I generally find Rabbi Yudel Shain's writings and comments (from what I have seen, usually about matters of kashrut) to be on the extreme side and, to me, distasteful.

However, I found this post of his intriguing:

Pros and Cons of "MUST go" to Seminary in Israel
There has been lately many that strongly oppose the ingrained concept that "must go to Seminary in Israel" in order to marry the right Ben-Torah.
The Pros are self evident.
The Cons;
The huge expense that most can't afford.
That $20,000.00 plus [saved] can help the new young couple.
Training for a parnosah delayed by at least a year.
They don't receive the tools needed to prepare for a Torah marriage, etc.
Delaying marriage by at least a year.
A girl should be under the supervision of their parents (enough said!)
We have heard of the tragic experiences in some Israel seminaries.
If we are talking about hashkofah, yahdus, etc in order to go into chinuch? Gateshead is more geared to that element.

I just heard (second hand) this great Yom Ha'Zikaron anecdote about standing for the siren...

Introduction: the Hebrew word for siren is tzfira

This American seminary girl was returning to Israel from her Pesach trip home to the USA (visiting her family). She happened to return to Israel on the night of Yom Ha'Zikaron, though she knew nothing about that.

Anyway, so she is in the taxi on the way to Jerusalem from the airport. The taxi driver stops the taxi and says, "tzfira". The clock strikes 8 and the siren begins to wail. They stand outside of the taxi, and the sem girl starts shuckling and says the Bracha of "Al Sfiras Ha'Omer" and counts that days Omer.

After that she recounts how beautiful it is that in Israel, they sound a siren to announce the Sefira and everyone counts at the same time.

This morning I was leaving shul and I saw a sight that struck me as wrong.

Across the street was an all-girls seminary waiting for buses to head out on a tiyul. I do not know for how long the tiyul is - one day or a sleepover two-three day tiyul. The girls looked pretty heavily laden, so it struck me as being for longer than one day, but maybe not.

That is besides the point anyway. The head of the seminary was there. He is an acquiantance of mine, so I knew who it was. With him were some other adults, I assume various teachers and madrichim, both male and female. They were all waiting for the bus to go on the tiyul.

I find it highly inappropriate that men are running all-girls schools. My friend running this school is a wonderful person and I would trust him with my life. he has complete integrity and I would never suspect him of anything.

We in the orthodox world are so concerned with separation of the sexes, rightly or wrongly, that it seems a bit hypocritical to have male principals and teachers of an all-girls seminary/school.

Are there not enough qualified and educated women who can run these schools? Must we have men running womens institutions? When climbing up a mountain, will all the girls stay perfectly tzanua that the male principal will not be put in a situation of compromising his standards of tznius. That could then lead to improper thoughts at other times, which could lead to any myriad of "michsholim" that would be inappropriate.

Again, I do not suspect this fellow in the slightest. I am using this as an example because seeing it this morning made me think about the issue a bit.

People are human. If we are really so concerned about separation of the sexes so that no hanky panky should occur, there is no reason to assume that principals and teachers are any better and above such concerns. They are human and can fall to the same urges as anybody else. This is especially true when the teachers and principal are young, as is common in today's seminary world. When older, the concern might exist, but I would think it would be less. With young teachers and principals as is fairly common, the age of the teacher might be just a few years older than the young women he is teaching. There is no reason to create such a combustible situation. there are fine women who are educated and qualified to run the schools and teach in them and they should be the ones doing so.

And if not, and if we are not concerned about teachers and principals being in these situations, than we should not be so paranoid about separation of the sexes among us regular people either.

Rabbi Shmuley Boteach pens a frightening analysis about the problems with the guys and girls who come to Israel for yeshiva and seminary in the one year post high-school programs.

What do you think? Is it as bad as he says?

In my day, when I was in yeshiva (post highschool), it was limited to a few select yeshivas that had these problems. The average yeshiva did not have these problems (or if they did it was individuals in the yeshiva/sem and not widespread).

I have heard from some people that the problems are more prevalent now, though usually it is smoking a hookah and some drinking. Rabbi Boteach is describing something much worse than what I have heard.

Is it as bad as he says?