PITTSBURGH — A federal judge hearing the “Mean Girls” lawsuit has placed restrictions on who can see internal documents about the false sexual assault allegations that started the case.

U.S. District Judge Mark Hornak ordered the modification of a protective order Monday.

The lawsuit, filed in October by Alecia and Michael Flood Jr. in U.S. District Court in Pittsburgh, claims the Floods' minor son, identified as T.F., suffered physical torment and psychological trauma as a result of false sexual assault allegations.

A protective order for investigative materials regarding the false sexual assault allegations was put in place on Dec. 6 to prevent the “disclosure of the materials” with a concern that there would likely be a “disclosure of the documents to the entire world via the Internet.”

Hornak modified the order to provide responses to the request, made by defendants David and Christine Seaman, and to all parties in this case “against whom judgment has not been entered.”

Those receiving the responses and the accompanying documents, information, items and materials are prohibited from disclosing or disseminating them to anyone not involved in the litigation as counsel, witnesses, experts, consultants or support staff of counsel.

Any use of the materials must also “be done under seal” along with all deposition testimony concerning those materials.

All other aspects of the court order from Dec. 6 “shall remain in full force and effect,” including the obligations to identify, segregate and preserve all documents, information, items and materials regarding the sexual assault investigation.

Defendants E.S., Meghan Villegas, Seneca Valley School District and Butler County also filed defenses of their motions to dismiss in mid-January.

Villegas' defense included that she didn't “publish” defamatory statements, and therefore could not be held responsible for a count of defamation. It also stated that her parents, Pam and George Villegas Jr., “to avoid liability,” would have had to monitor Meghan at work or sent someone to monitor her.

“The public would not be served by such a solution, but instead would be extremely inconvenient.”

Butler County defended that the plaintiffs failed to identify “a policymaker regarding an alleged policy not to prosecute females,” which means they did not properly identify a Butler County defendant nor a policy which could be considered discriminatory against T.F.

Similarly, Seneca Valley School District stated that the plaintiffs misidentified those at fault for the consequences T.F. suffered as a result of the false allegations, arguing that the school did not cause T.F.'s inability to attend classes but his incarceration, in which the school had no part, did.

“It appears that plaintiffs contend that school district had an affirmative responsibility to publicly humiliate the female students because T.F. suffered embarrassment on account of those persons' allegedly false accusations,” the response to the lawsuit brief said. “This argument is pure nonsense — there is simply no legal basis for such a medieval demand.”

The school district also argued that there was no proof T.F. suffered sexual harassment specifically, which was the type of harassment ascribed to his argument of gender-based discrimination and “class of one” theory.

Minor defendants K.S., C.S. and H.R. and their parents, David and Christy Sherk, David and Christine Seaman and David and Lynn Reina had not responded to the Floods' Jan. 11 filed response.