Not Just Greenwich: Norwalk High School 'Smut List' Emerges; Principal Responds

Norwalk High School Principal Leonard Mecca said his school deals with recent cases of cyber-bullying about the same way schools 30 years ago dealt with the off-line version: Stop what you can and agree with those who complain that a hurtful thing has been done.

"This is going around," he said. "We'll deal with it."

In the most recent incident, someone set up a YouTube video and spoke the names of high school girls, mostly from Norwalk, but also of some other area communities. After most of the names, the narrator says "you a smut" or variations of that statement.

The unchanging image on the "video" is the chest of a boy in a T-shirt with the phrase "I [heart] SMUT" printed on it. It lasts for four minutes, and according to the counter on the YouTube Web page, the video has been played just over 10,000 times.

This kind of cyber-bullying is "making the rounds," Mecca said. Similar lists on social media sites have been created in many other school districts, he said, and he's heard of similar incidents happening in Westchester County and somewhere in Connecticut. A similar incident recently occurred in Greenwich.

The administration on Friday warned of "consequences" to anyone involved in the Facebook and cell phone postings of a last week that identified several female students.

Meanwhile, students with some saying there actually were two lists — one generated from Westchester County, the other from a sophomore GHS student who targeted popular fellow classmates, with whom she did not get along. Several students also said that there were a total of four altercations at the school earlier this week following the lists going viral on the Internet, not the two as reported by school officials.

In Norwalk, neither police officials in the Youth Bureau nor Brien McMahon High School Principal Suzanne Brown Koroshetz returned telephone messages on Friday and Monday asking about the incident.

For school officials, Mecca said, "There's very little to do" in reaction to each specific case. About a month ago, a similar "smut list" was posted on Facebook. "Our school resource officer was able to have the list pulled down by Facebook," he said.

Students who complain that their names were put up on the Web are told, "I'm sorry that it happened. Sometimes we find the student who was the source. If we can discover them, fine. If not, hang in there."

Mecca says there's nothing new in passing around hurtful statements. He pointed out that just about anyone sitting behind a computer can put up similar lists.

"It used to be notes," he said. "The venue has changed. That's all. Now it's on the Internet."