Mt. Lebanon school officials expect to have recommendations next week on any discipline to be meted out in the case of a "Top 25" list with vulgar descriptions of female high school students.

Human Resources Director William Addy is expected to have a report on Superintendent George Wilson's desk when the superintendent returns from a week out of the country on Monday, said Cissy Bowman, district spokeswoman.

She said the district will not release the report because it contains confidential student information but expects to issue a statement next week.

The superintendent learned of the list early this month, and some have expressed frustration over the pace of the investigation.

Ms. Bowman said the district has been working as quickly as possible. She said the case initially was turned over to police, who have not determined that a crime was committed.

"The protocol for that is when the police start an investigation, we make sure we're not interfering with any of the criminal investigation. We defer to the police," Ms. Bowman said.

She said the district was on spring break for a week, and its investigation began upon return on April 17.

Attorney William H. Difenderfer, who represents one of the boys involved in making the list, said, "I do feel that there's frustration with the administration not acting sooner on this on really both sides."

Mr. Difenderfer said he has reread the list and the descriptions "very closely" and he "can certainly understand how some girls could be very hurt by it. Hopefully, there's a middle ground where everybody can resolve this thing. There's got to be some consequences to the guys that are realistic."

He added, "I'm very fearful with this publicity that the administration will go over the top with these boys. They're very good kids. I know them well. They all are college-bound. They all have very constructive lives ahead of them. ... These kids are all decent kids. My client is extremely remorseful."

The list includes grades for girls' faces, breasts and buttocks and talks about drug use, oral sex, sexually transmitted disease and weight.

A key question in determining what the district can do is whether the behavior took place in or out of school.

Attorney Ira Weiss, who is a solicitor for Pittsburgh and some other districts but is not involved in the Mt. Lebanon case, said federal courts have held -- in cases involving Internet threats or ridicule -- "even the most extreme type of communication away from school is very difficult to address. It's a difficult process absent some real tangible impact on the educational process."

Bill Andrews, another school attorney who is not involved in the Mt. Lebanon case, said the First Amendment right of freedom of speech generally prevails "unless the actions took place on school property."

Like other districts, Mt. Lebanon has a sexual harassment policy that includes student-to-student harassment.

Part of the student handbook, the policy is explained at assemblies by the high school principal at the beginning of each year. In addition, teachers review each of the policies in more depth during homeroom period in September, Ms. Bowman said.

As a result of the current situation, she said, "We're looking into different programs to work with our students to make our students more aware of the issue of sexual harassment beyond what we normally do."

One of the largest damage awards for student sexual harassment -- $40,000 against a school district that failed to take appropriate action -- was a 1993 settlement in Minnesota, according to Gary Gorman, enforcement supervisor for the Minnesota Department of Human Rights.

That complaint was brought by a high school student who was on a list of girls with whom boys most wanted to have sex.

Nationwide, most school districts long ago instituted policies on sexual harassment, as have most companies and institutions, and can be held liable for not adhering to them.

In the early 1990s, the American Association of University Women compiled a survey on the issue and said the most common form of harassment in schools is students harassing students, as opposed to staffers harassing one another or students.

The organization identified 14 forms of harassment experienced by students, including "sexual comments" and the "spreading of sexual rumors."

In one case it cited, the U.S. Department of Education found a district in violation of federal law for not responding to a complaint by a first-grader about being subjected to sexual name-calling on a school bus.

Fatima Goss-Graves, counsel for the National Women's Law Center, an advocacy group for women and girls based in Washington, D.C., said Mt. Lebanon's "Top 25" list "should be a clear violation of any school district's sexual harassment policy."

She said the district should take strong measures to make sure "there is no 2007 version" of the list.

It remains unclear where the Top 25 list was created and to what extent it was circulated at the school. But, Ms. Goss-Graves said, "if it is intertwined with what is happening in the school, the school has to take some action."