gpa-inc.com/default.aspx

http://www.guajomeunderground.org/phpBB/

Previous articles:

Ex-student to pay Guajome Park Academy $11K

Guajome Park Academy sues former employee and former student

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16 comment(s)[-]Go to Top

Katy G. wrote on Nov 7, 2006 9:10 AM:I find it interesting that Guajome has the time and money to file so many lawsuits. What purpose does this serve? And since when has whistleblowing become a crime?

exGPA wrote on Nov 7, 2006 10:07 AM:This is nothing more than a pay back from GPA Superintendent Penny Harrison for people trying to expose her inept and crony-based leadership style.

"Guest" wrote on Nov 7, 2006 10:16 AM:The crime here is the frivilous use of even more taxpayer money to fund a ridiculous lawsuit, which is based on the desperate attempts of GPA administration to cover up and/or attempt to deny their own wrongdoings. GPA administration has been fishing for something (anything!) to use to go after those who have spoken out against them. I guess long shot attempts such as this newest legal stunt are the best they could do.

what is up why are you hiding this article wrote on Nov 7, 2006 11:55 AM:Why is this article not on the front page of the nctimes web. I had to do a search to find it and then the PDF file does not open. I called the North County Times several times and nobody is home.

get over it wrote on Nov 7, 2006 1:41 PM:This article isn't on the front page because NO ONE CARES about it! Stories about the GPA administration's desperation to cover their tracks and throw the spotlight off their own questionable actions are so old and predictable that the only people that seem to care anymore is GPA's own administration, along with the unfortunate people that are being harrassed with these frivilous lawsuits.

Dave wrote on Nov 7, 2006 2:43 PM:Get Over it-you are really nasty, your blogs are always confrontational what do get out of it?

to- get over it wrote on Nov 7, 2006 7:06 PM: If NO ONE CARES then why you did you read it? It was not in the front page or under the Vista section so obviously you had to do a search to find it. This must have taken some time and effort on your part. Your rudeness hummm what’s up with that?

ex-GPA wrote on Nov 7, 2006 10:11 PM:and to those thinking these are suits and a waste of money and time, what should guajome do when they discover people are cracking into the student data base? look the other way?

to Ex-GPA wrote on Nov 8, 2006 1:41 PM:Relax, this whole thing is bogus and you don't have to be a rocket scientist to figure it out!!

Bill wrote on Nov 8, 2006 1:45 PM:Some questions to consider first whose running the court it has been months since GPA filed the lawsuit and was granted the persecution of this student. It usually allowed about 20 days to amend complaints and in this case it has been longer then 20 days. Second the deposition starts in page 71 what happened to the other pages. Was there a declaration for the unanimous informant? Did anyone notice that the font is in RED what is that? I hope this is not the final doc. that was submitted to the court my God it is awful it is almost assuming that the reader is stupid.

flyingfrog wrote on Nov 8, 2006 2:44 PM:To ex-GPA - A punishment (in this case court case) is meant to either (a) rehabilitate (b) punish and/or (c) prevent future crime. GPA is obviously not trying to rehabilitate the defendants unless they possess an altruism I am not aware of. If they are concerned about preventing future hacking, their money would be better spent on beefing up their technical security. That leaves (b) punish. Do you want your childrens' educational funds spent on punishing a group of people who were (are) trying to expose a grade-changing scandal? Sounds like obfuscation to me.

kathy wrote on Nov 8, 2006 3:08 PM:Well, it looks like Penny oops...GPA Admin are off the wagon again! I wonder if it's public record how much money we tax payers are spending for the suits being brought up? p.s. what's wrong with explosing a school that is not looking out for our children when it comes to their education?

Mimi wrote on Nov 8, 2006 8:01 PM: I notice that the PDF is in bold RED I think that there are rules of the court that they have to comply with. Crossing out things is tacky and the RED is tacky. I wonder if the court accepted this brief? Ha, probably the courts don't usually care about rules they just case about who is paying for their next trip to the Bahamas or who is taking them golfing.

Danny wrote on Nov 8, 2006 8:03 PM:Billable hours is the name of the game, it is not about the kids just keep our meters running.

alexa wrote on Nov 10, 2006 3:19 PM:if there was an actual "grade change scandal" this group of people was trying to expose and that is the reason they have for illegally tapping into GPA's database, then why haven't they come out in the open to the media with their information about these grade changes? Perhaps there wasn't anything to expose? Or perhaps they are the ones that changing the records of GPA students? Has anyone wondered why this group of people and internet bulletin board has made so many allegations but has not come forward with any proof?

The real Alexa here wrote on Nov 10, 2006 9:33 PM:It sounds like Dadofboy is at it again. Maybe these teachers are very analytical and cannot put together the who, what, when and where. However there are and have been many questions and allegations with this charter school. I think Guajome has more Teflon then Michael Jackson. It also has some political allies that have sworn to protect charter schools no matter how sleaze and cheese they are. Charter schools are all about making money and not about the kids. It is a fast $$$ gig. If you don’t believe it look into the people behind these charter schools and their management Co. and their affiliation with local politicians…….

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