North Jersey – by Hannan Adely
A Fair Lawn High School student found herself at the center of a national firestorm involving free speech rights and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict after school administrators questioned her about anti-Israel social media posts and warned that she could be in trouble under the state’s anti-bullying law.
Bethany Koval, 16, who identifies herself as an Israeli Jew, said she was called to the principal’s office Wednesday after another student complained about comments she made on Twitter that slammed Israel’s treatment of Palestinians and cheered that a pro-Israel student stopped following her on Twitter. She then tweeted, in detail, about the incident.
“Principal just called me down,” tweeted Koval, who goes by the nickname “Benny.” “I’m about to be exposed for being anti-Israel. Pray for me.”
From across the U.S., people have been weighing in about the Fair Lawn High School incident, some with the hashtag #IStandWithBenny, while various media oulets have been covering her story. The issue hit a nerve, it seemed, because of the heated and emotional debate that surrounds the Palestinian-Israeli issue, often on school campuses. On one side, pro-Palestine groups say their speech is policed and censored, while Israel supporters say they’re unfairly and harshly singled out for criticism.
School officials said their actions had nothing to do with censorship or politics. They said they were only following rules under the state’s anti-bullying law that requires them to investigate students’ allegations of harassment, intimidation or bullying. Experts, though, say the school didn’t have to take such strong action and has some discretion in deciding which cases warrant investigation.
“We stress at the outset that at no time have district officials sought to censor or reprimand any pupils for their online speech,” said Superintendent Bruce Watson in a statement.
He added: “The investigation is focused solely on the factors we are required to apply by law and not upon any political opinions expressed by pupils,” the superintendent wrote.
Koval is politically outspoken on Twitter and has posted more than 21,000 tweets. She said she was called into a meeting with three administrators, and that the principal showed her a printout of her tweets about Israel. The tweets, she said, were not directed at any student.
Koval noted, though, that administrators were interested in a tweet where she cheered that a “pro-Israel” student had “unfollowed” her on Twitter. Koval did not identify the student, but told a friend she would name her in a private message.
Recorded meeting
In her tweets, some with expletives, Koval describes Israel as a “terrorist force” and compared its actions to apartheid, noting cases such as enforced segregation like the use of separate roads for Israelis and Palestinians. In another, she said Hamas “isn’t the only extreme” but painted that way to justify bombing Gaza.
During the meeting with school administrators, an assistant principal, in an exchange Koval recorded — apparently without the school’s knowledge — asked her: “Do you realize what you put out electronically could get you in trouble?” and referenced the state law against bullying.
Koval posted parts of the recordings on her Twitter feed, which has since been made private.
Koval said she was asked in the meeting with school administrators to write a statement about her actions. She said she wanted a lawyer present, but was told it was “not court.” In her statement, which she posted online, she wrote: “I expressed political opinions online regarding the Israeli government and I will continue to do so. I will not be silenced by fear.”
After tweeting in detail about what happened, Koval got a flood of comments online. Many praised the student and said they were calling and emailing the school to complain.
The school told Koval’s mother that they had gotten calls from around the globe. In a later post, Koval said her parents were “really mad.” In other tweets, she implored the public to stop calling the school.
On Thursday, the attention appeared to be too much. At 10:22 a.m., she tweeted: “Just couldn’t make it through the school day. Too much aggression amongst classmates here. Going home now. I’m safe.”
Koval did not respond to requests for comment Thursday. A woman, identifying herself as Koval’s mother, answered the door Thursday afternoon at the family’s home and declined to comment.
The high school has about 1,500 students, many of whom, like Koval, are Jewish. As students were dismissed, just a few knew about the controversy. Fair Lawn also has a large Orthodox Jewish community.
Sukhpreet Kaur, a junior who said she knows Koval and has a friend who was affected by the incident, said “the matter could have been solved better.” It should not have been broadcast through social media. Instead, the two students should have talked, she said.
Marc Umansky, a senior, said he doesn’t “think [Koval] was right.”
“She’s entitled to her opinion,” he said, “but when she shared personal information about a student and recorded the principal — then it wasn’t about her free speech anymore.”
Kaleem Shahzad, also a senior, said school administrators overstepped their boundaries when they got involved.
“The spirit of the [anti-bullying] law is far from oppressing free speech,” he said, referencing the state’s harassment, intimidation and bullying or HIB law. “They should have left it alone.”
Cyber bullying, Shahzad said, does happen, “but she tweeted her opinion on a controversial and divisive issue. If that’s HIB, then I don’t know where we’re at — it’s a big problem,” he said.
Concern at colleges
Across the U.S., schools have sometimes become political battlegrounds over the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, with a flurry of cases alleging a clampdown on anti-Israel speech and punitive actions against students and teachers who express those views. At the same time, though, pro-Israel groups have said that some campuses have become uncomfortable and even hostile places for Jewish students. These incidents, however, have mostly taken place at the college level.
In probably the most well-known incident, the University of Illinois withdrew its offer of employment for Steven Salaita, a professor of American Indian Studies, following complaints over anti-Israel tweets he wrote about the Gaza bombings. The university settled the case for $875,000 in November. Salaita tweeted in support of Koval on Wednesday. “Zionists are now going after teenagers. No surprise,” he wrote.
Watson, the district superintendent, said the school will complete the investigation “in accordance with all legal requirements and will continue to ensure that all parties involved are given a full and fair opportunity to share their side of the story.”
At the end of the investigation, he will make a determination and report confidentially to the Board of Education, he added.
New Jersey in 2011 passed an anti-bullying law — seen as one of the toughest in the nation — inspired by the suicide of Rutgers University student Tyler Clementi of Ridgewood after his college roommate secretly filmed Clementi’s encounter with another man and streamed it online.
Under the law, schools must look into reports of harassment, intimidation and bullying, but have discretion in deciding what meets the threshold of such incidents. School administrators have reported confusion at schools over what they have to report under the law.
Stuart Green, co-founder and director of the New Jersey Coalition for Bullying Awareness and Prevention, said it appeared that Fair Lawn has overreacted in this case. He said the school could have talked to the students and tried to understand what had happened in a non-confrontational way.
“Have the conversation but don’t launch an HIB investigation unless the circumstances are warranted,” he said.
The law, he said, was intended to protect children who were targeted by “repeated negative acts” and that Koval did not seem to target any specific student in her comments.
“It’s not clear that this situation qualifies as that in any way,” he said.
Alexander Shalom, senior staff attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey, said the law was “well-intentioned” but that schools have to be careful to apply it to actual bullying and not unpopular political beliefs.
“Saying that a school has an obligation to investigate bona fide claims of bullying is not the same as saying that the school must bring in the alleged bullier,” he said. “So there’s a first-level screening that the school can do, frankly, if the claim is bull or not.”
Shalom said he was concerned about the impact such actions could have on people’s freedoms.
“A more timid high school student would just shut down and not be involved in Twitter anymore at all,” he said. “And so I think we need to be real concerned about bringing people in when you read their controversial political speech to ask them questions about it because the real concern is that it will chill them from speaking in the future.”
Staff Writers Allison Pries and Nicholas Pugliese contributed to this article. Email: adely@northjersey.com
“I’m about to be exposed for being anti-Israel. Pray for me.”
See the sentiment expressed there? This stupid kid doesn’t even know she has the right to free speech, and can say whatever she likes about Israel, or the Kike principal.
And look at those eye-brows. Poor girl looks like Groucho Marx, and she’s only a few hairs away from the “uni-brow” sported by Herman Munster.
The fact that there’s an “anti-bullying law” is also a crime. “Bullying” is verbal behavior, and is also protected by the First Article, but by convincing morons that the world is in danger from bullies, they were able to chip away at that once-unalienable right, too.
And it also encourages children to be weak, defenseless little faggots who needn’t even try to defend themselves from “bullies”. Just inform the authorities.
All today’s kids know about self-defense is dialing 9-1-1
Freedom of speech is also the freedom to offend and oh do I enjoy offending.
jolly roger
as much as i hate to see you bashing the gays
i have to admit your writing skills is off the charts
“In her tweets, some with expletives, Koval describes Israel as a “terrorist force”
It’s encouraging to see a 16 yr. old that awake. She obviously doesn’t buy the MSM’s bullsh#t propaganda about Israhell.
Unfortunately, she’s the exception rather than the rule.