West Cook News

Cook County Commissioner Sean Morrison expressed concern over a video showing an assistant principal stating he won't hire Catholics and conservatives.

“This is alarming. Local school boards are one of the most critical elected offices. A strong school board can fire bad actor principles and superintendents like this dude. The leftists ideology hate the rule of law, they hate religion, they hate your parental rights," Morrison posted on Twitter.

A clip shared by Project Veritas shows Jeremy Boland, the assistant principal at Cos Cob School in Greenwich, Conn., stating that he does not hire teachers if he finds out they're Catholic or conservative, Bronx News reported. 

Boland has been placed on administrative leave, and Superintendent Dr. Toni Jones said in a statement, "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. 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.”

Several local parents also expressed concern about Boland's statements in the video. The parent of a kindergartner said, "People talk about diversity and inclusion all the time. I feel excluded as a result of what he did." A former school board member said Boland isn't the only administrator who holds those views. "It's not just a rogue administrator. If you're around Greenwich Public Schools, you know that this culture exists inside the system."

Boland also said in the video that he prefers to hire young teachers over older teachers, because older teachers are "more set in your ways" and "more conservative." Boland also noted that because he "can't get past the parents," he doesn't have as much "influence" over students as he would like.