I broke the story on October 13 that Episcopal High School in Northern Virginia initiated disciplinary proceedings against a 17-year-old high school student, Mackenzie, for sharing her conservative viewpoints on social media. The next day, her lawyer Jesse Binnall appeared on Tucker Carlson to discuss the expensive private school’s mistreatment of his client.
Alumni of the prestigious boarding school were shocked to learn of the discriminatory disciplinary proceedings against a conservative student, and that the school permitted leftist teachers and students to bully and harass Mackenzie without repercussions. Alumni have since reached out to Binnall and told him that they contacted Episcopal and voiced their outrage.
Charles Stillwell, Head of School, appears to be aware of the impending publicity nightmare. Without providing details, he sent out a statement to students in response to Binnall’s public comments, alleging that “the situation is far more complex, and different than what is being presented,” and stated that "we do not discipline students for their political positions." A board chair followed suit.
Binnall and his client immediately disputed the insinuation that there is more to the story.
“In reality, the school is hiding behind the horror of its administrators’ actions, trying to use it as a cover by hoping that the school’s community and the public will believe that there must be more to this. There is not,” Mackenzie said in a statement. She fortified her position by providing an email dated October 10, 2020, which clearly states: “The School’s decision is for Mackenzie to appear before the Discipline Committee for her recent posts.” The school emailed her screenshots of five Instagram posts for which she is being disciplined: four are reposts of PragerU and one is a repost of a conservative discussing the lack of value in student loans (and public forgiveness of those loans) for majors like “gender studies.”
According to Mackenzie’s lawyer, Episcopal High School officials put out “wrong, deceptive and misleading statements” against his client and are “downplaying the severity of their political viewpoint discrimination.” Jesse Binnall was outraged at their response and immediately called for Charles Stillwell to resign as Head of School for his uncontrolled bias.
Binnall is also demanding that Episcopal High School issue a public apology to Mackenzie for their discriminatory, absurd and insulting treatment of a young woman who simply holds mainstream conservative viewpoints. “Episcopal High School owes Mackenzie a public apology; it owes all of its students, faculty, and alumni a promise that this will never happen again. Most importantly, it should immediately exonerate Mackenzie and cease any further discipline.”
Binnall was unable to offer any details about the expected date or manner of the disciplinary proceeding. “We still don’t know the time, place, or procedures for how they will consider Mackenzie’s case. They have kept the entire process shrouded in mystery,” he explained.
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