DISTRICT DENIES WEB SABOTAGE.

Byline: Karen Maeshiro Staff Writer

LANCASTER - Antelope Valley Union High School District officials say an honest mistake by an employee using a software program led a computer to repeatedly attempt to download information from a Proposition 38 Web site.

The Web site for Proposition 38, a ballot measure that would give parents $4,000 vouchers to send children to private schools, was bombarded for 90 minutes Oct. 13 with a command every second.

``The alleged attack of the 38Yes Campaign Web site was not an intentional act of someone trying to cripple the campaign, but rather a teacher or staff member installing a software program that would allow the Web site to be downloaded for educational purposes,'' the high school district said in a written statement released Friday.

Prop. 38 officials characterized the incident as a sabotage attempt, but high school officials said the pro-voucher group exaggerated the incident.

``Proposition 38 is an emotional issue and huge decision for the voters of California to consider. There are those that will stretch the truth for their campaign purpose. Unfortunately, our district was a casualty of their purpose,'' Superintendent Robert Girolamo said.

The high school board adopted a resolution opposing the proposition.

``We weren't exaggerating. We were asking what happened. We put out the facts,'' said Greg Mitchell, e-campaign manager for the proposition. ``If it was as simple as a software glitch, why did it take them so long to figure it out?''

Proposition 38 campaign officials issued a press release a week after the incident saying that someone at Lancaster High School used a software program that requested two pages from the Web site every second between noon and 1:20 p.m.

Staffers with Digital Campaigns, a San Francisco company hired to administer the Web site, traced the program to a computer server in the Los Angeles County Office of Education, where officials said the source was a personal computer at Lancaster High School, campaign officials said.

High school district officials said the county office did confirm to Digital Campaigns that the Internet protocol address was the high school district and a school in the Lancaster area but it had no way of knowing which school it was.

According to the district, county officials suggested to Digital Campaigns that the problem was more probably caused by ``buggy software'' than by a hacker attack.

The software program is called Webcapture, which is used by educators for instructional purposes. The software program has the potential to make continuous hits to a Web site, high school officials said.

District officials said they forwarded a letter with their findings to the Proposition 38 campaign, but campaign officials said Friday they had not received it.

``We assumed the worst since the high school district has endorsed against this campaign,'' Mitchell said. ``If it was really a mistake or a glitch, I don't know why they didn't call us back and tell us that. If they did that, we wouldn't have put out the press release.''

Mitchell said county officials said the cause of the incident may have been a software glitch or a mistake, that they would look into it, but the campaign never heard back from them.