HERMITAGE — The Hermitage Middle School principal has sued four former students over “demeaning” and “demoralizing” Myspace.com profiles they created about him.

Eric W. Trosch, who was co-principal of Hickory High School at the time, said in the defamation lawsuit filed in Mercer County Common Pleas Court that the three profiles, created in December 2005, damaged his reputation — possibly permanently — humiliated him and impaired his earning capacity.

Trosch filed the lawsuit against Justin Layshock, Thomas Cooper and brothers Brendan and Christopher Gebhart.

Layshock publicly acknowledged creating a Myspace profile of Trosch in a federal lawsuit he and his parents, Donald and Cheryl Layshock, filed against Trosch, Hermitage School District, co-principal Chris Gill and Superintendent Karen A. Ionta.

The Layshocks, who were represented by the American Civil Liberties Union, said Justin’s profile was protected by the First Amendment, rendering the school’s punishment of Justin illegal. That punishment included a suspension and reassignment to an alternative education program.

The names of Cooper and the Gebharts had not surfaced publicly before. Trosch’s attorney, John E. Quinn of Portnoy & Quinn, Pittsburgh, said the names were uncovered by Hermitage police.

Mercer County District Attorney James P. Epstein would not confirm whether Cooper and the Gebharts were identified as having created Myspace profiles in a criminal investigation conducted by Hermitage police. City Police Chief Patrick B. McElhinny, who has handled all releases of information concerning the Myspace investigation, could not be reached for comment.

Quinn said there was a fourth Myspace profile, which he called “the most graphic and lurid of them all,” but its creator has not been discovered.

Michael L. Magulick of the Pittsburgh law firm Wayman, Irvin and McAuley, who is representing Cooper, said he could not comment on the suit because he had not met with Cooper. He said a meeting is expected soon.

“It’s much too early to really comment on this,” Magulick said. “This is going to require an in-depth investigation and analysis.”

Donald Layshock said he could not comment on Trosch’s lawsuit because of the pending federal lawsuit.

Gina M. Zumpella of the Pittsburgh law firm of Walsh, Collis and Blackmer, which is representing the Gebharts, also declined to comment.

Trosch declined to comment.

While school principals are the subject of student graffiti, unflattering nicknames and other abuse at some point in their careers, Trosch felt the Myspace profiles “went far and beyond what you would see on a bathroom wall in a school,” Quinn said.

In his deposition for the Layshock lawsuit, Trosch said he first heard about one of the profiles on Dec. 11, 2005, when his daughter, Kelsey, a Hickory ninth-grader at the time, received an e-mail from a friend that said a profile of Trosch was on Myspace.

Kelsey was crying when she called her dad into the kitchen to tell him, Trosch said.

“She was pretty upset,” he said, adding that she had seen the profile. “She was crying ’cause the contents of the profile are disturbing.”

Trosch told Gill about the site the next day, a Monday. Trosch said he was upset and concerned about it and close to tears.

District technology coordinator Frank Gingras was able to get the site taken down, Trosch said, adding that he called police on Dec. 13, 2005.

Kelsey also told her dad of a second profile, on Dec. 15, 2005.

“Kids were coming up to her” in school, Trosch said.

Trosch learned of a third Web site, although parts of his deposition possibly concerning that discovery have not been made public.

Referring to Layshock’s profile, Trosch said, “It was degrading, it’s demeaning, it’s demoralizing, it’s shocking.”

He used the same terms to describe another profile.

“I try to picture it driving down the interstate and seeing a billboard up there of you, and looking and seeing any type of information that’s on there,” he said. “It would be one of shock.”

Trosch called a meeting before school Dec. 16, 2005, to inform teachers of the profiles and said he was embarrassed to have to make the announcement. He had to step out of the room and asked Gill to continue, he said.

All of the Web sites were disabled, but officials have said many students called up the profiles while at school. District officials spent a lot of time trying to prevent student access and investigating the sites, and ended up blocking all student access to computers, which caused the cancellation of computer-reliant classes for several days.

Myspace is a social network Web site service that has become wildly popular with young people, and is used as a marketing tool for performers and politicians.

A person can set up a profile of himself or herself on Myspace, and “friends” can attach links to the profile.

In the suit, Trosch alleges the students created profiles of him without his consent, and used a photograph of him taken from the district’s Web site.

The suit said Cooper’s profile of Trosch stated that Trosch’s favorite movie was pornographic and that he tried to intimidate his students. Layshock’s site said Trosch kept a keg of beer behind his desk and smoked marijuana, and the Gebharts’ site said Trosch liked to have sex with students and brutalize women, the suit said.

Hickory students posted pictures of themselves as friends on the sites, the suit said.

In testimony in the federal suit, Layshock said he was aware of the other sites before he created his on his grandmother’s computer

“I really had no specific reason to do it, which made me feel worse for having done it, other than I was bored and I did it,” he testified.

Layshock said he was trying to be funny.

“I didn’t think how it would affect Mr. Trosch and his family,” he said.

Trosch is seeking unspecified punitive damages.

In a related matter, Cincinnati Insurance Co., Fairfield, Ohio, has filed a federal suit against Trosch and the Gebharts over a request by the Gebharts that the insurance company provide a defense to them under a homeowners insurance policy obtained by their parents, Dr. James R. and Cynthia A. Gebhart.

Cincinnati said the policy requires it to defend the Gebharts against suits seeking damages for personal injury, which includes allegations of defamation of character.

However, the company said it does not have to cover personal injury claims if the injury is caused with the knowledge that the act would violate another’s rights, and if the injury was caused by written publication of material when the insured knows the information is false.

Cincinnati Insurance is asking the court to rule that it does not have to provide coverage for or defend against Trosch’s suit. In the interim, it has retained Walsh, Collis and Blackmer to defend the Gebharts, Quinn said.

Quinn said he expected there would be challenges such as those filed by Cincinnati Insurance. Most homeowners insurance policies have some sort of coverage for defamation lawsuits. He said Magulick was retained through such a policy.

The insurance companies hold the purse strings for a possible payout if Trosch is successful at trial or agrees to settle, Quinn said.

“From a practical standpoint, you’re not going to get much out of a bunch of 18-year-olds,” Quinn said.

He also said that the question of whether insurance policies would cover the creation of a Web profile is new in legal circles.

“This is not like putting something in the newspaper,” he said.

The criminal investigation remains open, but Epstein would not comment further.

In the Layshocks’ suit, each side has asked a judge to decide the case based on the information presented so far. Each side is within the allotted time period to respond to each others’ request, and U.S. District Court Judge Terrence C. McVerry, Pittsburgh, will make a decision later.