'Smut List' in Area High Schools Raises Concerns of Cyberbullying

A demeaning list of nearly 100 high school girls sent out via Blackberry Messenger and Facebook is raising concerns of cyberbullying in eight area school districts—including Harrison—after it surfaced Tuesday afternoon.

The sexually-charged list, titled "The Westchester Smut List" includes in many cases the first and last names of 99 girls from the districts. Almost all of the girls listed are younger than 18.

A Facebook page listing the names was taken down early Thursday morning. The list was also sent out via mass texts in Harrison High School Tuesday afternoon, according to a student who asked not to be named.

"It was out of nowhere," said the student. "Like, everyone got it."

The message was sent out around sixth period at HHS Tuesday. The list, and who was on it, became common knowledge at the school by the end of the day, according to the student.

The list includes students from Harrison, Port Chester, Greenwich, Scarsdale, Rye, New Rochelle and Yonkers. 

It is unknown who created the list or where it came from. The Facebook page, which was posted on Tuesday at 6:37 p.m., garnered hundreds of comments and more than 7,000 "likes" in 24 hours before it was taken down.

A Facebook page dedicated to having the site removed went from less than 10 "likes" Wednesday morning to more than 1,700 Thursday. Comments on that page include links to anti-bullying sites and requests that the "smut list" be removed. 

"This is disgusting, whoever did this should be banned," said one commenter on that page.

Eastchester High School seniors Hillary Pasternick, 18, and Dana Licursi, 18, said that there hadn’t been much talk of the list today, but that it was a bigger deal the day it came out.

About six girls from Eastchester were estimated to be on the list, according to the students.

“I think it was really bad,” Pasternick said. “[It’s] terrible that people would do that to each other.” 

Harrison Police Chief Anthony Marraccini said his department was made aware of the list Wednesday and is currently looking into the situation. He said police are looking to see if any laws were broken by the list's creators. If so the department would consider forcing Facebook to hand over whoever made the post.

He said he has no reason at this time to believe the list originated in Harrison.

In Eastchester, police chief Timothy Bonci said this morning that, “to the best of my knowledge, no one has reported it to the police department.”

Bronxville police chief Christopher Satriale said that no information had come to the department that any students in the village had been impacted by the posting. He did note that if anyone had been impacted, that the department would like to hear from them.

And at the Bronxville School, assistant superintendent of schools, John Kehoe also said that there wasn’t much talk of the list at the school.

“At this time, we have no firm confirmation that any of our students are on the list,” he said.

 Additional reporting by Marisa Iallonardo.