Jerry Seinfeld slams his kids’ old school for allowing ‘distressed’ students take election day off

Jerry Seinfeld has blasted his children’s former private school after they said they would allow ’emotionally distressed’ kids to take the day after the election off.

Children attending Ethical Culture Fieldston School, which costs $65,540 a year in fees, will be allowed to excuse themselves from classes next Thursday. 

In an email titled ‘Election Day Support’, Stacey Bobo, principal of the upper school said it ‘acknowledges that this may be a high-stakes and emotional time’ for them. 

The email, seen by The New York Times, added: ‘No matter the election outcome, [the school] will create space to provide students with the support they may need.’

Speaking with the Times, the 70-year-old comedian said it was decisions like this one that irritated his family, and forced him to transfer his son out.

He said: ‘This is why the kids hated it. What kind of lives have these people led that makes them think that this is the right way to handle young people? 

‘To encourage them to buckle. This is the lesson they are providing, for ungodly sums of money.’

Parent John Couchman, who has two daughters in the school, told the Times that he thought the plan from the school was wise. 

He said: ‘I think it’s absolutely the right decision. These students are very astute. I think their rights are on the line, whether it’s on election night or in five years, and they know it.’

The email continued that no homework would be assigned on Election Day, and no assessments would take place on Wednesday. 

Absences will be allowed on Wednesday or whenever the full election results are announced, for students who are unable to ‘fully engage in classes’. 

The outlet reported that the school included readings which included on from Child Mind Institute about the election and helping kids with ‘election-related anxiety’. 

The school, which has two campuses in the city, is home to around 1,700 and was divided earlier this year over pro-Palestine activism. 

That behavior led to the resignation of the head of the school Joe Algrant in August, with the schools saying he left to ‘pursue other personal and professional goals’. 

Parents had accused the school of being a ‘hotbed of Jew-hate’, with Dr. Logan Levkoff saying her son experienced anti-Semitism while attending the school. 

The sex and relationship expert claimed her son was called an ‘ethnic cleanser’ and ‘colonizer’ during his time as a student. 

When her son organized a Holocaust survivor to come speak, Levkoff claimed in a post to Instagram that a group of students tried to ‘cancel’ the event. 

In January 2020, teacher J.B. Brager was fired for criticizing Israel in class and on their personal X account.

During an assembly in November 2019, guest speaker Kayum Ahmed, a director at the Open Society Foundations philanthropic organization, compared what Jews endured during the Holocaust to violence against Palestinians in Israel.

‘I use the same example in talking about the Holocaust. That Jews who suffered in the Holocaust and established the State of Israel today perpetuate violence against Palestinians,’ Ahmed said.

A spokesperson for the school previously told DailyMail.com: ‘We do not tolerate antisemitism and stand against all forms of hate.’