Levi's Brand President fired for refusing to stay quiet over objections to COVID mandates for school children

AP Photo/Denis Poroy

Jennifer Sey announced on Bari Weiss’ Common Sense Substack channel today that she has been fired from her job as Brand President of Levi’s. Her opposition to school closures and mask mandates for school children so outraged staff members of the company that she was asked to stop speaking out in public comments. When she was offered a $1M payout from Levi’s with the condition that she stay quiet about her story, she refused the money.

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Sey’s biggest offense likely is that she appeared on Fox News Channel shows and spoke out about the COVID mandates and school closures. It’s easy to imagine the wokes at Levi’s being triggered that she appeared on the most-watched cable news network instead of, say, a dying one like CNN. Sey, a 52-year-old mother of four, was on track to become the next CEO of Levi’s. That career advancement came to a screeching halt last month when the current CEO told her that it was “untenable” for her to stay.

She began speaking out about the draconian measures being taken against school children at the beginning of the pandemic. Her message has been consistent ever since. Last March she moved her children from San Francisco to Denver where schools were open with in-class instruction. She wanted them to be able to attend classes in person and have a normal childhood. Sey says that all along, Levi’s staff pressured her to stop publicly delivering her opinions because they didn’t fit the company’s liberal views. In November, she was told that she was on track to be the next CEO so she stopped speaking out. Last month she was told outside detractors put pressure on the company to fire her. That is when her employment became “untenable”.

She stopped speaking out in November, after being told she was on track to become the next CEO, but says she told last month it was ‘untenable’ for her to stay because outside detractors put pressure on the company to fire her.

‘In the last month, the CEO told me that it was “untenable” for me to stay. I was offered a $1 million severance package, but I knew I’d have to sign a nondisclosure agreement about why I’d been pushed out,’ Sey wrote on Monday in Bari Weiss’s Common Sense Substack channel.

She turned the money down and yesterday finalized her departure from the company, she said.

‘The money would be very nice. But I just can’t do it. Sorry, Levi’s.

‘I never set out to be a contrarian. I don’t like to fight. I love Levi’s and its place in the American heritage as a purveyor of sturdy pants for hardworking, daring people who moved West and dreamed of gold buried in the dirt.

‘But the corporation doesn’t believe in that now.

‘It’s trapped trying to please the mob—and silencing any dissent within the organization. In this it is like so many other American companies: held hostage by intolerant ideologues who do not believe in genuine inclusion or diversity.

‘I’ll always wear my old 501s. But today I’m trading in my job at Levi’s. In return, I get to keep my voice.’

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Sey chose to keep her voice, as she said, instead of a $1M severance package with the condition that she remain quiet about what happened. What a shame that a company with such an all-American story of its founding and its role in the American West has now allow liberal loons to take control of corporate personnel decisions. That’s not brave or bold – that’s a cowardly way out. Clearly the company management personnel know that firing Sey over exercising her freedom of speech, particularly how it relates to her own children, is a bad look. That’s where the nondisclosure agreement came in.

Levi’s called her to say that whenever she spoke out publicly, she was speaking on behalf of the company. That was in the summer of 2020. She told the head of corporate communications that her title was not in her Twitter bio, that she was speaking out as a public school mom. That didn’t satisfy the company, though, and calls continued from the legal department, from board members, from the Human Resources Department. The call from the CEO, her boss, came and she was gone.

Sey noted on Bari Weiss’ channel that other Levi’s employees were free to publicly attack Trump yet she was criticized for appearing as a guest on FNC shows to talk about school closures. She said the final straw seems to be her appearance on Laura Ingraham’s show. She was asked to be on Ingraham’s show when national media picked up her story. She wouldn’t sit down and shut up about the draconian measures taken with school closures and COVID mandates for students. ‘I refused to stop talking. I kept calling out hypocritical and unproven policies, I met with the mayor’s office, and eventually uprooted my entire life in California—I’d lived there for over 30 years—and so that my kindergartner could finally experience real school.”

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According to Sey, Levi’s is an anti-Trump company, at least among its employees. She stopped speaking out in public when the CEO said that she was standing in her own way with her actions. That didn’t stop the calls for her termination, though.

‘Every day, a dossier of my tweets and all of my online interactions were sent to the CEO by the head of corporate communications.

‘At one meeting of the executive leadership team, the CEO made an off-hand remark that I was “acting like Donald Trump.” I felt embarrassed, and turned my camera off to collect myself,’ she wrote.

That’s the thing with liberals – it is never enough. Any movement against groupthink on an issue must be kicked to the curb. There is no room for differing opinions. I’m old enough to remember when liberals were the ones who spoke up for discussion of issues, freedom of thought and speech.

This is an especially timely story, given recent events. Did the CEO of Levi’s not understand the recent elections in Virginia? Has he not seen the rising up of parents who are now fully engaged in the education of their children? How about the most recent findings for how the COVID mandates and school closures are affecting children? The year 2022 is being labeled as the Year of the Angry K-12 Parent by veteran GOP strategist Liesl Hickey. Parents are mad as hell and they aren’t going to take it anymore. They are voting at the ballot box to toss out Democrats who are beholden to corrupt teacher unions and want to take back their children’s education. School closures is an especially hot button for parents.

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In the course of this work, Hickey has seen qualitative and quantitative data to back up her claim that parents, especially those living in suburban areas, are fed up with how their kids have been treated by state, local and national politicians. They feel as if their kids have been forced to “shoulder the pandemic” even as adults have been able to enjoy dining out, attend sporting events, and essentially going back to living their normal lives.

Recent polling suggests that Americans are much less worried about kids getting sick at school and more concerned that kids are falling behind without consistent in-person schooling. A January NBC poll found a significant majority (65 percent) of adults were more concerned about children not going to school in person than were concerned about in-person school potentially “resulting in more spreading of COVID.” Among adults most likely to have school-aged kids (those between the ages of 35-49), a whopping 70 percent were most worried about kids not being in school.

A survey of battleground state parents (AZ, CO, FL, GA, MI, MN, NV, NH, NC, PA, TX, WA, and WI), taken by the GOP firm Cygnal in partnership with the Republican State Leadership Committee (RSLC) found similar results. Just 38 percent of parents agreed that “even though some students will fall behind, we must keep schools closed and use virtual learning until COVID is under control.” In comparison, a majority (54 percent) agreed that “if at all possible, schools should be open because too many students are falling behind.”

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The 2022 midterm elections are going to be brutal for Democrats. Parents of school age children are leading the way to oust politicians who have chosen to listen to union leaders and government bureaucrats instead of truly following the science, as they have lectured everyone to do all along. Just imagine being a parent in California and seeing all the people at the Super Bowl going without masks, including celebrities and the Mayor of Los Angeles, yet their children will be expected to wear a mask in school today.

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