Comedian Jerry Seinfeld laid into a private school in New York City after officials there opted to “create space” for kids “emotionally distressed” by the election, even allowing them to skip school the following day.
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Seinfeld’s interest in the decision stems from the fact that his own son previously attended the Ethical Culture Fieldston School. He states decisions like this are what led his family to transfer the boy to a different school.
The announcement by the institution – an email titled “Election Day Support” – is eye-roll-inducing.
“No matter the election outcome,” it reads, according to the New York Times, the school “will create space to provide students with the support they may need.”
The space involved includes a variety of measures for “students who feel too emotionally distressed” due to Election Day.
Those measures include no homework on Election Day, no testing or “assessments” the following day, and an allowance for excused absences for students who feel incapable of being able to “fully engage in classes.”
Counselors will also be available so students can talk about their feelings.
The school states they believe “this may be a high-stakes and emotional time for our community.”
They even provided a list of reading materials to guide parents on how to speak to their distressed children about the election.
The fragility of the staff and the anticipated fragility of the children at this Bronx school was too much for Seinfeld to bear. And he lashed out at the decision.
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“This is why the kids hated it,” Seinfeld told the Times. “What kind of lives have these people led that makes them think that this is the right way to handle young people? To encourage them to buckle.”
“This is the lesson they are providing, for ungodly sums of money.”
The famed comedian wasn’t the only one to air grievances against the school for their decision. Nationally renowned relationship expert, Dr. Logan Levkoff, who also was a Fieldston parent, believes the school is teaching kids a terrible life lesson.
“To say that this is absurd is a gross understatement,” Levkoff told the New York Post.
“Young people need to engage in thoughtful debate, learn to deal with disappointment, and develop resilience,” she continued. “Catering to the ‘trigger warning’ generation is not a successful strategy for life or adulthood.”
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Another parent told the Post that the decision by the school essentially amounts to an endorsement of Kamala Harris, and a prediction that if she loses, the kids they’ve coddled for years will break down emotionally.
“They’re basically endorsing Kamala and telling us that you expect our kids to fall apart. I agree with what Jerry Seinfeld said,” they told the Post. “It’s not giving our kids credit for any emotional maturity.”
One could argue that it’s not the kids. This memo from Fieldston is basically projection from the staff. They expect to be emotionally distraught over the election. And therefore, they assume the children won’t be able to cope either.
Parents at the school have revealed that officials also coddled students who were spreading “pro-Palestine, pro-Hamas” antisemitic messages on campus and social media. They said those viewpoints weren’t the students’ alone, but the teachers as well.
The newspaper reports that Fieldston has become a “seedbed of anti-Israel hate.”
That certainly might have added to Seinfeld’s issue with the school. He famously mocked – relentlessly – a pro-Hamas heckler who interrupted a set over the summer.
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“We have a genius, ladies and gentlemen. He solved the Middle East! He solved it!” Seinfeld fired back when the heckler interrupted. “It’s the Jewish comedians — that’s who we have to get! They’re the ones doing everything!”
“Go ahead, keep going! They’re going to start punching you in about three seconds,” he said of the crowd getting annoyed with the man. “I would try to get all of your genius out so we can all learn from you.”
That’s the problem with creating safe spaces for fragile children who can’t cope with an election. They grow up to be losers who feel entitled to interrupt comedy shows because they now can’t cope with what’s happening in the world.