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A Connecticut public school assistant principal has been placed on leave after a leaked video appeared to show him claiming he won't hire conservatives or Catholics, and saying he wants to hire teachers who will shape students to think in a liberal way.
"I can't get past the parents anymore," Assistant Principal Jeremy Boland of Cos Cob School in Greenwich appeared to say in a video released by Project Veritas. "So, the parents feel as though it's their responsibility to shape the schools, which then shape the kids, right?
"So, because I can't get past the parents, do I really have as much of an influence… on the kids as I want? I try in my own way. But right now, my job is to hire the right teachers."
"Do we work for the parent or do we work for the kid?" Boland said in what appeared to be a secretly recorded video. "We work for the kid."
Parents and activists protest Los Alamitos School Board President Marlys Davidson in Los Alamitos, California, on Nov. 1, 2021. Davidson was heard using a profane expletive during the meeting after parent Lauren Roupoli raised concerns over mandates imposed on students that require them to wear masks in class. (Jeff Gritchen/MediaNews Group/Orange County Register via Getty Images)
Boland added that Catholics are "probably the most conservative," and if he found out someone was Catholic, he would not hire them.
The school superintendent sent an email to families and staff Wednesday morning saying that an investigation had begun into Boland's comments, but that the district does not "support any opinions that promote discriminatory hiring practices based on race, religion, gender, or age in any way."
"We want to remind our entire community that our curriculum policies and procedures are strictly enforced by our Board," the superintendent's message continued.
A later email from the superintendent said that Boland had been placed on leave, according to a district spokesperson.
Boland also appeared to be talking about teachers subtly "delivering a Democratic message."
"You’re teaching them how to think. That’s it. It doesn’t matter what they think about it in a logical, progressive way. That becomes their habit," Boland said.
A student against banning CRT holds up a sign as members of the Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified School Board meet in Placentia, California. (Leonard Ortiz/MediaNews Group/Orange County Register via Getty Images)
Cody Kittle, a member of the Greenwich Public Schools Board of Education, told Fox News Digital, "I suspect the narrative provided will be that this is just one bad actor. Parents should look beyond this. Is it surprising that a system largely exempt from competition or accountability fosters such bureaucratic arrogance? It's a missed opportunity to focus on one person. I hope parents rally around curriculum transparency and school choice to help change the system."
Residents of Loudoun County, Virginia, made critical race theory a national conversation in 2021. (REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein)
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Karen Kowalski, the vice chair of the Greenwich Public Schools Board of Education, told Fox News Digital she was "disgusted" by Boland's "racist ideology."
"However, my bigger concern is where there is one there are others, and this was likely conduct that was permitted and possibly blessed," said Kowalski. "For years I and others have been trying to fight this from happening and have been assured that this conduct does not happen in our schools, but we all knew it did and now we have evidence. There absolutely needs to be repercussions."
The often-controversial Project Veritas, which frames itself as a whistleblower watchdog group, has previously released what it claims to be hidden camera footage of network news producers, politicians and members of private political organizations making statements while unaware they are being recorded.