'Lifelong Liberal' and Former Levi's Exec Explains How She Was Forced Out After Calling For Reopening Schools During Pandemic

'Lifelong Liberal' and Former Levi's Exec Explains How She Was Forced Out After Calling For Reopening Schools During Pandemic


A former top executive of Levi’s is speaking out again over her dismissal from the jeans giant.

In an interview with Tucker Carlson for Fox Nation, “Lifelong liberal” Jennifer Sey said she got into hot water with the company after she began advocating for reopening schools during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Sey, who was with Levi’s for 23 years, told Carlson that she took her stand “in defense of children, which should have been a progressive value,” but she soon discovered it was not a popular opinion at the company.

“I kept my advocacy to schools because I knew all that other stuff was controversial, but I thought we could agree on kids,” Sey said, noting that she took to social media, writing op-eds using data, and leading rallies.

She also said she was acting on her own behalf, not as the brand manager at Levi’s.

School reopening advocates were falsely smeared as being racists and wanting to “murder teachers,” she said, and it did not take long for people to begin emailing the Levi’s leadership and human resources department calling for boycotts.

“The feedback was when you speak, you speak on behalf of the company and I said, but I don’t,” the former executive said as she recalled being told several times to stop speaking out. “I’m just a mom. I mean, I know I have this big job, but I am not saying it as the Levi’s brand president. I am saying it as a public school mom in San Francisco.”

She said the heat really got turned up after she moved her family to Denver and made an appearance on Fox News’ Laura Ingraham program.

“While the company said there was nothing wrong with her commentary, Sey said she was also told she should not have spoken out on Fox News,” the outlet reported.

“In the fall of that year, I was told I could be the CEO if I just cool it in my advocacy,” she told  “Tucker Carlson Today.” “Schools at this point had been open for a hot second, two weeks … They needed to do a background check, not just on me, but on my husband.”

Fox News explained:

Prior to the background check, the former executive told the company they would think her social media was a “gray area” and her inclinations were right. Due to her position being the “succession role,” she was not able to keep her job if she was not eligible for the next. 

After being told there would be severance, she resigned publicly. While she never received her requested severance package, she believes it would have come with a non-disclosure agreement, despite company denial. 

“I wanted to be able to talk about the terms of the separation because I wanted to be able to tell you the story… In addition to the children being harmed, this idea that we can’t hold different views and work together, like the idea that I couldn’t have this view and work in this company is so disturbing to me that I did not want to sign my right away to talk about that,” Sey told Carlson. “I wouldn’t do it.”

“I want it to be ok for us to talk to each other, to debate ideas,” Sey implored. “I really, in my heart of hearts, believe if we could have had a public conversation about the schools where people like me, invested parents, doctors… instead of us being vilified, we could have had a reasoned conservation, I think we would have gotten to the right answer much sooner.”


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