A New York City middle school English teacher told a Project Veritas (PV) undercover journalist she encourages her students to engage in political violence by teaching them “to throw bricks,” not to “black and brown communities,” but at “the people that are actually doing the things that [need to] change.”
In the fourth video of its education series titled “The Secret Curriculum,” New York City Department of Education middle school teacher Ariane Franco is heard telling the PV journalist she teaches her students “there’s strategic ways” to engage in violent protests against the people who oppose her political agenda.
Franco, who, according to the video, teaches at the New School for Leadership and the Arts, says she teaches her students “how to do a protest because we spent a good two months based on, like, how to organize, what’s their purpose, the ones that work, what did they do.”
She explains she has “brought up crazy organizations” in the past “that have done this.”
“Like, they chose which places to throw bricks in,” she is heard explaining. “They chose – and they didn’t do it in their own neighborhood … they didn’t do it to black and brown communities. Doing it to our own community does not make sense.”
“You got to go after the people who it’s not directly affecting … throw it [brick] at the people that are actually doing the things that [need to] change,” Franco says.
The English teacher explains she teaches her students about how to fight.
“The first thing is to be able to be a critical thinker,” she tells the PV journalist. “Challenge your parents, challenge the adults that you meet, ask questions.”
In the following exchange, Franco is then heard touting to the undercover journalist that she and her students do not respect the Pledge of Allegiance:
Franco: Like, I tell them – my kids – we don’t stand up for the Pledge [of Allegiance]. We do the Pledge of Allegiance every morning, you know, but we keep going on our business.
PV Journalist: Yeah, yeah.
Franco: It was a class decision at the beginning of the school year. They’re not talking about me, so I’m not standing up, you know? At one point, when I first started challenging it [the Pledge of Allegiance], I had my kids change the words.
PV Journalist: Oh, wow. How did it go?
Franco: I can’t remember. It was something like – I think we added at the end, “And we will fight for those who this does not address,” or something like that. We added to [it] because it’s like, “and liberty and justice for all, and we will fight until that is true.”
Franco then is heard explaining she once knelt during the Pledge of Allegiance “when it first – when BLM – like when the BLM” …
PV Journalist: You used to what, now?
Franco: I used to kneel.
PV Journalist: Kneel in the class?
Franco: I mean, I couldn’t go all the way, but I would kneel –
PV Journalist: Would the students do it, too?
Franco: Yeah!
Franco explains she has the skills to teach her students about the Pledge.
“I’m an ELA [English Language Arts] teacher,” she says. “We break it down. Every line in the Pledge.”
Franco is heard saying she tells her students, “Guys, nothing is going to change until you guys are ready.”
“That’s what my job is,” she adds. “To prepare you to make sure that you don’t mess up this world too much.”
In the first video of PV’s “The Secret Curriculum” series, Connecticut Assistant Principal Jeremy Boland of Greenwich Public Schools revealed his strategies to ensure he never hires “Catholics” or “conservatives” to guarantee the children in his school are exposed to “subtle” left-wing indoctrination.
Jennifer “Ginn” Norris, the student activities director at elite, private Trinity School in New York City, touted in the second PV video of the series that she “sneaks” her left-wing political agenda into classrooms “wherever I can.”
Norris was heard showing her contempt for “white boys” who push back against her political activism at school, and boasting about how she can control the level of indoctrination to which students are exposed at the school because of her position.
As student activities director, for example, she told the PV undercover journalist she would never allow Republican speakers to come into the school.
The third video of the series featured Todd Soper, assistant principal of Neighborhood Charter Schools in Harlem, New York City, who revealed if teacher candidates fail to respond correctly to his Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion question during an interview, “they are an automatic Not Hire.”
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Susan Berry, PhD, is national education editor at The Star News Network. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Ariane Franco” by Project Veritas.
This NYC middle school teacher totally misunderstands her role in a school supported by taxpayer dollars. Every state, as most parents would agree, should prohibit partisan political activities on school grounds during the school day. Not just politicking for parties or candidates, or wearing clothes or accessories that indicate a partisan/candidate preference, but educators should not be using school children to visibly support causes that favor their political preferences, the school (e.g. the school budget, bond issues or teacher salaries), or which favor certain candidates for office whether for Congress or the school board. Certainly, partisan differences can be explored or debated as part of even-handed instruction or at special events with knowledgeable representatives of differing views. At the same time, what students and teachers do during non-school time is their private business, but school time should be reserved for student learning. On a personal note, having lived and worked in developing countries, I’ve seen the harm that overtly mixing partisan politics with the public education of children can do. We should not go further down that slippery slope in the USA. Many districts have gone too far already. Time to reverse that trend.
Throw then at her.