I was absolutely shocked to read the following in the latest issue of The Voice of Lakewood over shabbos. In the continuing saga of dysfunction of this town, funding for private busing has been slashed and one of the ways money was to be saved was via combining buses for different schools. Instead of having one bus serve one school in many different neighborhoods, there will be one bus per neighborhood for two schools combined. Many parents are very happy about this, because it means their kids commute times will be cut in half or more.
But the reaction to this by certain heads of school were shocking.
From The Voice of Lakewood (emphases mine):
…with the onset of the school year and the sharp increase in the combined routes, the complaints are rising sharply as well.
Several members of yeshivah administrations spoke with The Voice (all on condition that pseudonyms would be used) expressing varying levels of disagreement or apprehension. One supported the concept but objected to how it was implemented, another had reservations but supported it on balance, a third was sharply opposed, and another called it a “himmel geshrei.”
Yitzy, the rosh mosad of one elementary school whose routes are being combined with those of another that he feels has “very different hashkafos,” said, “We wouldn’t send to camp together or daven in the same shul. We don’t want the kids interacting on a daily basis to and from school on long bus rides, sitting together and sharing information.”
Yitzy says his talmidim come from homes with stricter standards in areas like technology and dress than the school his has been paired with, and he’s worried that “they’ll become friendly with kids that are in a very different sevivah.”
God Forbid!
Yitzy says his rabbanim have instructed him that “we cannot let our children go on these buses” and that if the combination plan goes through, he’ll have to get a final psak about how many kids from the other school the rabbanim will allow to be on a bus with their own students. And if there are more than that, Yitzy says “we might start private vans or carpooling.”
Are you shocked yet? Because sit down. It’s gonna get worse. Way worse:
Another option, he says, would be placing monitors on the buses to ensure that students from the two schools sit separately. With dozens of routes, however, that would be difficult and expensive.
What the actual!?? Bus monitors? To ensure that chas veshalom more yeshivish boys don’t sit next to boys that are slightly less yeshivish than them!?
(The LSTA says in the article that “we were very sensitive with deciding which schools to combine.” The schools that I personally know combined in our nighborhood leads me to believe this is true, and that Yitzy is representing an ultra-extreme yeshiva that is worried about a slightly less extreme one. Regardless, its certainly not Skvere Cheder riding with Yeshiva of Flatbush).
Lets imagine this playing out:
Ruvie goes to extreme yeshiva A. Lets call it “Cheder Bnei Yechidim”. Shimmy goes to slightly less extreme yeshiva B. (This Yeshiva allows 24six select.) Let’s call it “Cheder Bnei Lo Kol Kach Yechidim”. They live across the street from each other and know each other well. Ruvie is excited that he will finally be able to sit next to Shimmy on the bus. Ruvie gets on and heads to the back to sit with Shimmy. (Of course, Shimmy is in the back). But the bus monitor stops him. “Fahrshteitzich you want to sit next to your friend Shimmy that you know from the shchunah, but Rav Yanky and our yeshiva’s rabbanim hold it pas nisht. Gradeh, efsher you shouldn’t talk to him by dain hoiz either.” I’m sure both Ruvie and Shimmy are gonna feel great! (‘Yitzy’ certainly will.)
It’s absolutely insane that a Rosh Mosad - a head of a Yeshiva - would want to reimplement Jim Crow to ensure that his yeshivos’ kids won’t associate chalilah with those from the other yeshiva’s “who have different standards of dress”. (Maybe a colorful yarmulka.)
Keep in mind that buses are places of hefkeirus already (as a parent points out in the article) yet the one thing that would require bus monitors would be to stop boys from sitting together.
The article concludes:
Several people we spoke with commented that in other communities, yeshivos are much more integrated than in Lakewood, and a little less segregation here wouldn’t be a terrible thing.
Yitzy says that might be a valid broader argument, but that “the matzav today in Lakewood is that everything is separate. When you have one school very closed-minded (!!! -DY) and one open-minded, the differences can’t meet at this point.”
Methinks ‘Yitzy’ needs to watch some more Tisha Bav videos. Or listen to Incredible Kids.
