Dear YWN Editor and Choshuva Readers,

My phone was blowing up on Sunday morning with a video which was apparently taken inside a prominent Lakewood girls school. It is on all my WhatsApp groups and I see it has reached Facebook as well. I feel this is simply too disturbing for you to ignore.

I’m not sure if you will feel it appropriate to post the video and further humiliate these girls, so I’ll briefly describe it.

There is a line of young girls being filed past what appears to be a principal or teacher, as another woman (either the teacher or principal) sits behind the desk. The woman standing is holding a ruler in her hand, and as the children file past, she measures the children’s hair to make sure it is ‘Tznius enough’ for the standards of this holy institution.

While I do not claim to be a professional or a therapist, I can gurantee you that this is no less then straight up child abuse, and the effects of this horror will be seen in the years to come.

What Heter under the sun is there to humiliate a child this way? Where in the Torah is this allowed? Who are the Rabbonim behind this insanity? Who decided what the precise length of a child’s hair should be?

I’d also like to know why the woman behind the desk has a Shaitel that is longer then the girls hair. Who measured her Shaitel? Was she given a Heter by the ruler-wielding hair-length “Posek’es”?

Now, I have heard people say it is the school’s right to determine the length of their student’s hair. Lets take for granted that this policy of the school was made crystal clear to every single parent long before they chose to register their child at the school. If the school has an issue with a child’s hair length, it should be taken up privately between the Hanhala and the parents. How DARE this school humiliate these girls in front of their classmates and teachers.

But I can almost guarantee you, that the focus of the school will instead be to catch the person who took this video, and then cast blame on evil smartphones and social media for allowing this to get out.

Name withheld upon request – Lakewood, N.J.

NOTE: The views expressed here are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent or reflect the views of YWN.

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