SAN DIEGO -- A federal judge on Thursday denied a former Guajome Park Academy employee's request for a judgment in his favor without a trial in a lawsuit the Vista school filed against him.

Judge Marilyn Huff ruled in a 16-page decision that Guajome Park Academy had shown that disputes about "material facts" exist in the case. A request for summary judgment without a trial can be granted only if a judge decides that "there is no genuine issue as to any material fact," Huff wrote.

Originally filed March 24, 2006, the school's lawsuit alleged that David McCulloch, a former employee, and Beau Duperry, a former student, wrongly obtained grade information from the school's computer database to try to prove an allegation that a student's grade was changed improperly. The school has called the grade-change allegation false.

Duperry has accepted a civil judgment against him and agreed to pay the school $11,000. In court documents, McCulloch has described the allegations against him as "groundless" and has argued that Duperry acted alone in accessing the database without authorization.