MiddlePath:
“As I said earlier, schools should not have control over what their students do out of school. I don’t mind if schools block Facebook on their own computers in the computer lab. But it should not be in the school’s power to control what their students do OUT of school.”
Why not? A Frum school should be instructing its students how to lead a Torah-true life, not just how to behave in school. If the school believes that Facebook can be harmful to its students Yiddishkeit, it can and should ban it.
“That is what PARENTS are for. Too often, parents will point fingers at the schools for things that they themselves should be responsible for.”
True, parents should show their children how to lead a Toarh-true life. However, the fact that parents do not always do that should be a reason for the school to be more, not less involved in their students lives.
“Also, I don’t like when people throw blame at objects instead of taking the blame themselves. For example, saying “Facebook is bad, the Internet is evil, etc..” That is just foolish. Everything can be used in a good or bad way. It is US who make that choice. If someone uses Facebook in a bad way, it’s not because Facebook is bad. It’s because the PERSON made the CHOICE to use it in a bad way. The PERSON is to blame, not the OBJECT.”
I don’t think anybody is claiming that Facebook is inherently evil, only that it enables people (usually teenagers) to do certain things that could be highly detrimental to their Yiddishkeit. And since Facebook gives people access to much more negative things than positive things, I don’t think it’s such a bad idea for a Frum school to ban it.