A longtime Levi Strauss & Co. executive who was forced out of the company for criticizing school closures during the COVID pandemic demanded accountability on Tuesday as high-profile Democrat leaders admit that the shutterings were a mistake – the same perspective that cost her her job and a $1 million severance package months earlier.

Jennifer Sey was “pushed out” of her high-profile job in February over her outspoken opposition to school closures and remote learning. Sey told Fox News that she chose to walk away from a $1 million severance package in order to avoid signing a non-disclosure agreement that would limit her ability to continue bringing attention to the issue.

“I was urged to stop repeatedly over the course of two years, and eventually it was decided there just was not a place for me at the company any longer,” she said on “America Reports.” “And I chose to leave on my own terms.”

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A sign taped to the front door of Pulaski International School of Chicago reads, School Closed after Chicago Public Schools, the nation’s third-largest school district, said it would cancel classes since the teachers’ union voted in favor of a return to remote learning, in Chicago, Jan. 5, 2022.  REUTERS/Jim Vondruska
(REUTERS/Jim Vondruska)

In the months that followed, Sey said she was “demonized” and labeled “a racist” and was even accused of being a member of the conspiracy group QAnon.

But as the troubling consequences of school closures come into focus with the start of a new academic year, prominent Democrat leaders are now admitting that remote learning was a mistake. While the acknowledgment serves as vindication to Sey and so many others like her, she wonders who, if anyone, will be held accountable.  

“It’s frustrating, that’s a gentle word, that this thing I was saying that I lost my job over is now just accepted as the truth,” Sey said. “But we seem to have skipped a step because we have gone from vilifying anyone who spoke out against it to accepting it as truth, and there has been no accountability. 

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“It’s as if this happened but nobody did it,” she continued. “But this was a policy decision by government leaders, largely in blue states and cities, and public health leaders that they empowered and there needs to be accountability. It’s too late for me, and you know what, frankly, it’s more importantly and more tragically too late for a lot of the kids that have fallen desperately behind or kids that dropped out that are not going back. This is going to affect their life choices, their life expectancy, and what happens to this generation for a very long time.”

Abigail Previlon, 13, takes part in remote distance learning on a Chromebook with the help of her mother Carlene at home on October 28, 2020 in Stamford, Connecticut. 
((Photo by John Moore/Getty Images))

Sey encouraged parents to continue speaking out to protect their children, urging them not to allow the “vilifying of public voices” to deter them.

“I’m not crying poor me, here, I was just one well-paid executive and I’ll figure out my way from here” she said. “But the demonization and the vilifying of public voices like mine amounted to censorship and kept parents afraid of speaking out.”

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Most importantly, Sey said parents should do their research and make smart decisions at the ballot box at the November midterms.

“Did you support kids during this time? When I vote come this November, that’s going to be the main factor for me,” Sey said. “Because so many were neglected and so many were harmed.