Rallies planned Sunday in response to student facing discipline over tweets

It all began a few days ago, when Bethany Koval, a 16-year-old Israeli Jew from Fair Lawn, tweeted, "i'm sooooo glad that pro-Israel girl from my school unfollowed me! I'm so FREE now like."

According to news reports, Bethany’s tweet set up a chain reaction of events at Fair Lawn High School, after she was called into the principal’s office for allegedly bullying and making politically inflammatory comments social media -- a meeting she live-tweeted and secretly recorded.

Koval said administrators at the school were particularly interested in a Dec. 27 tweet involving a student who had unfollowed her on Twitter because of her political views, NJ.com reported.

The bullying allegations came after Koval tweeted to a friend that she would name the student in a private message, the report said.

“[Koval] said administrators warned her that her comments about Israel and a fellow student on Twitter might have violated a state law against bullying,” the New York Times reported, and that she had been reprimanded for a tweet “that contained a string of expletives directed at Israel and expressed happiness that a pro-Israel classmate had unfollowed her Twitter account.”

“They were right to be suspicious,” the article added. “She later posted audio clips on Twitter.”

Koval’s actions and those of the administration drew mixed reactions from the community and the greater public, and now, with tensions still high, some people who are planning to attend Sunday’s demonstrations are bracing themselves for possible trouble.

On Friday, the group “Fairlawn Supports the FLHS Administration” made the following announcement on a Facebook page : “Following recent events in Fair Lawn and the unjust bashing of the FLHS administration for their rightful actions to stop the bullying and harassment in the Bethany Koval incident, we will all gather in front of the high school on Sunday afternoon to show our unanimous support to the school administration doing their job to protect out children. This will be a peaceful and quiet demonstration, showing that the residents and parents of Fair Lawn support the school and appreciate their efforts.”

In response, some of Koval’s fellow students have planned a free speech and censorship rally on Sunday at the school, to protest her treatment by school administrators, according to NJ.com.

Stanley Cohen, a lawyer who advised Ms. Koval and her family about the issue on Wednesday, said he doubted that the complaints over her tweets would evolve into a legal case. Mr. Cohen, a lawyer known for representing controversial clients, said he hoped school officials would “look beyond the emotion of the moment and say ‘Move on, this is no big deal.’ ”

The Times noted, New Jersey has some of the toughest anti-bullying laws in the nation. After the suicide of a Rutgers University freshman, Tyler Clementi, in 2010, it passed the Anti-Bullying Bill of Rights, a far-reaching law with stiff penalties for educators who do not sufficiently respond to complaints of harassment or intimidation.