E-Mails Probe School Leaders’ Private Lives

Missouri Court Finds Web Operator Violated Law on Electronic Mail

A young Michigan man who runs a Web site that supplies information about public schools sent hundreds of e-mails this fall to superintendents in four states, demanding that they reveal their sexual orientation and threatening to list them as gay if they did not respond.

Jeffrey S. Kowalski, 22, said he thought the information would be helpful to parents using his Web site. He also hoped that it might increase “hits” on the advertisements on his site, which could generate income for him.

Missouri law-enforcement authorities, however,...