©Copyright The Journal News. Reprinted with permission.

Teens' Sex-Gossip Web Site Shut Down
Jonathan Bandler and Alison Bert - Journal News June 5, 2001

NEW CASTLE — A sleazy Web site that offered sexual gossip about dozens of Horace Greeley High School girls has soured the end of the school year and prompted a police investigation.

The Web site was shut down last week, and two 18-year-old seniors suspected of running it were arrested. Police said yesterday that at least 14 other male students were involved with the Web site in some way.

Police did not say who shut the site down, and that they did not release details of the arrests last week because the investigation was ongoing.

The site included biographies of as many as 40 girls and detailed the alleged sexual exploits of some of them. There was personal information on some girls' families, and the girls' phone numbers and addresses were listed. Police said at least 16 boys had the password to the Web site — set up through Yahoo GeoCities — but they were not sure how many students had seen it.

"It was a rather secret endeavor accessible to only a select group of people," said New Castle Detective Sgt. James Carroll. "In many cases, there was information put out that was very sensitive, very private and information that caused a lot of anguish. All of these girls said they felt exploited by it."

The Web site was still the talk of the school yesterday, with students irate over the invasion of privacy and anxious about the school's image.

"Greeley's a great place where students can really express themselves, and this computer thing put an end to that — to the ambience at our school," junior Sean Baumgold said yesterday. "It's just something horrible that happened to our school. Everyone is upset by it — not just girls but guys, too."

School officials notified police a week ago, and the two seniors were charged the following day with second-degree aggravated harassment, a misdemeanor. Although defendants between the ages of 16 and 19 can be granted youthful offender status only by a judge, Carroll said it was department policy not to release the names of those who could get that status.

The two seniors were released without bail. They are due in Town Court on June 14.

"It was an unfortunate incident. I don't think it was pervasive among the school population," said Superintendent Donald Parker, who emphasized that only a small percentage of the school's 1,016 students were affected. "We dealt with it; appropriate disciplinary action has been taken, and the site has been closed down."

Senior Mike Weinberg said he was angered by the Web site because those responsible crossed the line between typical teen-age behavior and public humiliation.

Parker would not disclose how many students were disciplined, what the punishment entailed or whether the incident would keep any seniors from graduating.

Most female students interviewed yesterday would not give their names. They said they had not seen the Web site but felt disgusted and betrayed by it.

Police would not identify any of the victims, and none could be reached for comment. A male student who would not give his name described one of the suspected ringleaders as "one of the straightest-edged students in the school."

Senior Mike Weinberg said he was angered by the Web site because those responsible crossed the line between typical teen-age behavior and public humiliation.

"You hang out with your friends, and you make stupid comments, but no one acts on it. No one makes a Web site," Weinberg said.

Although no Greeley students were threatened, a spokesman for the Westchester District Attorney's Office compared the site to threats of violence put on the Internet by students in recent years.

"We've certainly seen situations in which students have used the Internet to communicate threats, and that's not that dissimilar from what may have occurred right here, because harassment is to some degree a threatening communication," spokesman David Hebert said. "Legitimate Web sites exist. When does something that is protected free expression cross the line? That's what we're contending may have happened here, and that's why these charges were filed."