An Orthodox Jewish high school said it will be investigating an incident in which an airline kicked more than 100 of its students and chaperones off a plane, according to CNN.com.
One hundred one students and eight chaperones from the Yeshiva of Flatbush school were traveling from New York to Atlanta on an AirTran flight. AirTran is owned by Southwest Airlines.
According to Southwest, the students were behaving in a disruptive manner by standing up and not turning off their cellphones. Brad Hawkings, a spokesman for Southwest said after the students did not listen when asked to sit and shut off their mobile devices, they were instructed to leave the aircraft.
Members of the Brooklyn-based high school tell a different story.
"It blew out of proportion. It was a mountain out of a molehill," said Teacher and Chaperone Marian Weilgus. "They certainly did not do what the stewardess was claiming they did. That's what was so bizarre." Welgus said the young passengers may have been spoken to approximately twice about the phones and standing on the plane but after that the students complied.
She called the attendants “nasty,” “overreacting” and said they “created an incident when there didn’t have to be one.”
Jonahtan Zehavi, a student at the school, said he saw the crew’s acts as prejudice against the Jewish students and chaperones.
"They treated us like we were terrorists; I've never seen anything like it. I'm not someone to make these kinds of statements," he said. "I think if it was a group of non-religious kids, the air stewardess wouldn't have dared to kick them off."
According to a statement the school’s executive director, Rabbi Seth Linfield said, the institution will be taking “this matter seriously and have started out own investigation. Preliminarily it doesn’t appear that the action taken by the flight crew was justified.”
The students had been anticipating a trip to Six Flags among other things. Michael Mamiye, another student, and another chaperone, Rabbi Joseph Beyda, Southwest customer service tried to help—although they were separated into different flights and their total travel time was 12 hours.
