Prestigious NYC Private School Director Touts ‘Sneaking’ Her Political ‘Agenda’ into Classrooms: ‘Disrupt Wherever I Can’ … ‘I Felt Like a Double Agent’ … ‘Huge Contingent’ of White Boys ‘Are Just Horrible’
- Jennifer Norris, Director of Student Activities, Trinity School NYC: “I just keep trying to disrupt wherever I can. And now that I’m in this position, I have so many opportunities to do that.”
- Norris: “I don’t hide how I feel, but I can’t pretend I’m [not] promoting an agenda even though I clearly am with all the stuff I’m doing.”
- Norris: “There’s always groups of teachers who want to do these [activist] things, but the administration just wouldn’t let us. So, we’ve been just sneaking things in [through] the cracks.”
- Norris: “When I first started there [at Trinity School NYC], I hid my whole life. I felt like a double agent or something.”
- Norris: “Unfortunately, it’s the white boys who feel very entitled to express their opposite opinions and just push back. 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…I think they need to go. I think they’re really awful people…They’re so protected by capitalism. It makes me sad.”
- Norris: Trinity School NYC is “definitely a school where conservatives would not feel comfortable.”
- Norris: “I’m in charge” and “I won’t” allow Republican perspectives on campus. “Not on my watch.”
- Norris: “I talked to the [Trinity NYC high school] principal and I was like, ‘So, if I’m running this, I’m 100% democratic with the students. I will tell them the [speaker] options and they are voting.’ I’m not going to just be like, ‘These are our speakers for the year.’ I want to make sure the kids are engaged and care. So, I do put a lot of it on them, but I said, ‘There are some speakers I am not even going to put on the plate for them [students], and if that’s a problem, I cannot be in charge of that.’ And he [principal] was like, ‘No.’ He said, ‘This isn’t the time for both [political] sides.’ He said, ‘We’re not in that place in our society.’”
[NEW YORK – Sept. 1, 2022] Project Veritas released a second video in its newly launched Education Series today exposing a senior administrator at a prestigious New York City private school.
Jennifer Norris, who is employed by Trinity School NYC as its Director of Student Activities, was recorded admitting how her current leadership role facilitates her goal of promoting politics in the classroom.
“I just keep trying to disrupt wherever I can,” Norris said. “And now that I’m in this position, I have so many opportunities to do that.”
The school official claims she uses her time at work to advance her ideological objectives.
“I don’t hide how I feel, but I can’t pretend I’m [not] promoting an agenda even though I clearly am with all the stuff I’m doing,” she said.
To avoid attracting the school administration’s attention to this ideological work, Norris tells the Veritas journalist that some things must be done subtly:
Norris: There’s always groups of teachers who want to do these [activist] things but the administration just wouldn’t let us. So, we’ve been just sneaking things in [through] the cracks.
Veritas Journalist: You do what, now?
Norris: You know, it’s like they don’t — like, the administration was much more conservative than most of us. I’m really good friends with the associate head of school now. She was an English teacher, and then she just kind of moved her way up. She was department chair and now she’s the associate head. So, I go and talk to her all the time, and she’s been amazing. Like, she really cares and has the power to change things. So, I feel like I finally have an in to get it done. But when I started there, I hid my whole life. I felt like a double agent or something. It’s just nice we don’t have to hide our activism outside of school. We don’t have to hide who we are. Like, we can bring our whole selves to work and do the important work now.
The Director of Student Activities appeared to express disdain for a range of white students who attend the school:
Norris: Unfortunately, it’s the white boys who feel very entitled to express their opposite opinions and just push back. 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.
Veritas Journalist: Is there any saving these Republican white guys?
Norris: 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: We need to find some, like, Dexter, sort of like a vigilante, taking people out. You know the show, Dexter?
Veritas Journalist: Oh, yeah.
Norris: We just need some vigilante, Dexters. Like, “Here’s your community of targets.”
The administrator also suggested that holding conservative views at the school may not be worthwhile.
“I mean, we [Trinity School NYC] are not as left as I am, for sure. But it’s definitely a school where conservatives would not feel comfortable,” she said.
Norris went further. She affirmed that as a decision-maker for student activities, she will not permit right-leaning speakers and ideas to be presented to the pupils:
Norris: Two days a week, I bring in speakers from outside. So, that’s been a huge opportunity for me to just bring things — any social justice issues or just people with experiences.
Veritas Journalist: Yeah.
Norris: So, it’s been really fun.
Veritas Journalist: Do you have to fight with the staff about not letting conservatives speak and–
Norris: No. I mean, I talked to the principal, and I was like, “So, if I’m running this, I’m 100% democratic with the students. I will tell them the [speaker] options and they are voting.” I’m not going to just be like, “These are our speakers for the year.” I want to make sure the kids are engaged and care. So, I do put a lot of it on them, but I said, “There are some speakers I am not even going to put on the plate for them [students], and if that’s a problem, I cannot be in charge of that.” And he [principal] was like, “No.” He said, “This isn’t the time for both [political] sides.” He said, “We’re not in that place in our society.”
Veritas Journalist: I like him. He’s your dean you said?
Norris: He’s the principal of the high school.
Veritas Journalist: Oh, okay.
Norris: So, he’s not — I want him to be more firm and, like, push back, but if I’m like, “This is my line,” then he’s never — he’s always like, “That is totally fine.”
Veritas Journalist: So, you guys wouldn’t let Republican perspectives on campus?
Norris: I won’t.
Veritas Journalist: Yeah. Well, you’re in charge, so–
Norris: 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.
She admits that the school’s current detention program is used to push politics instead of disciplining students who engaged in wrongdoing:
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 Veritas journalist asked Norris for her thoughts on potentially having a man, dressed as a woman, get paid by the school to speak in front of children:
Veritas Journalist: It’s funny, my friend Moses, Moses the drag queen. I told him I’m on a date with a teacher, and he said, “Ask her if I can — ask her if she’ll have me at her school!”
Norris: Sure!
Veritas Journalist: Would you do it? Are you open to having him talk about his-–
Norris: Yeah, I mean, I’m friends with all the librarians too, so I can see.
Veritas Journalist: A drag queen thing
Norris: Absolutely.
Veritas Journalist: You’d be down? Okay.
Norris: Of course!
Veritas Journalist: What if he wants money though?
Norris: How much money?
Veritas Journalist: You might be able to do $500 or $700?
Norris: We have a lower school. It’s a K-12 school.
Veritas Journalist: Okay. I think it would be most effective with like the younger–
Norris: He wants to, like, read to — I think it would be awesome.
Veritas Journalist: Yeah, he loves that stuff. I think he wants to get into it.
Norris: I can talk to the Director of Libraries and figure that out.
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