Brooklyn, NY – The decision by the all-girls Beis Rivkah High School in Brooklyn, New York on Thursday to demand that all students delete their Facebook pages has continued into Friday, according to numerous students at the school.
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“It happened to the 11th grade yesterday and today they gave out papers to the 12th grade,” a student said.
All students The Algemeiner spoke with requested anonymity.
“People on the board said it’s not proper for us to have Facebook because girls might be talking to boys on Facebook or they might be putting up immodest pictures.”
The student says that while some girls might be engaging in what the board considers to be inappropriate, it’s a very small number of them.
“There are girls but it’s not a big percentage. There’s a very small amount that the school would be upset about,” she told The Algemeiner.
Another student of Beis Rivkah said that what the school is trying to stop will be done regardless of whether Facebook is allowed.
“For the girls who do put up those kind of pictures and talk to boys, they’ll talk to boys anyways,” she said.
CrownHeights.info reported on Thursday that parents and children were upset about the school’s decision to demand the deletion of Facebook accounts because it was the school that encouraged the accounts to be created in the first place, in an attempt to win funds from a “Kohl’s charity giveaway” in 2011.
“I don’t plan on deleting it, I really like my Facebook,” one of the students said.
“They get all into something, they make the rule, they enforce it and after a little while girls will start getting Facebook again, or using different names.”
This is another example of hypocrisy and micro-management. How many rules will the schools make before they realize that they are turning kids off? Today’s youth are EXTREMELY resourceful and will find any and every means to do whatever they want to do.
Banning cell phones, FB, email, texting, etc. is completely counterproductive.
Schools need to focus on instilling the right type of hashkafa in our youth so they shouldn’t have the desire to do certain things. It IS feasible.
BRHS, wake up and smell the coffee…you’re in for a rude awakening.
I don’t understand why this is being posted on the internet. This is the girls trying to get bacl at the school, and it just teaches them that they can threaten the school if they do something they dont like with bad publicity. obviuosly the Rabonim and mechanchim decided that this is best for the girls.
Boy was this overdue! I say it even though I have an account myself. Facebook is not for jewish girl in school we all know the networking is not what we want our kids exposed to…
Good for these girls! Its past time to rise up and challenge the cynical hypocrisy of certain rebbaim who’ve been able to get away with too much autocracy for too long. Its time for a new generation of leadership who understand the realities of today’s frum youth.
So help me out with this! What stops a person from just changing their name or merely just opening up a new FB account. Do you know people with multiple gmail accounts? This can be the same.
Oh and boys and girls, the Net is here to stay. Let’s not try to ban it. But rather, to learn to work with it.
What kind of stupidity do they substitute for brains these days at BR?? Thats why we have somthing called “parents”. It is their responsibility to decide if their kids can have Facebook accounts on their home computers. Its none of the school’s business. Maybe they can focus an instilling some common sense midos so these girls are not obcessed with shiduchim at 16 yrs old and encourage them to use their education so they have a means to earn a parnassah, whether to support themselves or a family if the latter is their choice.
What better way to teach our young people about freedom and moderation than to put your foot down and say Verbotten? Yeah, that has always worked in the history of adults talking to youth. “People on the board said it’s not proper for us to have Facebook because girls might be talking to boys on Facebook or they might be putting up immodest pictures.” They might. Of course, if they do it is only because the folks in the schools (and homes I might add) haven’t done their jobs. I think it is far better to teach correct attitudes than to legislate it.
this is the best comment since sliced white bread. what a great imagination.
Why all the drama just change your name or change your privacy settings that’s what I did when I was in Yeshiva and was told I needed to close my account.
I have a Facebook account and for some weird reason (like, because I’m a frum Jew!) I limit “friends” to people THAT I ACTUALLY KNOW IN REAL LIFE.
This is a very delicate issue ans of course every1 wants their massive brain storming opinions heard. But since this problem is spiraling out of control the school has decided to 1st stop the bleeding and we’ll see how we go forward. No its not the parents decision its the schools decision if you don’t like it find a differebt school.
The Skulene rabbi and R’ mattisyahu Solomon are now gathering the leaders of the heimishe world to a massive conference in Shea stadium where they wanna expose and discuss the danger of social networking and how to fight it.
Yes its true that internet is here to stay in fact we are also gonna get more and more dependent on it but we need to know how to use it the right way halachcially mentally and mature.
Let’s hope for the best and may we all have great nachas of our future generation and let’s not allow it to go down by the web
Git Shabbos
Nothing substitutes for parental supervision. The rules I set with my daughter are:
not using her actual photo for the public photo
not giving her correct birthday
no strangers – I need to approve friends
I am friended so I can view the site through mine
I get the password
In return, I promise not to snoop on everything she does – I just reserve the right to monitor when I wish. Works like a charm
Ridiculous and totally hypocritical. FB was good for fundraising, but not for teenage girls who are testing boundaries? Why not discuss those boundaries and the ramifications for pushing them; just like every other school is doing?
The reality is that FB is here to stay and can be used for many wonderful networking experiences. The problem isn’t FB, but teaching young adults what’s acceptable and safe in the cyber and real world.
It’s kinda like playing with fire. We tell young children not to play with matches, but by the time they’re in high school we’ve taught them how to use them responsibly.
I’m a rather Democratically Liberal person & never believed that a school could force students to dress a certain way, to delete personal messaging accounts like Facebook, etc., or try to determine what\who the kids can interact with or talk to… UNLESS: it’s a private school, in which the parents are paying top dollar for their children to be educated under a VERY strict moral code!
If it’s a PRIVATE institution… well then the parents & kids really need to obey the rules set out before them (unless they are grossly unnecessary), or send their kid to a less strict school! It’s as simple as that!
The girls at Beis Rivka can always create new personal accounts under hidden names anyway, if they have a rebellious spirit. They will find ways to interact w\boys when they aren’t supposed to *anyway*, if they really want to.
But Baruch HaShem if the school is able to save SOME of these girls from falling into a trap, of sharing too personal of information w\people, of interacting w\others who could be potential bad influences, etc.!
There will be PLENTY of time to play around on the internet when they grow up a little more & become more mature. *shrug*
If the school did in facty encourage the girls to use facebook accounts to win some sort of Chase prise then they are in fact short sighted and hypocritical be that as it may, a chasidic school should absolutely not allow its students use of facebook even in their own spare time. !!! Its playing with fire! I did hear about a new religious facebook used in Israel……….
The school can pass all the rules they want – if the parents are not interacting with their daughters, there will be no real value to controls. I permit my daughter to have a facebook account – but I also have her password and log in regularly. She doesn’t mind because she doesn’t use it for anything inappropriate, and if her friends post anything inappropriate, we discuss it. It is a way for her to keep in touch with cousins and camp friends.
The school is doing the right thing! I have Facebook & I see what goes on there. The boys & girls friend each other & since they aren’t “really” talking, it has to be muttar. NOT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Read this week Binah page 26 all of your question will be answered
Facebook is the least of the problem. Anyone can google any erotic or dirty word, and up comes tons of pornography for boys and girls to look at …
There really is no solution to the Internet…..unless you ban it totally….highly unlikely to happen…
The answer? I don’t know. Do you?
L’havdil – the Notzrim teach their children the responsible and moral manner to use technology. Just as one would with a telephone, a car, etc. At the end of the day, children (esp. teens) will do what they will do – and the DO (remember when you were one?) What do we do with things like FB? We ban it – ignore it – pretend it isn’t there – or blame it for all our societal ills. Lubavitch has been at the forefront of using technology for higher, holy purposes. I would expect this from a Litvak or other Chasidische school, not from Chabad. And I do agree with all the comments about parents. It is not the schools job to override the authority of the parents. The US government already does enough of that.
Honestly this is hypocrisy at its finest. Asking the girls to do something that they would normally consider off limits and others schools do, to promote their own agenda only to turn around and say “now that we have gotten what we needed from this campaign, please note that this is assur because of the possibility of you meeting up with the wrong kind of people and because of you having access to non-tzniusdik activities so the new rule is shut it down, shut it down, shut it down”. How can you expect the girls or parents to respect the school in any way shape or form or what they represent when they realize that the would would do anything and use their kids in any way shape or form when in their eyes the end justifies the means in order to accomplish their own financial goals; when they feel their can sacrifice their own girls for the almighty buck and as soon as they get what they wanted they can turn around as if nothing happened and then spout tznius and religion to the students and fault them for not complying with their rules. This once again is Hypocrisy with a capital H and something that kids are just too smart and and too savvy to just allow to slither by.