Cos Cob School Assistant Principal Placed On Administrative Leave

GREENWICH, CT — The Greenwich Public Schools District is launching an investigation into one of its administrators after a surreptitiously recorded video of Cos Cob School Assistant Principal Jeremy Boland was posted online by the organization Project Veritas Tuesday night.

By Wednesday afternoon, the school district announced that Boland had been placed on administrative leave, effective immediately.

The 12-minute video shows Boland speaking with a woman who is off-camera at what appears to be different restaurants on separate occasions about a variety of topics, ranging from his thoughts on Catholics to his own personal hiring practices in the workplace. Dates on the video indicate the recordings took place in July.

A message was sent to families Wednesday morning by the school district following the release of the video.

"Late last evening, we were made aware of a video that had gone viral with a current administrator from Cos Cob School. 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," the district said.

"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."

Project Veritas is a conservative media organization, known for conducting undercover video stings and publicizing private conversations. Videos are often edited down.

In February 2021, Twitter permanently suspended the Project Veritas account because it posted private information, the New York Times reported.

In April that year, the social media platform permanently banned the account of Project Veritas founder James O'Keefe, saying O'Keefe violated Twitter rules on platform manipulation and spam, the NYT said.

The video that was posted Tuesday night is the first in a series Project Veritas is calling "The Secret Curriculum," which aims to highlight "the secret curriculum that is indoctrinating your children," Project Veritas says on its YouTube page.

In a segment of the video in which Boland and the woman talk about hiring, the woman asked Boland if he has found that certain religions "tend to be more right wing."

"Almost all of them," Boland said, before he's asked to expand more.

"The only one, and 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 said.

The woman asked Boland what he does when he finds out someone is Catholic.

"You don't hire them," Boland responded in the video.

When asked if he would ever hire a Catholic, Boland said, "Honestly, I don't want to... Because it's just that, there's always that if they were 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 just stuck real rigid."

Boland spoke about having younger interview candidates.

"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.' I just don't interview them."

"Because they would...?" the woman asked.

"A couple of reasons, yeah, because sometimes the older you get, the more set in your ways, the more conservative you get," Boland said.

In another interaction two days later, according to the timestamp, Boland said, "Believe it or not, the open-minded, more progressive teachers are actually more savvy about delivering a Democratic message."

Reaction

Several elected officials reacted Wednesday to the viral video.

Gov. Ned Lamont issued a statement, speaking out about "discrimination."

"Discrimination of any kind has no place in Connecticut, especially in our public schools. This is not aligned with our Connecticut values," he said. "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."

Majority Leader state Sen. Bob Duff (D-25) made a statement on Twitter.

"If proven true, these are not our values and should not be tolerated. First, there should be a full investigation to determine if this illegal discrimination has been allowed to happen by leaders in Greenwich beyond this man and if so all parties need to be held accountable," Duff said. "At the minimum the assistant principal should face immediate legal consequences."

Locally in Greenwich, in a statement to Patch, First Selectman Fred Camillo said his administration "takes very seriously any allegations or demonstration of discrimination in the workplace."

Camillo said he has "an ethical and moral obligation to make sure the disturbing developments that have come to light over the last 24 hours concerning comments made by a board of education employee are properly investigated."

To that end, Camillo noted that he has conferred with the town's director of human resources and the town attorney, and has directed the town attorney to proceed with an independent investigation into the matter.

"The board of education represents the largest cost center in our town’s operating budget and the taxpayers of Greenwich expect that those that work on behalf of the town of Greenwich and the Greenwich Board of Education do so with the highest standards of ethics, transparency and integrity," Camillo said.

Soon after the video's release on Tuesday night, Camillo posted to Facebook and rebuked Boland's comments.

"The Veritas video just released, and I see no reason to suspect it is not accurate, is shameful and needs a full investigation into not only this administrator, but the damage caused to applicants, past and present. Our kids deserve better. Our schools deserve better. Our town deserves better," Camillo said.

Camillo, who was born and raised in Greenwich, went to Cos Cob School as a student and worked as a teacher for several years.

"This hits home. To think that Roman Catholic applicants may have applied for teaching positions and not received proper consideration due to their religion seems like something from a bygone era, not 2022," Camillo said. "According to this assistant principal, conservatives, older applicants, and others deemed not progressive were not given an opportunity afforded others.

"We are entrusted with the task of educating students, and to encourage critical thinking. Brainwashing and indoctrination have no place in halls of learning, or anywhere else, for that matter."

Boland came to Greenwich in 2006 as a physical education teacher at International School at Dundee, and assumed the role of assistant principal at Cos Cob School in 2020.

Patch has reached out to Boland for comment