'This is not a rich person issue, this is not a NYC issue, this is an American issue': Parent and teacher who spoke out against 'woke' antiracist doctrine in their expensive NY private schools warn it is infecting all US schools
A New York father who launched a crusade against his daughter's school and their 'indoctrination' of pupils has warned that the problem is nationwide, and urged other parents to speak up against the 'Orwellian' promotion of a 'woke' curriculum.
Andrew Gutmann, whose daughter attends The Brearley School, an all-girls private school in New York City, located on the Upper East Side, wrote a letter on April 13 to other parents complaining about efforts to 'brainwash' students with 'woke' philosophies rather than teaching them how to think on their own.
His letter went viral, and on Tuesday he told former New York Times journalist Bari Weiss - who first published his letter - that it was not just a 'rich person's problem'.
School fees at The Brearley are $54,000 a year.
'All the schools in New York City are doing this,' he told Weiss in their Zoom discussion, watched live by over 900 people.
'They are all playing by the same playbook. This Critical Race Theory is in public schools.
'This is not a rich person issue, this is not a New York City issue - this is an American issue. It is a disaster for education nationwide, which is a disaster for our future.'
Bari Weiss (left) hosted a Zoom on Tuesday with Andrew Gutmann (top right) and Paul Rossi
Gutmann, pictured on Monday, said he stood by his letter and did not regret sending it
Gutmann said he was angered by an excessive focus on race, with weekly diversity and inclusion events and 'everything being looked at through the lens of race'.
'It's the indoctrination,' he said. 'Not being able to have a discussion.
'Schools like Brearley are supposed to teach intellectual curiosity and openness and discussion. And this is the exact opposite of what they are doing.'
In his letter, Gutmann mapped out what he called Brearley's 'critical race theory' which he said is 'advocating that blacks should forever be regarded as helpless victims'.
Brearly School is an elite New York school which includes Tina Fey and Drew Barrymore among its parents
This is Brearley's exhaustive anti-racism calendar for the school year of 2020 to 2021 which includes training sessions for parents
One of the examples he gave was the school's 'sophomoric' and 'simplistic' anti-training sessions for parents, and the fact that materials that have been taught for years are now suddenly considered offensive in light of the BLM movement.
He didn't say which books had been pulled but said it applied to his daughter's fourth grade class.
Gutmann fumed that the girls are being taught to hate their own country and that white students are being judged for the color of their skin.
He also denied that there was systemic racism in the US, saying there hadn't been since the 1960s.
Weiss, a former New York Times journalist, hosted the Zoom discussion on Tuesday
'Systemic racism, properly understood, is segregated schools and separate lunch counters. It is the interning of Japanese and the exterminating of Jews. Systemic racism is unequivocally not a small number of isolated incidences over a period of decades,' he said.
He also called out the school for claiming to care about diversity with its race stances while also prioritizing legacy students, siblings of other students or 'families with especially deep pockets'.
'I cannot tolerate a school that not only judges my daughter by the color of her skin, but encourages and instructs her to prejudge others by theirs.
'By viewing every element of education, every aspect of history, and every facet of society through the lens of skin color and race, we are desecrating the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and utterly violating the movement for which such civil rights leaders believed, fought, and died,' he said.
Gutmann went on to say that the school was 'indoctrinating' the girls into a single mindset that is 'most reminiscent of the Chinese Cultural Revolution.'
'Over the past several months, I have personally spoken to many Brearley parents as well as parents of children at peer institutions,' he wrote.
'It is abundantly clear that the majority of parents believe that Brearley’s antiracism policies are misguided, divisive, counterproductive and cancerous.'
He added in his letter: 'Many believe, as I do, that these policies will ultimately destroy what was until recently, a wonderful educational institution.'
On Tuesday night, he accused the school of 'pushing families and kids apart', adding: 'I think it is despicable.'
Jane Fried, Brearley's head of school, sent a message to the school's families on Friday in which she said students were 'frightened' to receive the letter at home
Gutmann accused Jane Fried (pictured), head of Brearley, of attempting to divide his family
Gutmann revealed that, amid the fallout from his letter to other parents, the head of school wrote to his daughter and 'tried to drive a wedge between us'.
He said his daughter, who is still a pupil but will not return next year, wrote a letter in response to the head's correspondence 'basically saying I support my dad.'
Jane Fried, Brearley's head of school, sent a message to the school's families on Friday in which she slammed Gutmann's letter as 'deeply offensive and harmful.'
'This afternoon, I and others who work closely with Upper School students met with more than one hundred of them, many of whom told us that they felt frightened and intimidated by the letter and the fact that it was sent directly to our homes,' Fried wrote.
'Our students noted that as this letter, which denies the presence of systemic racism, crossed their doorways, the evidence of ongoing racism – systemic or otherwise – is daily present in our headlines.'
But Gutmann claims that Brearley students should not be 'frightened' by receiving a letter at their homes.
Gutmann, 45, said that he wrote his 1,700-word letter and mailed it to 650 different families because 'someone had to speak out.' He said he does not regret sending the letter, and told Weiss that he saw himself as giving other families 'cover', and courage to speak out.
He said he knew many other parents were concerned about the curriculum too.
'It was - I'll take the hit, and I hope you will start to speak up,' Gutmann explained.
'We have lost the ability to talk about race.'
He lamented how the United States 'got so sensitive' and wrapped their children in the cotton wool of a 'safety culture', saying he wished children were more resilient, and were not taught to condemn every disagreement as a 'microaggression'.
In his letter, Gutmann angered some by saying that he did not believe the United States suffered from 'systemic racism'.
He explained on Tuesday: 'I by no means am saying there is no racism.
'There is a distinction between systemic or institutional racism.
'I stand by what I said.'
And he felt the issue of schools was part of a larger malaise in society.
'We have to fix our cancel culture problem before we fix our schools problem,' he said.
Gutmann was joined for the discussion by Paul Rossi, a math teacher at Grace Church School in Manhattan, who was 'relieved of his teaching duties' on Sunday for writing an essay against his school's attitudes.
Paul Rossi taught math at Grace Church in the East Village of Manhattan until this weekend
