Orthodox School Gives Students Ultimatum: Delete Facebook Profile & Pay $100 Fine -- or Face Expulsion

Students at the Orthodox Beth Rivkah High School in Brooklyn, New York, have reportedly been given an ultimatum: Delete individual Facebook profiles and pay a $100 fine or face expulsion. Considering the negative elements that hold the potential to come as a result of using the social network, the school has apparently decided that the risks outweigh the benefits. This is specifically true when it comes to the potential for the girls to violate the Orthodox code of modesty.

Now, the all-girls school is doubling down on its stance against Facebook and its potential evils.

"Girls are getting killed on the Internet — that’s the reason for it," explained school administrator Rabbi Benzion Stock in an interview with The New York Post. "The Internet is a good way to ruin marriages and families. We don’t want them there, period."

The New York Daily News quotes Stock as saying, "We have an eternal ban. A ban from whenever it started."

Stock went on to claim that the social media platform is "the wrong place for a Jewish girl to be" and that it isn't a modest tool for the girls to be utilizing.

The Daily News provides more on the latest developments in "Facebookgate":

Administrators cracked down further last week after receiving word that girls were still updating their status

es and sharing photos.

And the renegades were easy enough to find with a search of Facebook, said Stock.

All 33 girls agreed to delete their accounts, Stock said, and paid a $100 fine that will be returned at the end of the school year.

The students didn't "like" complying, one of the offenders said.

The Post reports that the crackdown initially appeared on CrownHeights.info, a web site devoted to local news. School officials have countered the news of the ban, which has broken nationally, by claiming that the policy has always been on the books. In fact, the students allegedly sign a contract saying they won't use social media.

At least one former student has spoken out about the ridiculousness she sees in the crackdown. After being kicked out for using Facebook and dressing without modesty, 17-year-old Chaya Tatik claims that the policy is "not right" and that Facebook helps her communicate with her cousins in Israel.

"Everyone uses Facebook. It’s a way to communicate," she said.

(H/T: New York Post)