Fair Lawn High School Students With Outstanding Debts Called Out During Assembly

FAIR LAWN, NJ — Fair Lawn High School students were reportedly called out by name at an assembly Wednesday, according to a student.

Bethany Koval, who goes by the Twitter username "benny," posted on the microblogging site that the students who owe lunch and/or book money were called out by name at the assembly.

My high school's having a name & shame for students who owe lunch and/or book money.
Admins say they won't graduate unless debts are covered pic.twitter.com/RTAdIpyeos
— benny ‌• בני (@bennykoval) May" class="redactor-linkify-object">https://twitter.com/bennykoval... 31, 2017

According to the post, administrators said the students would not graduate unless the debts are paid.

Principal James Marcella refused to answer questions Thursday via email. He referred a reporter to Superintendent Ernest Palestis, who could not be immediately reached for comment.

Palestis issued a statement to The Daily Voice, saying "Fair Lawn High School does not consider the financial status of a student, or student debt, as a factor in graduation or participation in the graduation ceremony."

Koval told The Daily Beast that the assembly went "exactly like a roll call."

"And for books, the students called had to actually walk over to the stage and pick something up," she said in the report.

Koval said in the report that students were told their diploma "will be withheld from you" and "you won't be able to walk" in the school's graduation ceremony June 22 if they did not pay.

According to The Daily Beast's report, Marcella's secretary, Diane Knudsen, said the school expected the students to repay their debts before they would be allowed to graduate.

Koval issued a statement about the incident on her Facebook page Thursday morning.

Email daniel.hubbard@patch.com. Get Patch breaking news alerts sent right to your phone with our new app. Download here.

Image via Shutterstock