Turlok High School hacker won't be expelled and criminal case may be dropped

Source: SNP

High school trustees voted 3-1 Tuesday night not to expel a student accused of breaking into the Turlock School Districts computer network. The student, Turlock High School senior Robert Lee, will be allowed to stay through graduation in June as long as he does not use district computers and meets other conditions. Lee, 17, had claimed that he broke into the system only to show his computer teacher and the network administrator that it was vulnerable to hacking, investigators said. District administrators at first recommended that trustees expel Lee, but they relented after a meeting last week with the student's attorney. "It's a win-win situation, I think, on both sides," said Gil Ogden, coordinator of pupil services for the district, after Tuesday's vote by the board of the Turlock Joint Union High School District.

Neither Lee nor his attorney, Robert Forkner, was present for the vote, which was taken in open session after a closed hearing. Trustees Charles Crivelli, Debbie Erlenbusch and Stephen Smith voted to keep Lee in school. Trustee John Sims voted no because he disagreed with some of the conditions, but he said he could not discuss them in public. Trustee Marianne Mayhew excused herself from the vote. Lee broke into the system through a campus terminal after the network administrator insisted that this could not be done, an investigator with the Stanislaus County Sheriff's Department said last month. Lee obtained an encrypted file containing user names and passwords for the districts' 1,200 employees, as well as for students using the system, the investigator said. Lee then deciphered the file on a home computer and showed it to his teacher to prove that the network needed better security, the investigator said. Although there was no finding that Lee took or altered personnel data or grade records, district officials told employees to guard against identity theft, which could lead to unauthorized use of credit cards or bank accounts. Lee was suspended and arrested in early February. Under the agreement, he returned to school Friday and district and law enforcement officials will seek to dismiss the criminal case. Lee also must write a letter of apology and not talk to the media about the matter.