A popular teacher at Gwyneth Paltrow’s former private school says she has been left stranded and unemployed after being attacked by the headmaster’s liberal daughter.
Anne Protopappas, 62, spent decades teaching languages to girls at the $62,000-a-year Spence School on New York’s Upper East Side before being fired by the school’s headmistress, Felicia Wilks, in February.
Protopappas says she was fired after Wilks’ daughter Sarai asked her to explain “why the French banned the hijab,” sparking a debate over the country’s ban on headscarves in public schools.
The teacher says her comments during the conversation were considered ‘‘Islamophobic.
“The implication was that I wasn’t DEI enough,” said Protopappas, the multilingual girl of Vietnamese parents, in an article written by her former student for The free press.
‘Ironically, since I was fired, teaching French at Spence seems to be a white privilege.’
Anne Protopappas, 62, says she was left destitute and unemployed after being sacked from Spence School following an argument over the hijab with the headmaster’s daughter.
Principal Felicia Wilks was appointed in July 2022 at a salary of $381,500 and told students to “love learning so much, that you seek it everywhere, even among those who annoy you and disagree with you,” at their graduation last year.
The prestigious school next to Central Park counts among its alumni Oscar winner Paltrow and Emmy Award winner Kerry Washington.
It has been cited as one of the inspirations for the hit show Gossip Girl, which focused on the adventures of upper-class students in Manhattan, and some filming of the show took place outside its building on East 91st Street.
Spence states on his website that “the academic journey is an exciting adventure based on research and a desire to dig deeper and seek out challenges and complexity.”
That idea was too much for the school principal’s daughter in her French class, according to a lawsuit filed by Protopappas.
She says she gave a straightforward answer to a question about hijabs in May last year, noting that the ban applies to public schools in France and is in line with the country’s strict separation of church and state.
When she invited her students to discuss the pros and cons of the ban, the school principal’s daughter “unexpectedly erupted in anger and displayed an unusually emotional and intensely personal reaction,” according to the lawsuit.
Wilks criticised how “unfair the French law was to her friend from her old school on the West Coast who wore the hijab”.
The next day, Sarai “expressed even more anger, as if she had become angry,” the lawsuit states.
Kerry Washington and Gwyneth Paltrow are among the alumni of the posh private school on New York’s Upper East Side.
Actress Emmy Rossum and former New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg’s daughter Georgina are also among the Spence School’s notable alumni.
“His classmates were embarrassed and confused by something that seemed completely out of the ordinary and out of proportion,” she added.
The concerned teacher was met with stonewalling from colleagues when she sought help for the girl, before being summoned to a meeting with the school principal, who told her that “some students” had found her comments “Islamophobic”.
Board member Gabriela Baron accused the school of amplifying “hate speech against white women”
“Overnight, I felt demonized, discredited, disqualified and delegitimized,” Protopappas told The Free Press.
“It was Orwellian.”
In February, she was fired after being told her teaching was “unstable, confusing students and preventing them from speaking in class” and “not meeting Spence’s standards and expectations.”
The elite school has repeatedly angered parents with its progressive stances under former headmaster Brodie Brizendine.
In 2020, billionaire hedge fund manager John Paulson threatened to stop donating to the school because of “anti-white indoctrination” in the curriculum being taught to his two daughters.
The following year, board member Gabriela Baron wrote a scathing open letter after her daughter was among eighth graders forced to watch an episode of Ziwe Fumudoh’s Showtime comedy Ziwe, which she said “exemplifies hate speech against white women.”
“If a similar video mocking ANY OTHER racial group had been shown, Spence, his faculty, the Board of Trustees, and the entire community would have been thrown into a frenzy,” he wrote. “Racism is racism.”
Tuition reaches $62,000 a year at the 130-year-old elite girls’ school next to Central Park
And presenter Megyn Kelly was among parents who pulled their daughters out of the system because of “growing far-left indoctrination”.
“This is a place we love, it breaks my heart that they are doing this,” she posted on X, formerly Twitter.
Wilks succeeded Brizendine in July 2022, earning a salary of $381,500, and was present at the meeting where Protopappas was fired.
The former diversity director at Friends School in Baltimore told her new students to “love learning so much, that you seek it everywhere, even among those who annoy you and disagree with you,” at their graduation last year.
Protopappas’ dismissal horrified former students of his beloved “Madame Proto,” whom they thanked for organizing school trips to China and Japan, coaching the debate team and establishing a language and culture institute.
“I don’t remember having another teacher in high school who wanted me to be so aware and so knowledgeable about the issues,” Madeleine Singer told The Free Press. “Not just explaining the facts as they are, but asking why.”
“Her dismissal is not only the loss of an outstanding educator, but a setback for the values of critical thinking and respectful dialogue that she so passionately promoted,” added Sarah Rose Shannon.
Now the beloved teacher fears she has been blacklisted by the liberal academic elite after applying to 15 “sister” schools without landing a single interview.
“I was simply trying to find another job and not cause any controversy or lawsuit, but since all doors were strangely closed suddenly, I had no choice but to start this process,” he said.
‘My financial situation is absolutely disastrous. I have nothing at all and I started taking money out of my pension, which of course is also a disaster because I can’t contribute to it anymore, and it’s not much.
‘The truth is that I even have to worry about food and paying my credit card debt, which is increasing, so I might have to declare bankruptcy.’
Presenter Megyn Kelly is among parents who have pulled their children out of school.
Billionaire hedge fund manager John Paulson and his wife Jenny (pictured in 2017) have accused Manhattan’s elite Spence School for Girls of “anti-white indoctrination”.
But she said she’s not the only one who’s been betrayed by the school she loves.
“I’ve done nothing but serve this school,” he said.
‘I never thought I would pay such a high price to practice and teach the skill of free and responsible expression and mental independence at a school I chose for its open-mindedness 25 years ago.
“This is about the students. Spence is not honoring the voice of the students,” he added.
‘The teaching profession is under attack. Independence of thought seems less and less secure.
How are we going to have a democracy if we don’t teach that skill?