Judge tosses hacker lawsuit

TULSA, Okla. (AP) -- A federal judge has thrown out a lawsuit<br>filed by a Broken Arrow student who was disciplined for crashing<br>the district's e-mail system.<br> <br>U.S. Senior District Judge

Thursday, September 9th 1999, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

TULSA, Okla. (AP) -- A federal judge has thrown out a lawsuit
filed by a Broken Arrow student who was disciplined for crashing
the district's e-mail system.

U.S. Senior District Judge H. Dale Cook found the school did not
violate Anthony Towry's constitutional rights and said that courts
should not interfere with a district's final discipline decision.

Towry, now a senior at Broken Arrow Senior High School, was
suspended May 5, 1998, for a total of one semester for violating
student discipline codes. He sued the district for $2 million,
alleging rights violations and excessive punishment.

Towry's parents and attorney were caught off guard by Monday's
ruling, which came nearly a year after the case was filed.

"He never broke any laws," said Mark Towry, Anthony's father.
"This happened at my home. I should punish him and not them."

The teen admitted using a program to send 2,600 messages into
the school district's computers, which caused the entire e-mail
system to shut down for one day. His lawyer said the teen didn't
know what the computer program would do.

The teen and another student also were accused of altering the
district's Web page by drawing clown faces, horns and mustaches on
teacher pictures. The page came up in a school computer lab.