A high school student had a disturbing conversation with her principal on Wednesday allegedly concerning a series of tweets criticizing Israeli policy toward Palestinians.
16-year-old Bethany Koval of Fair Lawn High School in suburban Fair Lawn, N.J. has been accused of bullying because, in her view, she had the audacity to view Israeli policy in something other than a Star of David-shaped lens. She took to her Twitter account — which boasts an impressive 21,000 tweets and 7,500 followers (at the time of this writing) despite being active less than a year — and directly chided Israeli policy toward Palestinians, going so far as to call it “apartheid.”
Subsequent tweets in the thread provide definitions of apartheid and segregation, leading into a tweet concerning the direct segregation of Palestinians by Israeli leaders. She notably posted an article that discussed a suggestion by Israeli politician Avi Dichter that promoted separate roads and highways for Israelis and Palestinians.
Her views on Israeli-Palestinian relations (with which this writers wholeheartedly agrees) did not bode well for another student at Fair Lawn High School. During Christmas break, the girl unfollowed her on Twitter, to which Bethany responded that she is “sooooo glad that pro-Israel girl from school unfollowed [her].”
This tweet prompted reaction from @L_Chevere, a classmate at Fair Lawn High School, who instructed Bethany to tell them “to square the fuck up” because they are “ready to fight.” Bethany admitted that she did message the girl’s name to @L_Chevere, but “it didn’t go farther.” According to Bethany, @L_Chevere didn’t know the girl and nothing has come from the exchange.
But that didn’t gel with Fair Lawn High School administration, as Bethany was sent to the principal’s office.
Bethany recorded her interactions with assistant principal Frank Guadagnino. She has posted these recordings to Twitter.
Guadagnino told her that he’s considering filing a “bullying report,” presumably because of her exchange with @L_Chevere and the tweet about her happiness over the “pro-Israel girl” unfollowing her on Twitter. Bethany objected, saying that she hadn’t done anything “problematic,” just “controversial,” to which Guadagnino replies, “Well, that’s your interpretation. There’s a state law that might interpret it differently.”
New Jersey has some of the toughest anti-bullying laws in the country. It was passed in 2011 following the 2010 suicide of Rutgers University student Tyler Clementi. According to New Jersey’s HIB law, all schools in the state must have anti-bullying coordinators on campus and are obligated to look into every report or accusation of harassment, intimidation, and bullying.
Guadagnino called Bethany down to his office a second time not long after their previous exchange. He forced Bethany to write out a formal statement regarding the incident, to which Bethany expressed desire to have legal counsel present. Guadagnino told her that she was not in a court of law and thus did not have the option for legal counsel.
Bethany also claims that Guadagnino told her that if she did not write the statement, the school will only investigate the matter using the “pro-Israel girl’s” account of the events. She wrote:
“I have a right to speak.
I expressed political opinions online regarding the Israeli government, and I will continue to do so. I will not be silenced by fear. I will not be intimidated into submission.
A girl at my school found offense to my notation of the Gaza bombings of 2014. These tweets were not directed at her. She took offense to these tweets, and spoke of them at school. She told her friends that I had no right to speak on this, and erased my Jewish ethnicity. Naturally, I retaliated. I posted a general message and the girl’s name was not involved. I even referred to her as a group (“them” was used instead of “she”) in my tweets.
Her name was never used. Why I am being accused of “bullying,” I think is because I wish for a Free Palestine. The freedom of speech is chained and beaten in this school.
Mr. [Guadagnino] intimidated me into writing this without an attorney. I have evidence of this.
I am being mistreated.”
Stuart Green, co-founder and director of the New Jersey Coalition for Bullying Awareness and Prevention, has stated that it appears Fair Lawn High School has overreacted in this case. He stated that New Jersey’s anti-bullying law was intended to protect children who are frequently and repeatedly targeted by negative acts and that Bethany did not actually target anyone. He further stated it is not clear whether this case qualifies under the law.
While indeed it can be argued that Bethany’s exchange with @L_Chevere can be interpreted as bullying, I think it’s important to figure out how that “pro-Israel girl” found out about it. Either she was confronted by @L_Chevere and Bethany is lying or does not know about it, the “pro-Israel girl” complained to the school based on Bethany’s anti-Israel tweets and the school happened to come across it, or Fair Lawn High School polices the social media accounts of its students.
I understand the need to take bullying seriously. It is a problem. But at the same time, teenagers will be teenagers. I cannot count the amount of times kids were threatened when I was in high school. High school is a no man’s land of hormonal hell fire and poor decision making. A social media exchange that hints at someone needing to “square the fuck up” should only be as valid, I think, as an incident actually occurring.
With that being said, I’m somewhat reserved in making a determination that this incident has all to do with Bethany’s social media activism. I don’t discount that it might, as standing against Israel is a very unpopular opinion and causes considerable controversy on school campuses nationwide. But, I’m not convinced that Bethany’s position on Israeli-Palestinian relations is the sole factor in why she’s facing severe punishment from Fair Lawn High School.
I do believe that, at the very least, her views acted as a catalyst for the events that would follow.
