An assistant principal of a public school in Greenwich, Connecticut is reportedly on administrative leave after a bombshell sting video showed him making stunning remarks about his discriminatory hiring practices.
The now-viral Project Veritas video, released on Tuesday, shows Cos Cob Elementary School Assistant Principal Jeremy Boland talking about indoctrinating children with “progressive” values and declaring that he doesn’t hire Catholics, conservatives, older applicants, or anyone he doesn’t believe would be good at “delivering a Democratic message.”
In the video, Boland tells an undercover Project Veritas journalist posing as his date that he oversees the hiring of teachers, and favors those who will disseminate “progressive” political ideas in the classrooms. He boasted that left-wing teachers are very adept at concealing their left-wing biases in the classroom.
“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.
“So, it’s subtle. They [teachers I hire] will never say, “Oh, this is [a] liberal or a Democratic way of doing this,” he explained. “They’ll just make that the norm. And this is how we handle things, it’s subtle.”
The Veritas Journalist responded, “and that’s how you get away with it [indoctrinating children]?
“That’s how you get away with it,” Boland replied.
The elementary school administrator affirmed that any teacher who refuses to entertain a child’s gender preferences has no place at his school.
“So, if you have someone [teacher] who is hardcore religious or hardcore conservative, they will probably say something detrimental to the effect, ‘Well, I don’t think kids have enough knowledge to make that decision [gender identity] at this age,’” Boland said, adding that he has a zero tolerance policy for such cases. “You’re out. You’re done,” he said.
The administrator explained that his goal in only hiring progressives was to get past the parents’ idea that they have control over what is taught in their child’s school.
“So the parents feel as though it’s their responsibility to shape the schools that then shape their kids,” Boland noted. “So, because I can’t get past their parents, do I really have as much influence on the kids as I want? I try in my own way, but right now my job is to hire the right teachers.”
He admitted to the Veritas journalist that he discriminates against potential hires based on their religion in order to further his goal of indoctrinating children with left-wing propaganda.
“I’m not a huge expert on religion, but Protestants in this area are probably the most liberal. But if they’re Catholic — conservative,” Boland told the undercover journalist.
When asked if he would ever hire a Catholic job seeker, he responded that he would not.
“No, I don’t want to,” he said. “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,” he explained.
Boland went on to note that he discriminates against older applicants as well.
“I need younger [teachers]. So, because Greenwich pays very well, you get teachers from other districts who have been there for a long time, that want to come to Greenwich. But if they’re older, I’m not allowed to do that — I can’t tell them, ‘I’m not interviewing you because you’re older,’” he said. “I just don’t interview them. So, for one position, I think we had 30 applicants. So out of all those applicants, I don’t think I interviewed anybody over the [age] of 30…Because sometimes the older you get, the more set in your ways, the more conservative you get.”
Greenwich’s First Selectman Fred Camillo released a statement Tuesday night, saying that there needs to be a full investigation “into not only this administration but the damage caused to applicants, past and present.”
Superintendent of Schools Dr. Toni Jones sent an email to Greenwich Public Schools parents Wednesday afternoon, saying Boland had been placed on administrative leave.
“Late last evening, we were made aware of a video that had gone viral with a current administrator from Cos Cob School,” Jones wrote in the email. “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.”
She added: “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.”
Democrat Gov. Ned Lamont also released a statement in response to the damning video.
“Discrimination of any kind has no place in Connecticut, especially in our public schools,” Lamont said. “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.”
The Archbishop of Hartford said he was “shocked and appalled” by Boland’s comments, and Catholic League President Bill Donohue called for Boland to be immediately fired.
“There is no role for an admitted anti-Catholic bigot in any school in the nation,” Donohue said. “What makes this case a legal slam dunk is that Boland is not simply spewing anti-Catholic vitriol, he is in charge of hiring and has explicitly said he would not hire Catholics. That is illegal. If justice is not done by Dr. Jones, and other school officials, the Catholic League will pursue every legal challenge available.”
Connecticut Law 46a-60b states: “It shall be a discriminatory practice for an employer… to refuse to hire or employ or to bar or discharge from employment any individual or to discriminate against such individual… because of the individual’s race, color, religious creed, age, sex, gender identity or expression, marital status, national origin, ancestry, present or past history of mental disability, intellectual disability, learning disability, physical disability, including, but not limited to, blindness or status as a veteran.”
Project Veritas will be releasing additional videos in its Education Series exposing corruption and bias in public schools in the coming days.
Wednesday afternoon, Project Veritas founder and president James O’Keefe answered questions from the local Greenwich media.
After answering numerous questions about his “far right” bias and how he edits his videos, O’Keefe exclaimed, “rather than ask these sorts of questions about me, maybe you should be doing what we do and go investigate!”
He added: “If you guys were doing your job, there wouldn’t be a need for Project Veritas and James O’Keefe.”