Education

Head Of NYC School Allegedly Recorded Saying Curriculum Demonizes White People Claims He Was ‘Misquoted’

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Mary Margaret Olohan Social Issues Reporter
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  • The head of a Manhattan private school allegedly admitted privately that the school was demonizing white children, according to recordings of a conversation posted Tuesday, and a teacher has accused him of lying about his comments.
  • Recordings published Tuesday allegedly feature Grace Church head George Davison expressing “grave doubts about some of the doctrinaire stuff that gets spouted at us in the name of antiracism.”
  • Davison also allegedly said that Grace Church focuses too much on the “demonization of being white” and the “attempt to link anyone who is white” to the perpetuation of white supremacy.

The head of a Manhattan private school allegedly admitted privately that the school was demonizing white children, recordings posted Tuesday show, then said that he was misquoted and publicly disciplined a teacher for speaking out against the school.

Recordings published Tuesday by the Foundation Against Intolerance and Racism (FAIR) allegedly feature Grace Church head of school George Davison expressing “grave doubts about some of the doctrinaire stuff that gets spouted at us in the name of antiracism” and saying that the school focuses too much on the “demonization of being white” and the “attempt to link anyone who is white” to the perpetuation of white supremacy.

The recordings are from a March 2 conversation, FAIR said in a press release. (RELATED: ‘God Loves Me’: 10-Year-Old Trans Child Quotes Bible To Tell TX Legislators Why They Shouldn’t Ban Trans Surgeries, Procedures For Minors)

Staffer Paul Rossi sparked a national conversation on Grace Church School’s ideology in an April 13 essay accusing school administrators of “indoctrination” and of fixating on race. In a letter to the school’s faculty sent April 18, school head Davison announced that Rossi had declined his contract to return in the fall and had been asked not to return to the building.

Neither Rossi nor Davison immediately responded to requests for comment from the Daily Caller News Foundation.

Rossi sent a letter to Davison on April 19, which was also released by FAIR, stating that Davison “also expressed ‘grave doubts about some of the doctrinaire stuff that gets spouted at us, in the name of antiracism.'”

“When I told you ‘they’re fighting a revolution’ and ‘will hollow out Grace and move on to the next institution,’ you acknowledged that ‘they’ve hollowed out a bunch of other ones ahead of us,'” Rossi told his former boss. “While I cannot know for certain, I suspect that the reason you have not shared these concerns with the broader Grace community is because you know exactly what happens to people who do — it is what is happening to me right now.”

Davison reportedly denied that he made the comments, writing back Monday, “We disagree and that will remain.” (RELATED: Affluent Prep School Told Students To Stop Saying ‘Newton’s Laws’ To ‘Decenter Whiteness’: REPORT)

“You misquoted me and attributed to me things that I had never said nor would ever say in the press,” Davison said, the New York Post reported. “Your actions were unprofessional and I still defended your right to have a point of view. I will not in an email get into a point by point rebuttal because I know that you are not trustworthy given your past performance.”

Recordings posted on Tuesday allegedly feature a conversation between Rossi and Davison where Davison told Rossi, “I am agreeing with you, there has been a demonization that we need to get our hands around, in the way in which people are doing this understanding.”

WATCH:

“So you agree that we are demonizing kids,” Rossi allegedly asked Davison.

“We are demonizing white people for being born,” the Grace Church head allegedly responded.

Rossi pushed Davison to say that the school is “demonizing white kids,” asking him, “Why don’t you just say it?”

“We are using language that makes them feel less than, for nothing that they are personally responsible for,” Davison allegedly responded.

In another clip of the recording, which was not released in full, Davison allegedly expresses “grave doubts about some of the doctrinaire stuff that gets spouted at us in the name of antiracism” and said the school focuses too much about the “demonization of being white” and the “attempt to link anyone who is white” to the perpetuation of white supremacy.

WATCH:

Rossi’s essay was published in journalist Bari Weiss’s substack in mid April, titled, “I Refuse to Stand By While My Students Are Indoctrinated.”

“My school, like so many others, induces students via shame and sophistry to identify primarily with their race before their individual identities are fully formed,” the former Grace Church teacher wrote. “Students are pressured to conform their opinions to those broadly associated with their race and gender and to minimize or dismiss individual experiences that don’t match those assumptions.”

“The morally compromised status of ‘oppressor’ is assigned to one group of students based on their immutable characteristics,” he continued. “In the meantime, dependency, resentment and moral superiority are cultivated in students considered ‘oppressed.’ All of this is done in the name of ‘equity,’ but it is the opposite of fair. In reality, all of this reinforces the worst impulses we have as human beings: our tendency toward tribalism and sectarianism that a truly liberal education is meant to transcend.”

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