Students at all-girls Jewish school in Brooklyn face $100 fine for using Facebook

Rabbi Benzion Stock, head of Beis Rivkah High School in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, has fined 33 students $100 for using Facebook.

OMG, it’s so immodest!

The head of an all-girls Jewish school in Brooklyn thinks Facebook is not “modest” enough for his students — and fined 33 of them $100 for using the social networking site.

The teens from Beis Rivkah High School in Crown Heights were also ordered to delete their accounts last week.

“We have an eternal ban. A ban from whenever it started,” said head administrator Rabbi Benzion Stock.

“It’s not a modest thing for a Jewish girl — or man or woman or student or father to be on. There is a lack of privacy and dignity,” added Stock.

The Hasidic school has had a ban on the site for several years. But as liking, friending and poking became more popular, all 495 students were told to sign a formal contract not to use Facebook this year, said Stock.

“It’s not a good street to be on. It’s not a modest place to be on. We don’t want them to get into trouble,” said Stock.

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

“Some people object because of modesty, but I still don’t agree with that,” said sophomore Sarah Freid, 15, who was forced to take down her page and pay up.

“If I post a picture, I don’t just send it to everybody. I don’t do bad things online,” she added. “I’m friends with my mom.”

Stock, though, said parents were “shocked” to find their daughters on the site.

“We are part of a very large Chabad community. In our community we don’t encourage the Internet, but there are a lot of people who have the Internet,” he said.

Indeed, a search of the public pages shows alums recently took to Facebook to fund
-raise for the school.

But some students, like 14-year-old Tonia Rosenthal, a ninth grader, support the strict ban.
“The principal is right. It’s about modesty. It’s part of our religion,” she said.

“All my friends who had them took them down. We have everything we need,” she added. “We already have our friends and our Gmail accounts.”

NEW YORK DAILY NEWS