School Forces Students to Delete Facebook Pages

Schools these days seem to have no compunctions about policing students’ use of social media. An Indiana teenager was recently expelled for swearing in a tweet, and now a Brooklyn, New York school is forcing its charges to delete their Facebook accounts — or face expulsion themselves.

Beis Rivkah High School, a Jewish institution for girls, says the Facebook ban has been in place for two years but has been ignored by some of its students — so those young ladies were given a note saying they must delete their pages and pay a $100 fine, or they’ll be kicked out of school.

“In religious communities they don’t want anybody to have the internet, especially not Facebook,” said school president Benzion Stock. “It’s not a modest thing for a religious Jewish man or woman to be on.”

Parents are upset about the forced deletions, saying just last year students were asked to create Facebook pages to vote for Beis Rivka in a charity giveaway. The school administration, however, says it was parents who were asked to sign up, not the kids themselves.

[Crown Heights]