Share
Two weeks ago, a Cos Cob school administrator matter-of-factly detailed his discriminatory hiring practices against 1) Catholics, 2) conservatives and 3) people who are over 30 years old.
Do any of you check those boxes? (Full disclosure: I check all three.)
What happened next? The response to the scandal was equally as troubling as the scandal itself. First, Connecticut Democrats immediately attempted to smear the independent journalists at Project Veritas who broke the story as “gotcha” vigilantes who sought to “entrap” the smug public official.
The state Department of Education also did not unequivocally condemn the school administrator’s statements. Instead, the agency vaguely announced it will investigate the administrator’s professional conduct. What will this investigation entail? Who exactly is performing the investigation and when? Who knows?
Surprisingly, the president of the Connecticut Education Association—the largest association of educators in the state—did not immediately condemn this public school administrator’s statements. Why?
In the latest development this week, the Attorney General’s office, after launching a civil rights investigation into illegal discrimination, issued Project Veritas journalists with a preservation order for all relevant material. Has the same order been issued to Cos Cob schools?
I am the Ranking Senator on the Connecticut legislature’s Education Committee, and I am also an educator. I have tremendous appreciation and respect for what educators do. What happened in Cos Cob is outrageous and fundamentally wrong, but could it be happening elsewhere in the state?
Here’s how you can help answer that. If you are aware of political or age discrimination in a public school system, please reach out to me at Eric.Berthel@cga.ct.gov.
If you have evidence of children being indoctrinated instead of being educated, I want to know.
If the response from state officials to the Cos Cob controversy has frustrated you, I want to hear your thoughts and questions.
Your information can help prevent future Cos Cob revelations and bring about policies which will help weed out discriminatory views in our educational system.
Eric Berthel
Watertown, CT
Senator Eric Berthel is the ranking member on the legislature’s Education Committee and represents Connecticut’s 32nd Senatorial District, which includes the towns of Bethlehem, Bridgewater, Middlebury, Oxford, Roxbury, Seymour, Southbury, Washington, Watertown and Woodbury