Fair Lawn school officials were following New Jersey’s anti-bullying law when they questioned a high school student about anti-Israeli comments she posted on Twitter, the district superintendent said Thursday afternoon.
“While pupil confidentiality laws prevent us from identifying or discussing individual pupils, we stress at the outset that at no time have District officials sought to censor or reprimand any pupils for their online speech,” Schools Supt. Bruce Watson wrote in a statement issued Thursday afternoon.
Bethany Koval, 16, who calls herself an Israeli Jew, said she secretly recorded a Wednesday visit to her principal’s office, during which she said she was told that some of her anti-Israeli, expletive-filled tweets could get her suspended or expelled under New Jersey’s Anti-Bullying Bill of Rights Act.
Koval said she also was forced to produce a written statement without having an attorney present and was ordered to turn over her phone so the principal could determine whether she’d recorded the meeting.
Koval — whose posts have touched on abortion rights and the Syrian war, among other subjects — said administrators zeroed in on a Dec. 27 tweet that referred to a classmate who unfollowed her because of her views.
Watson, in turn, said that the district “recognizes and respects individuals’ First Amendment rights to free speech.” READ MORE….
