Last modified: Saturday, February 10, 2007 12:18 AM EST Casey Sughrue of Plainville, a senior at King Philip Regional High School, said state Sen. Scott Browns remarks have been the talk of the school since he met with students earlier in the week. (Staff photo by MARK STOCKWELL) KP students cry foul BY RICK FOSTER SUN CHRONICLE STAFF WRENTHAM - State Sen. Scott Brown acknowledged reading online student comments that included profanities to a high school class, saying student postings on a facebook.com page critical of his anti-gay marriage stand portrayed him as a devil and contained "inappropriate and vulgar" statements about him and his family. Some of the comments from students at King Philip Regional High School reportedly were aimed at Brown's daughter, Ayla, former "American Idol" finalist and now a student at Boston College. Brown said Friday he repeated two profanities and gave the names of students who authored the comments, but was only reading back what students had posted on the Web site. The Republican senator spoke to 80 to 100 students Thursday in the school library. Brown said he spent less than two minutes addressing the students' comments before going on to talk about the legislative process, stem cell research, political divisiveness and other topics of general interest. However, a school spokesperson said the one-hour discussion focused primarily on the gay rights issue. One of the students who wrote comments on facebook.com admitted in an e-mail to a reporter that his comments regarding Brown and homosexuality were "not the most classy," but were intended to be satirical. He called Brown's reaction in class "childish." Brown said he found nothing humorous. "I've never been portrayed as a devil with horns and a pitchfork before," Brown said, adding he was particularly upset about remarks that referred to his family. Nonetheless, teachers who were present during Brown's remarks asked him to stop, and the senator said he agreed to "move on." School officials were upset by Brown's remarks as well. "References to profanity and student names is inappropriate in a school setting," said Superintendent Richard Robbat. He said Brown apologized to him and to school Principal Elaine Hanson following the speech. Robbat added that one of the teachers in the library interrupted the presentation to announce in front of students that the use of profanity is unacceptable. Brown, who opposes gay marriage, said he requested time to speak to King Philip students several weeks ago after receiving e-mails from constituents concerned about an earlier discussion that reportedly involved a pro-gay rights history teacher. However, Brown said he did not learn of the facebook.com entries until he was tipped off by a resident on Wednesday. The teacher did not return a phone call from a reporter Friday. In an e-mail, teacher Joe Ferreira referred questions to Robbat. Robbat said the school's policy concerning debate of controversial issues specifies an objective approach with emphasis on documentation and analysis. The superintendent declined to comment on the teacher involved. Referring to the gay marriage issue, Brown said he passed out to the students printed copies of both pro and con e-mails he received in reaction to his position, as well as material from facebook.com. "I said some people love my stance, some people hate my stance and apparently there are some people here (at King Philip) who hate me," Brown said. He read from facebook.com comments, and referred to some writers by name. Some students reacted angrily to Brown's presentation. "Sen. Brown's use of curse words from the facebook page was completely uncalled for," one girl wrote in an e-mail. "He could have left those words out." One male student said some students cried after being pointed out as the author of e-mails. "That's outrageous," Brown said. "If they shed tears, it's because they were laughing." He said some students approached him after the speech to thank him and said they did not agree with the comments left on facebook.com. Brown said he also received some e-mails critical of his performance from parents and students. However, he said he has received many more supportive e-mails from around the country as a result of widespread news accounts.