Republican candidate for U.S. Senate Leora Levy speaks at a press conference outside Cos Cob School after a video showed a person appearing to be vice principal Jeremy Boland revealing discriminatory hiring practices. Other republican officals and candidates spoke during the conference Wednesday evening, August 31, 2022.

The recent video of the Cos Cob School assistant principal went viral, made national newscasts, and places our school system in an unfortunate light. There is widespread acknowledgment that the comments made in the video displayed a lack of judgment and do not reflect the values of our community or those we expect from our school administrators. The discriminatory nature of his remarks is unacceptable to us all and the resulting anger is justified. However, just as important, and equally disturbing but lost in the focus on the content, is how this information was obtained.

For the better part of two years, the national Republican Party has pushed a narrative centered around parental concerns that our public schools are implementing a more progressive curriculum than many parents feel is appropriate. The fuse for this effort was lit when former Trump chief adviser Steve Bannon issued his rallying cry that the “path to save the nation” was through local school boards. This resulted in volunteer school board members and superintendents across the nation being targeted by frustrated parents and angry, organized groups over concerns ranging from overly progressive curriculum to COVID procedures. We have seen this play itself out in our own community as well.

For some, the comments attributed to Jeremy Boland serve as ironclad confirmation of these parental concerns. But, whatever one’s opinion about the content exposed in this video, journalists do not lure unsuspecting subjects into agreeing to meet, whereupon that person is unknowingly taped, and the content of that conversation made public. Unfortunately, in the case of Project Veritas, the means are irrelevant if they achieve the desired result.

The result of this mess is that Mr. Boland has been placed on an administrative leave of absence and seems likely to lose his job. There will no doubt be concurrent internal and independent investigations of our public-school practices and procedures to examine whether his comments were his alone or representative of the Greenwich school system. Connecticut Attorney General William Tong’s office is also investigating the matter.

For Greenwich, the result will be a steady stream of unfortunate local and national publicity. Likely, Greenwich will see its litigation risk increase significantly as rejected job applicants for positions at Cos Cob and other Greenwich schools, evaluate whether they were discriminated against and if their case merits legal pursuit. Given the age-related, political and religious biases expressed in the video, there should also be concerns about the GPS’s ability to attract qualified applicants going forward. While all of this plays out, many will see this video as a validation of their worst suspicions about our school’s academic approach.

After the release of the Project Veritas video, Senate candidate Leora Levy held a news conference at which she introduced James O’Keefe (the head of Project Veritas), who was welcomed with thunderous applause. The stated objective of this event was to “condemn indoctrination and discrimination in CT Schools” which no one should tolerate, and all can support. While it is understandable that Republicans would embrace this apparent confirmation about their concerns regarding our schools, should they be equally concerned about the tactics employed by Project Veritas in terms of how this information was obtained? During his comments, Mr. O’Keefe pointed to a group of local media and said, “if all of you guys were doing your jobs, there wouldn’t be a need for people like me.” So, is Project Veritas “real journalism” as Mr. O’Keefe suggests, or is it simply a predatory exercise whose methods and practices are justified if they result in some level of confirmation of a political position?

Time will tell what effect this form of “gotcha” journalism will have on our political discourse. It is important for us to think about the consequences of accepting this type of reporting as a normal component or approach of our daily news cycle. Confirmation of one’s political bias or concerns is always comforting, and immensely gratifying. But irrespective of one’s political leanings, it is equally important that the source of that confirmation should be above reproach. Will an expansion of this questionable type of journalism impact people’s ability to trust one another? Is it tolerable because it produces satisfactory outcomes? These are all worthy questions that must be considered going forward. The most vital question of all is, in journalism “do the ends always justify the means?” We should all fear for the future of our democracy if the answer is yes.

Dan Quigley is former chair of Greenwich’s Republican Town Committee.