Area high schools are becoming the subject of some off-color tweets on a Twitter account, SMACKHighMe.

The SMACKHighMe account, which bills itself as “Maine's only high school #SMACK talk, news, jokes & entertainment account (and) website,” has more than 7,500 followers and is growing by the minute.

Recent posts on SMACKHighMe include a derogatory comment about girls' bathrooms in Boothbay and a comment of a sexual nature about Wiscasset students. Another post makes a derogatory, non-sexual comment about Lincoln Academy's field hockey teams. Those posts do not mention the high schools by name, only stating the towns’ names.

The SMACKHigh Twitter page asks followers to submit content, which gets posted anonymously. Some tweets include disparaging remarks aimed at rival schools, objectionable self-deprecating humor and photos of students sleeping in class.

Work was underway on November 22 to block access to SMACKhighMe at Wiscasset High School, Principal Deb Taylor said

"In the meantime, our staff will remain vigilant about any potentially bullying or harassing language on this or any other site," Taylor wrote in an email response to a question from the Wiscasset Newspaper.

“We are also planning several seminars with our students on digital citizenship to discuss the larger issues sites like this present (i.e.) how to responsibly represent oneself and behave on the Internet,” Taylor wrote. “I am not aware of any incidents of bullying or harassment related to this site.”

The school was already planning several digital citizenship seminars for students, to discuss issues such as how to behave on the Internet, Taylor wrote. "But awareness of this site gives us another example to include in our discussions."

Boothbay Region High School Principal Dan Welch said the school's Acceptable Use Policy blocks social media sites during the school day, however students are able to access social media sites on school devices outside of school.

“If inappropriate things are being said with our devices, you know, taking pictures of people without their permission, that's a violation of the AUP, and then we do get involved,” Welch said.

Welch said he had seen some of the posts on SMACKHighMe that referenced Boothbay, but nothing has been brought to his attention to be a violation at this point. He said it's hard to tell if the Twitter feed is a forum for online bullying.

“I think this is an offshoot of the way kids express humor now,” Welch said. “It used to be back when we were in school and they didn't have these technology devices, we would make comments like this sitting around a gaming system or what not. Now so much of their life is immersed in the digital world.”

Welch said he plans on sending information to parents letting them know about SMACKHighMe and reminding students about the AUP and appropriateness on social media.

SMACKHigh extends beyond Maine schools. At least 30 accounts have popped up on Twitter for different states, along with SMACKU, an account geared towards college students. It is unclear how many schools SMACKHigh has referenced, but on November 22, the SMACKHigh Facebook page reported to have over 100,000 Twitter followers.

An email sent to the administrator of www.smackhigh.com was not returned. A domain ownership search traced the website back to a New Jersey postal address.

A person named Frank Ludiciani is linked to the domain account. A Twitter account holder of the same name is enrolled at Harvard University in Boston, and the description under that user’s account says “going state-to-state w/ SMACK High & its 100k+ following.”