My RedState colleague Bob Hoge provided an in-depth report on Wednesday of the undercover investigation and findings published by Project Veritas. This is an update to Hoge’s initial reporting where the video release can be found: Project Veritas Exposes Assistant Principal Admitting to Discrimination, Disdain for Parents
Just one day following a Project Veritas video that went viral exposing illegal and discriminatory hiring practices at a Connecticut school, the school district and local community have taken action. Jeremy Boland, assistant principal at Cos Cob Elementary School of Greenwich, was put on administrative leave Wednesday after investigative journalist James O’Keefe and his nonprofit group published evidence that Boland intended to politically indoctrinate students by engaging in illegal hiring practices and supporting “subconscious” manipulations by educators.
The undercover videos reveal that Boland specifically would seek to discover a job applicant’s political or religious affiliations during the hiring process to weed out Catholics and conservatives. He also admitted to having a disregard for parental roles in education and in “shaping” their children. Boland also said he would not offer interviews to older candidates because they were more likely to be conservative.
CT Governor Ned Lamont (D) issued a statement on Wednesday:
“Discrimination of any kind has no place in Connecticut, especially in our public schools. This is not aligned with our Connecticut values. The Connecticut State Department of Education is aware of the incident, has been in contact with Greenwich Public School administrators, and is monitoring the situation’s progress.”
In an email to school community members, Greenwich Schools Superintendent Toni Jones confirmed that Bolen had been placed on administrative leave. In an earlier statement, the district committed to a full investigation, writing:
“We intend to do a full investigation and until that time, we will not make any public statements. We ask that you respect the investigation process during this time. We do not, however, support any opinions that promote discriminatory hiring practices based on race, religion, gender, or age in any way, and we want to remind our entire community that our curriculum policies and procedures are strictly enforced by our Board.”
O’Keefe held a press conference Wednesday evening at Cos Cob Elementary, joined by legislative leaders and CT Senate candidate Loera Levy (R), families, and Catholic community members demanding transparency, accountability, and full investigations. On Thursday, CT Attorney General William Tong announced a civil rights investigation into the district’s hiring practices. CT Democrat U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal has said, “This country was built on religious tolerance. Religious discrimination is inexcusable and illegal. Of course, I support a full investigation.”
While the community continues to find allies in its fight against shady and illegal practices aimed to mold their children with partisan outcomes, not everyone in the school system is on board. The president of CEA teachers union, Kate Dias has sent emails to union members directing them to only speak to vetted reporters, suggesting teachers alert members if Veritas is even in the state of CT and to “double down on caution.” So much for transparency. The union promises to share a “clean copy” of the video with educators after the national union, NEA, sanitizes it.
This appears to be a separate email from Dias, implying she has sent multiple instructions and warnings to teachers to hush up and be vigilant.
Project Veritas’ August 30 video release exposing Bolen (who has now reportedly deleted his LinkedIn account) is only the first of a multi-part series that will undercover practices in public education, in a series called, “The Secret Curriculum.”