Type4_PTS
Diamond Invictus SP
From the Bunker this morning:
EXCLUSIVE: First Interview with the Principal of Will & Jada Smith’s Shuttered Scientology School
In 2007, Jacqueline Olivier was hired by Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith to turn their home-schooling experiment into an actual bricks-and-mortar institution. A year later, the New Village Leadership Academy opened its doors as protesters showed up to picket the school — by then, it was known that the Smiths had asked Olivier to use L. Ron Hubbard’s “Study Technology” as the school’s guiding curriculum. (Study Technology is also a significant part of coursework in the Church of Scientology, which Hubbard founded.)
But Olivier assured the public that the private school in Calabasas, California was strictly secular, and she played down the influence of Study Tech. Then, a year later, she was fired and replaced by a woman named Franca Campopiano, also known as Piano Foster. At the time, news reports suggested that Olivier had not embraced the use of Hubbard’s ideas strongly enough, which is why Campopiano, a Smith family friend, was brought in to replace her.
Now, for the first time, Olivier is talking about her two years working with the Smiths. She’s no longer playing down the influence of Study Technology. In fact, she tells the Underground Bunker that Scientology’s influence in the school was near total, and she knew that calling it secular was a sham. Her departure, she says, was definitely about her not being “with the program.”
This summer, we broke the news that the New Village Leadership Academy had shut down after operating for five years. The Smiths had put $1,235,000 into the school to get it going and finance its first three years. After that the school had tried to stay open through tuition revenue and fundraisers, but then it closed on June 28.
Olivier, 51, is now working as the principal of New Roads School, a private elementary in Los Angeles. After the Smiths let her go, she worked out a settlement with them, and has now decided to make her story known. She says she’s well into a project to write a book about her experiences, but she agreed to talk to the Underground Bunker for a preview of what that story will contain.
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Read Full Story: http://tonyortega.org/2013/11/18/ex...iths-shuttered-scientology-school/#more-11612
EXCLUSIVE: First Interview with the Principal of Will & Jada Smith’s Shuttered Scientology School
In 2007, Jacqueline Olivier was hired by Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith to turn their home-schooling experiment into an actual bricks-and-mortar institution. A year later, the New Village Leadership Academy opened its doors as protesters showed up to picket the school — by then, it was known that the Smiths had asked Olivier to use L. Ron Hubbard’s “Study Technology” as the school’s guiding curriculum. (Study Technology is also a significant part of coursework in the Church of Scientology, which Hubbard founded.)
But Olivier assured the public that the private school in Calabasas, California was strictly secular, and she played down the influence of Study Tech. Then, a year later, she was fired and replaced by a woman named Franca Campopiano, also known as Piano Foster. At the time, news reports suggested that Olivier had not embraced the use of Hubbard’s ideas strongly enough, which is why Campopiano, a Smith family friend, was brought in to replace her.
Now, for the first time, Olivier is talking about her two years working with the Smiths. She’s no longer playing down the influence of Study Technology. In fact, she tells the Underground Bunker that Scientology’s influence in the school was near total, and she knew that calling it secular was a sham. Her departure, she says, was definitely about her not being “with the program.”
This summer, we broke the news that the New Village Leadership Academy had shut down after operating for five years. The Smiths had put $1,235,000 into the school to get it going and finance its first three years. After that the school had tried to stay open through tuition revenue and fundraisers, but then it closed on June 28.
Olivier, 51, is now working as the principal of New Roads School, a private elementary in Los Angeles. After the Smiths let her go, she worked out a settlement with them, and has now decided to make her story known. She says she’s well into a project to write a book about her experiences, but she agreed to talk to the Underground Bunker for a preview of what that story will contain.
<snip>
Read Full Story: http://tonyortega.org/2013/11/18/ex...iths-shuttered-scientology-school/#more-11612
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