VISTA -- A former Guajome Park Academy student who was accused in a civil lawsuit of accessing the charter school's computer system without authorization has agreed to pay more than $11,000 to the school and to "fully and unconditionally cooperate" with the school's investigation of the alleged computer breach, court documents stated.
Download The InjunctionFormer student Beau Duperry agreed to accept a civil judgment against him and in favor of Guajome Park Academy. Duperry waived his rights to appeal or challenge the judgment, court documents stated.
The judgment also permanently prohibits Duperry from disclosing to others any information taken from the school's computer system and from accessing or helping others access the school's computer network.
Guajome Park Academy filed a lawsuit March 24 in federal court in San Diego against Duperry and former school employee Dave McCulloch, alleging that they inappropriately accessed the school's computer system to try to prove an allegation that a student's grade had been changed improperly.
In documents filed with the court, the school calls the grade-changing allegation false.
The lawsuit alleged that data about one student's grades were posted on the Web site guajomeunderground.org, a popular forum for critics of the school's administrators.
Although the judgment to which Duperry agreed is final, the case against McCulloch still is pending. However, McCulloch, who is representing himself without an attorney, has agreed to be bound by a preliminary court order prohibiting him from accessing the school's computer network or disclosing any information alleged to have been taken from the computer network until his case goes to trial.
The agreement between McCulloch and the school stated that it is not an admission by McCulloch of any action or of any liability to the school. It also stated that neither the school nor McCulloch can disclose to any "third party" any information about the agreement, except to refer to the agreement in documents filed with the court in the future.
The separate agreements Guajome Park Academy reached with Duperry and McCulloch were filed Thursday in the U.S. District Court in San Diego. A hearing in the case had been scheduled to occur Monday, but the agreements made it unnecessary.
Neither Duperry nor McCulloch could be reached Monday for comment. Arthur Sloane, Duperry's attorney, and Mark Leonard, the school's attorney, also could not be reached for comment.
Carla Skaggs, the chief business officer at Guajome Park Academy, said Monday afternoon that she could not comment on ongoing litigation but that the documents in the case "speak for themselves."
Guajome Park Academy's lawsuit alleged that school officials learned in July 2005 that two people had posted messages on guajomeunderground.org that discussed accessing the school's database without authorization to retrieve grade information about a student who had graduated. The school then launched an investigation of two employees who "could potentially be involved" in the unauthorized computer access discussed in the messages on the Web site, the lawsuit alleged.
The school learned in the investigation that the database had been accessed without permission about 18 times between June 17, 2005, and July 6, 2005, and that the confidential grades of a student had been posted on the guajomeunderground.org, the lawsuit alleged.
A computer forensics investigation found that the unauthorized computer access originated from a computer owned by McCulloch, who was Duperry's roommate, the lawsuit alleged.
The lawsuit alleged Duperry's login identification and password were used 10 times to access the database without authorization between June 17, 2005, and July 6, 2005. All of those incidents originated from McCulloch's computer, the lawsuit alleged.
The lawsuit alleged the school's database was accessed from McCulloch's computer three more times with McCulloch's login identification and password.
Contact staff writer Scott Marshall at (760) 631-6623 or smarshall@nctimes.com.
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