A New York City private school has placed an administrator on paid leave and hired outside counsel to conduct an investigation into video recordings that appear to show the school’s director of student activities admitting to laundering her progressive politics into the classroom, according to an email obtained by National Review.
Trinity School, a $60,000-per-year private school on the Upper East Side, said in an email to its community members on Friday that it would retain an outside counsel to conduct an independent investigation after the conservative outlet Project Veritas posted videos of the administrator, Jennifer “Ginn” Norris, bashing “really awful” white Republicans.
“There’s always groups of teachers who want to do these [activist] things but the administration just wouldn’t let us,” Norris said in the sting video. “So, we’ve been just sneaking things in [through] the cracks.”
Trinity’s head of school and the president of its board of trustees wrote in the email that the school and Norris have regrettably “become the focus of media attention as the result of video recordings of Ms. Norris that were made without her knowledge or permission by someone who misrepresented himself.”
“While the circumstances surrounding the recordings are deeply disturbing, and we are profoundly troubled by the reprehensible way Ms. Norris and our school community were targeted, we are treating this matter with the utmost seriousness,” the statement reads. “Importantly, the sentiments expressed in the video do not reflect the mission or values of Trinity School.”
The message adds that, as part of the investigation process, it plans to “review school protocols and practices that are in place to ensure that we are living up to our determination to build a more inclusive community.”
Norris makes several troubling statements throughout the secret recording.
According to Norris, white male students on Trinity’s campus “feel very entitled to express their opposite opinions and just push back,” adding that “there’s a huge contingent of them that are just horrible.”
“And you’re like, ‘Are you always going to be horrible, or are you just going to be horrible right now?’ Don’t know,” she added.
Asked if there is any saving white Republican boys, Norris replied: “I don’t know. I think they need to go. I think they’re really awful people. That’s kind of what I’m afraid of with my white students that are rich. I’m like — do you ever have to deal with this? They’re so protected by capitalism. It makes me sad.”
Norris is also seen in the video telling Project Veritas that she is able to bring in guest speakers twice a week and that she told her boss she would be “100 percent Democratic” with the students.
She said she would never let a Republican voice on campus.
“I’m in charge as far as they [the administration] are concerned. So, if they want to do that [bring Republican speakers], then somebody else has to do it. Because — not on my watch, I guess,” added Norris on the video that appears to have been filmed on June 12.
Trinity’s email to the school community adds: “This is a profoundly difficult moment, but we remain determined to model our conduct on our inspiring mission and the ideals of respect, belonging, and open inquiry that are embedded in it.”
Project Veritas posted a similar sting video of an elementary school assistant principal in Greenwich, Ct., earlier this week. Cos Cob Elementary assistant principal Jeremy Boland admitted that he oversees the hiring of faculty and that he regularly rejects applicants who are conservative or catholic, as well as those who are older than 30 or or sympathize with concerns about parental rights in education.
“You don’t hire them,” he said of Catholic teaching candidates. “Because if someone is raised hardcore Catholic, it’s like they’re brainwashed. You can never change their mindset. So, when you ask them to consider something new, like a new opportunity, or ‘you have to think about this differently,’ they’re stuck — just rigid.”
“Believe it or not, the open-minded, more progressive teachers are actually more savvy about delivering a Democratic message without really ever having to mention politics,” Boland said.
Greenwich Public Schools said Wednesday that Boland would be placed on administrative leave while an investigation takes place.
* Article from: The National Review
(*) www.WhitePrideHomeSchool.com
