A private co-ed school on the Upper East Side of Manhattan is in hot water for a video released by Project Veritas. In an undercover investigation, a Trinity School administrator is heard admitting that she sneaks her liberal political agenda into the classroom. She targets white male students by calling them “horrible”. She is now on paid leave.
Trinity School and Upper School Director of Student Activities Jennifer “Ginn” Norris is heard saying she tries to “disrupt” wherever she can. She and other teachers have been “sneaking” their liberal activism in through the cracks.
“There’s always groups of teachers who want to do these [activist] things but the administration just wouldn’t let us,” Norris says in the clip. “So, we’ve been just sneaking things in [through] the cracks.”
BREAKING: @TrinitySchoolNY Director Sneaking Political Agenda into Classrooms
“Disrupt wherever I can”
“I felt like a double agent”
“White boys…very entitled to express their opposite opinions”
“I think they’re really awful people[White students]” pic.twitter.com/OurfX1286P
— Jered Ede (Project Veritas Chief Legal Officer) (@Jtaylorede) September 1, 2022
She says the school’s administration is conservative so she and other teachers have to sneak in their agenda. Speakers are brought into the school twice a week but conservative speakers are not welcomed as far as she’s concerned. Apparently, her boss is aware of her actions because Norris told the undercover investigator that she told her boss that she would be “100% Democratic” with the kids. “It’s definitely a school where conservatives would not feel comfortable.”
Norris added, “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.”
This school costs $60,000 in tuition. The school serves grades K-12. There may not be a lot of conservatives living in Manhattan but surely some of the parents who send their children to this school lean conservative. Norris also has a problem with white male students. Capitalism makes her sad, apparently, and she thinks rich white male students just need to go. I wonder who she thinks pays her salary. The parents of those white male students may be interested in her opinion of their sons.
“Unfortunately, it’s the white boys who feel very entitled to express their opposite opinions and just push back,” Norris said. “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.”
When asked if there was any saving Republican white guys, Norris responded: “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.”
The photo above is of a random protest because Norris says that though the school doesn’t encourage students to join in protests, she gives them art supplies to make posters and students go to all the protests. Then, when they receive detention for walking out of school, Norris says that they discuss “social justice” during that time. So, it’s a woke kind of punishment. When asked about what kind of protests the students participated in, the first one she named was the Women’s March after Trump was elected. Because, of course.
Norris: So, with my role, I give them [students] all the art supplies. They can make posters together. We have people that go to every march. They get excused from classes, or–
Veritas Journalist: Which marches? Like–
Norris: They went to the women’s rights marches after Trump. They went to all the gun — the March for our Lives. It’s fun, too, because if they do march out of school — because sometimes it’s a political protest, and so we don’t actually give them the grace period, but we do. We don’t punish them, but if they do it, then they have to serve detention, and then during detention we talk about social justice. We do much more education there.
Veritas Journalist: Yeah, you’re giving them an opportunity to be encouraged.
Norris: So, it’s like the punishment of detention, but it’s not punishment at all.
The school responded by placing Norris on paid leave and retaining outside counsel to conduct an independent investigation. Project Veritas released a letter sent to parents.
Regrettably, Trinity School and Upper School Director of Student Activities Ginn Norris have 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. Importantly, the sentiments expressed in the video do not reflect the mission or values of Trinity School.
Accordingly, the School is retaining outside counsel to conduct an independent investigation. Ms. Norris will be placed on paid leave while this investigation is underway. As part of this process, in conjunction with the work of our outside advisors, we will also 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.
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. Most recently, a letter sent to families just this Wednesday offered fresh language to express our core values: We care for one another. We listen and learn. We seek and speak the truth. We serve the common good. Every member of the Trinity School community knows these words speak straight to the heart of our daily efforts and aspirations, and it is important to remind ourselves, over and over again, that our community stands for and strives to live up to higher ideals — love, respect, and inclusion.
I wonder how many parents will be ok with spending $60,000 per year on a school that has such a person in charge. She didn’t distinguish her contempt for white male students on whether they are conservative or liberal or non-political. She paints them with a broad brush.
This investigation is part of a project called The Secret Curriculum in its Education Series. Also last week, another video by Project Veritas was released that captured an assistant principal at a Greenwich, Connecticut elementary school admitting that he avoids hiring Catholics and older people as teachers because they are generally conservative and less inclined to share progressive political views. Connecticut Attorney General William Tong has ordered a civil rights investigation of hiring practices at the school.
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