JANUARY 8, 2016, 7:04 PM LAST UPDATED: SATURDAY, JANUARY 9, 2016, 12:23 AM
BY HANNAN ADELY
STAFF WRITER |
THE RECORD
A media frenzy that ignited after a Fair Lawn student was questioned about comments she made online about a “pro-Israel girl” in her school has left in its wake a worried family, a divided community, and a school that has been hammered by negative attention from around the world in an incident that some local residents say was misconstrued.
Bethany Koval
The controversy unfolded after high school junior Bethany Koval wrote, in detail, online, about being questioned by administrators over a tweet cheering that a pro-Israel student had “unfollowed” her on Twitter and her sharing the student’s name in a private message to a friend. She believed she was targeted by school administrators, she said, because of her anti-Israel political opinions on Twitter.
On Friday, Koval, 16, continued to draw wide support online as people viewed the incident as an attempt to stifle free speech and criticism of Israel. Locally, some residents defended the school, saying officials were only doing their duty to investigate a bullying allegation that a student had lodged against Koval.
